Customer Reviews

Traitor's Purse

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A stranger wakes up in a hospital with no memory of his identity. He overhears a nurse talking to a policeman and discovers he is wanted for murder. He escapes down the hall, dresses himself in some fire protection gear and makes for the exit. In the confusion of the alarm he sets off, he manages to escape, steals a car, and heads off into the night...to a formal dinner.

And so begins "Traitor's Purse," another in the long series of Albert Campion adventure/mystery stories. Campion, handicapped by a memory that is only partially functional, must discover what horrible plot he had uncovered and how to stop it. All he remembers is that it involves the august Bridge Institute where some of England's most important war research is done. When the first person he meets with is promptly murdered and the second, a beautiful woman named Amanda, tells him she wants to break of their engagement, Campion finds himself facing insurmountable odds.

But face them he does. With a bit of fakery and the aid of the beautiful Amanda, Campion gradually makes headway. Leaving a trail of brutalized policemen and baffled menservants Campion manages to hide from his pursuit while uncovering the mystery. In doing so, he must face everything from muscle to madness, and live to talk about it.

I am not generally a fan of the 'lost memory' plot device. While "Traitor's Purse" is not my favorite Allingham tale, she manages make good use of Campion's disability and keeps the action and mystery churning. In addition, Amanda (who originally appeared in "The Fear Sign") provides a unique romantic twist that is unusual in a Campion story. Lugg does a fine job in his appearances as well. In truth, my only issue is that a Campion who doesn't remember who he is, isn't quite as much fun as one who does.

In truth, there's nothing to be grumpy about. "Traitor's Purse" is actually a finely crafted tale, with many twists and turns. Because Campion's character is somewhat suppressed, Allingham spends more time than usual developing the other denizens of the institute and it's surroundings, much to the reader's delight.

Margery Allingham's TRAITOR'S PURSE is a great mystery. Francis Matthews does the reading, and he is very good at maintaining the different English voices needed for the array of characters in this story. A good reader is vital to the enjoyment of an audiobook.

Albert Campion wakes up in a hospital, not remembering who he is, nor does his memory come back for most of the story. He's constantly on the run, which keeps it exciting, but he doesn't know exactly what he's running from. Campion doesn't want to reveal his ignorance of the facts, so he plays along with the people who know him, gathering bits of background information. Lucky for him, he remembers all in the end, and saves Great Britain from a terrible conspiracy to bring it down. I highly recommend this audiobook!

Quite typically of Allingham, the aptness of the book's title is apparent only in hindsight. Incidentally, Francis Matthews is very sound on narration; in addition to his unabridged recording of this story, try his narration of _Pearls Before Swine_.

_Traitor's Purse_ is set during WWII, and begins with Campion in hospital in a sleepy little English town, suffering temporary but severe amnesia from a head injury; he doesn't remember his own name. (On the other hand, he's had so many aliases that that *would* be a strain on a sick man.) Overhearing some chat in the hall outside his room, he realizes a policeman is on guard, gathers that he apparently has been involved in an assault on an officer, and promptly makes tracks.

The only person Campion half-recognizes when he makes contact with others is Amanda Fitton, which *really* hurts old Lugg, his long-time sidekick, who in turn is the only person who realizes that Campion's memory isn't working. When Amanda mentions early on that she's been "going to marry" Campion for 8 years (from context, readers can gather that they've kept in close touch since _The Fashion in Shrouds_, unlike the gap between the first two books featuring Amanda), he figures that while the head injury is recent, he's been a lunatic for quite some time - particularly when Amanda's next remark is to ask to be released from the engagement. (Lugg, of course, weighs in with a devastatingly practical observation when *he* hears about that.)

Amanda appears to be taking a more personal interest in the research director of the Bridge Institute than an aircraft designer needs to - but is she *really* interested in him romantically, or does she know more about Campion's assignment here than he can remember? (The director is charismatic, brilliant, and masterful, but he's pompous into the bargain, and very full of himself. Still, there's no accounting for taste.)

Campion in this story, like Daniel with the king of Babylon's dream in the Old Testament, not only has to reconstruct his interpretation of the problem, but figure out what the problem was in the first place, and at the same time cope with how much Amanda has come to mean to him. Since Campion concentrated on Intelligence work throughout the war, both in and out of Britain, far more may be at stake than usual.

Considering how elaborate Campion's emotional defenses are - this is a man who doesn't even use the same alias with respectable art experts as he does in his freelance adventuring life, let alone his *real* name - this situation may be the only way to shock him into resolving his relationship with Amanda one way or the other. (I admit frankly that the emotional entanglements within the story interested me rather more than the mystery Campion needs to unravel; the resolution of *that* aspect of the story seemed rather rushed, although the treatment can be justified in context.)

For Campion lovers everywhere, this book is an A+. Campion finds himself with no memory, a mystery to solve that he doesn't remeber, and a foreboding feeling that he is wanted by the police. His antics keep the reader going as he tries to figure out who he is and who to trust that make this a great book to read.

