Mr Campion's Fox

I'm congenitally averse to sequels and prequels, but this surprised me by its wit, its grasp of the style (and the silliness) of Allingham's Albert, and Ripley's sly nods and winks to her fans and his readers. The bittersweet endings are very 21st century.

Whether or not you have read Margery Allingham's books featuring Albert Campion this continuation of the series is a good read in its own right.  Albert himself is now 'officially' retired but of course, being Albert, he cannot resist getting involved when the Danish Ambassador's daughter disappears - especially as he had already been asked to keep an eye on her boyfriend - Frank Tate.  Subcontracting the surveillance to his son, Rupert, Albert takes something of a back seat merely making sure that Rupert comes to no harm.  

The Ambassador's daughter disappears from a small village in Suffolk and her boyfriend's murdered body is discovered on the outskirts of the village.  Rupert and his wife, Perdita, go to stay with the Sandyman family where the missing girl was working as an au pair, because Rupert was at school with Torquil Sandyman.  Naturally Albert Campion wants him to find out what he can.  It soon becomes clear that everything is not as it seems when people from the security services become involved in the case.

The plot is complex; the characters are interesting with plenty of eccentric populating the village and the conclusion is well written.  I particularly liked the characters of Rupert and Perdita and Lugg in his respectable new incarnation.  This is an entertaining and enjoyable crime novel.  I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review purposes.

I selected this novel to read from those offered by Severn House Publishing through NetGalley with a slight bit of hesitation because I'm such a fan of the original stories. I need not have worried. Yes, Mike Ripley does add more subtle humor to this story than Ms. Allingham did, but that turned out to be quite good in my overall enjoyment of the book. In this one, set sometime in the 1960's, Albert Campion is supposed to be retired from all the involvements he had with crime, police, and secret government agencies but we still meet Lugg and Amanda with son Rupert and his wife Perdita starting off the investigation of finding out facts about the boyfriend of the Danish Ambassador's daughter. Rupert's week long shadowing of Francis Tate only adds more questions. When a murder victim is found and someone else disappears, everybody heads to the Suffolk coast and the tiny village of Gapton. Luckily Rupert's school chum Torquil Sandyman, of Sandyman's Brewery, lives right on the spot and can provide a convenient location for investigating all the strange happenings in this village.

I enjoyed this novel very much because the characters are well drawn and the mysterious happenings are not just interesting, but also complex enough to keep me guessing about who, what and why. I have put the first novel in this series, Mr. Campion's Farewell, on my Kindle and plan to read it very soon.

I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley.

108416  Nancy Cunningham's review  Mar 06, 15  ·  edit  

 3 of 5 stars  bookshelves:  mysteries, netgalley 

Read in March, 2015 

Albert Campion is one of my favorite fictional characters and, without a doubt, one of my top five fictional detectives. The original Campion books by Margery Allingham were classic British country house mysteries filled with high life and mostly set in the 1930's and 40's.

Ripley has taken on the formidable task of bringing this classic character into the 1960's. He very skillfully presented Campion and his wife, Lady Amanda, as retirees and none of the classic Campion charm or humor was missing. 

My only quibble with the book is that Campion's young, married son plays almost a more significant role in the book than the elder Mr. Campion. Ripley could be setting the stage for a nice series featuring both generations, but it was the aristocratic elegance and false foolishness of the original Campion that endeared me to the stories and it would take some wooing for me to dismiss him for his son.

But, that is small stuff compared to the pleasure of reading a fresh Albert Campion story. Thank you to netgalley for the opportunity to read and review it.

Margery Allingham perfected the characters of Mr. Albert Campion and his wife,  the lovely Lady Amanda, in previous tales .

Since her death, and with the blessing of the Margery Allingham Foundation, Mike Ripley has picked up the reins and has woven a masterful story involving not only the Senior Campions, but their son, Rupert, and his wife Perdita.  The cast of characters in this offering include "the sisters Mister" -- Hyacinth and Marigold  [Marigold says "It's a perfectly good name, but a bit strange if you're a man because you'd be Master Mister to begin with and then Mister Mister later on."] -- who live in the tiny berg of Gapton on the English North Atlantic coast.  The sisters Mister own and operate a brewery, and often make deliveries to local ale houses using a team of well-cared-for horses pulling a cart.  

When the daughter of the Danish Ambassador vanishes [having last been seen in Gapton], he contacts his friends, Mr. Campion and Lady Amanda,  are brought out of retirement and pressed in to service.

This is a well-written mystery filled with feisty characters,  innuendo, and just a touch of English country life.

The Danish ambassador has asked Mr. Campion to check out his daughter's man.  She's young and in love but she's also his daughter and puts him in a vulnerable position.  Mr. Campion is retired and not looking for new adventures but he could have his son do snooping for him.  It would be good practice for Rupert.  Of course, while Rupert is following Frank Tate, Albert is following him.  If only Albert had looked behind himself he might have noticed he was being followed too.

Severn House and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published June 1st, so watch for a copy then.

I've read books by Ms. Allingham and I found her Campion a bit stuffy.  Mr. Ripley writes about the same character but adds enough other players in to make it a more enjoyable read for me.  It also seems to move along a bit faster.