As with all of Margery Allingham's books, _Traitor's Purse_ combines clear, crisp characters with wry bursts of insight as she spins out a tasteful plot. This book is a cut above the usual "from-the-end-to-the-beginning" story line found in mysteries. The reader is taken strictly from the main character's point of view, from the fog of amnesia through the gloom of nimble guesswork where the faintest patches of light illumine a conflict of extreme urgency. The emotional content of this book is very charged and tantalizing in its poignancy. Margery Allingham weaves a mesmerizing story from a difficult point of view without tipping her hand. The reader is taken along for a breathtaking ride to a triumphant conclusion, with consistent enjoyment along the way. This book is the finest of its genre, and characteristic of the high quality of Margery Allingham's Albert Campion books

This book has moved me a great deal twice, an eight-year-or-so gap between. It is as good as I remembered.

The basic impetus behind the story is, I fancy, as old as these "lost prince growing up as swineherd or kitchen boy until he discovers his identity when called upon to kill a dragon/save a princess/rule his country" tales. This sense of finding out that one is estranged from one's intrinsic and important identity is very powerful. No doubt we all have wished at one time to discover how important we are. Now we in Britain and America no longer believe that heredity or aristocratic birth itself confers value on an individual (although some vestige of the notion perhaps drives some adoptive children to try to find their "real" selves with their birth parents), we have to wait until a person develops their identity in adulthood, then find some way to estrange them from it. Amnesia will do. Our hero wakes up, knowing nothing about himself, but quickly finds out that, although he doesn't remember what it is, he's been entrusted to prevent a calamity of national proportions--and he's got two (or three?) days left in which to do it.

I compare this book to the Bourne Identity, which I think I like for almost exactly the same reasons, except that in the Bourne Identity, the identity of the amnesiac is the main issue, whereas in Allingham's Traitor's Purse, the question of identity is rapidly swallowed up in the mission that "Albert Campion," whoever he might be, was carrying out. Perhaps Allingham could have done a little more with the identity business. But the process of discovering Campion's mission is drawn out very efficiently, using about every technical device of delay you can think of. The mission itself, when you come right down to it, isn't perhaps quite as flashy or ingenious as the long build-up has prepared us to hope for--but, as is so often the case for mysteries, the solution is an efficient, not the primary, cause for the book; it merely gives the author excuse to realize characters, witty dialogue, a lush little village.

The long procession of reasons why Campion can't tell anyone about his amnesia, the succession of ways he extricates himself nimbly from sticky situations his ignorance generates, the frequent charitable assumptions friends make to explain his blank looks, the periodically perfect questions he puts to people who chattily tell him exactly what he needs to know to take the next step in his walk through mental darkness, the handy twin cracks over the head--all this strains credulity, at times, yes--feels a bit like a technical tour de force of plotting, not something that could have happened. But emotional verisimilitude makes up for all that. It is a very sweet love and morality story in which our hero, through his amnesia, learns to avoid the developing character flaws that might have eventually led him down the same path as our villain. It helped give a name to the feelings I had for my wife, when we were recently married, eight years ago, and it brings them back from where they are still stored--and aired, as pleasure that's slowly maturing with age--like the Masters' cache of wine deep in the hill. Those are the kinds of things it's lovely to discover are part of you already. Allingham is witty, although Campion is decidedly more grown up than in previous instalments. She uses all sorts of clever tricks, symbols, echoes--the unfinished Cockney couplet being one of the best. Also the use of the clock in the prison scene is a bit obvious but agonizingly effective. A smart author telling a good story that plucks at a heartstring most of us have, I think. Well worth the time to read, and to come back to.

This is another excellent mystery with Margaret Allingham's Albert Campion. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Highly recommend this and other books by this author.

Allingham's serial detective, Albert Campion wakes up in the hospital with a bad case of amnesia. Then he overhears a nurse telling someone that he had killed a policeman, and realizes he must escape from his hospital bed and track down his true identity. The fate of the British Empire is at stake.

According to the Margery Allingham Society, "Traitor's Purse" was one of the books she wrote "while Britain waited to be invaded...[Allingham] became involved in Air Raid Precautions work, served as First Aid Commandant for her district, and organized the billeting and care of evacuees from London. She was also set to function as the local agent of a British Resistance, should such a movement have become a reality. D'Arcy House became a temporary military base for eight officers and two hundred men of the Cameronians. Weapons and explosives were stored in the grounds and emergency food supplies in the garage."

Elements of the author's war-time activities are to be found in "Traitor's Purse" along with a plot that involves high-level traitors whom Campion must locate, while trying to recover his own memory. Luckily for him, he has help from Amanda Fitton, who is now his fiancée (see the 5th Campion novel "Sweet Mystery" and the 10th Campion novel, "A Fashion in Shrouds"), and Lugg, his shady manservant.

This book is more thriller than mystery. I'm not fond of plots that center on amnesiacs, but Campion, who tends to be a bit vague during the best of times, is the perfect victim. Most of the other characters, including his fiancée don't even realize that there's anything wrong with him!

Here is a complete list of the Campion novels that Allingham wrote ("Cargo of Eagles" was completed by her husband after her death in 1966). There are also short story collections and Campion novels that were written by her husband, Youngman Carter, which I didn't include in this list.

1. The Black Dudley Murder aka The Crime at Black Dudley (1929)
2. Mystery Mile (1930)
3. Look to the Lady aka The Gyrth Chalice Mystery (1931)
4. Police at the Funeral (1931)
5. Sweet Danger aka Kingdom of Death aka The Fear Sign (1933)
6. Death of a Ghost (1934)
7. Flowers for the Judge (1936)
8. The Case of the Late Pig (1937)
9. Dancers in Mourning aka Who Killed Chloe? (1937)
10. The Fashion in Shrouds (1938)
11. Traitor's Purse aka The Sabotage Murder Mystery (1941)
12. Pearls before Swine (1945)
13. More Work for the Undertaker (1948)
14. The Tiger in the Smoke (1952)
15. Estate of the Beckoning Lady (1955)
16. Tether's End (1958)
17. The China Governess (1963)
18. The Mind Readers (1965)
19. Cargo of Eagles (1968)

I enjoyed reading Allingham's novels in the 1980's when I read most of the classic murder mysteries, so I was surprised when I didn't recognize this one at all. "Traitor's Purse" is not a classic whodunit; it's more of a spy story. Perhaps I chose not to read it at the time because I wasn't into that type of fiction.

The style of the book is unusual for Allingham. Instead of a straight forward tale of sleuth Albert Campion putting together the clues to a murder, this story starts with a hero who is handicapped by a head injury that leaves him amnesic. He not only doesn't know what happened before he lost consciousness, he doesn't know who he is or who anyone else is. All he knows--or senses, actually--is that he has something urgent to do.

With this more limited omniscience, the reader learns who the hero is and gradually what he must do only as the man himself does. This is a very clever use of perspective. In the normal way of things the counter espionage agent would know what the issue was from the beginning and the tension would arise from the action inherent to accomplishing and the danger of not accomplishing the goal. It would also arise from the question of whom to trust.

In this instance, however, there is considerable tension right from the start from the fact that everything must be learned. We finally realize the story's perspective is that of the usual Allingham protagonist--no surprise there--so we know that this is Albert Campion, even if he does not. Since we also know what dangerous foes he faces, we know that he is in considerable danger from individuals he doesn't know and perhaps isolated by his own amnesia from agents of assistance. All of this makes for an exciting read.

Probably the most interesting point of this perspective is the psychological. Campion becomes more critical of his relationships with others. He is now a "disinterested" party to his own life and can look at his probable past behavior, as it is illuminated by the responses of his friends, with a more introspective point of view. His relationships with both Lugg and his fiancé Amanda are cases in point.

The setting of the story is World War II England. The war has only just begun and German espionage activity during the immediate prewar years is about to yield major profits. Two murders take place, but neither of them is focus to the story. Their occurrence simply obscures the events about to take place. This may frustrate the reader who expects a murder mystery to be about the murder victims and a solution to the crime. That may be why, in fact, I didn't read it myself before.

Red herrings are introduced, but they are in the form of suspects whose motives are obscured by their apparent past association with pre-amnesic Albert Campion or with their placement as individuals within English society. After a while almost everyone seems a possible suspect in the drama of misaligned loyalties in wartime. Furthermore, there are inordinate subplots that factor into the murder mysteries, so the "guilty party" might be either guilty of one or several things or several guilty parties might be working alone or in collusion. It's difficult to say if the reader will feel "cheated" or not by the dénouement. There is no actual plot manipulation that robs you of your conclusions, so I suspect not.

A well crafted story.

Allingham is one of the greatest mystery writers. However, it takes some patience with the Englishness and the time period. Campion is just fetching. He begins as a young sleuth with a strong resemblance to Bertie Wooster. As time goes by, he gets harder, deeper, more slippery. Allingham started writing mysteries at a young age. She and her graphic artist husband co-wrote the Campion mysteries, but they were published under her name. Two of them were published--and perhaps written--after her death, by her husband. The Campion novels begin with the 1920s/1930s "silly season" for English society. He first appears in Crime at Black Dudley. British men were overwhelmingly shell-shocked and scarred by WWI. Women were liberated. Rules had been tossed aside. The Lord Peter Wimsey novels make this changing status more openly affecting the characters. Allingham lets it go unstated. She also kept writing and kept Campion up with the times, so he "lives" until the 1970s, with adult children. This book is probably the easiest to pick up and read all on its own, since Campion is so isolated in this book and the WWII setting is better known. This is a really great thriller and it is great to see it back IN PRINT.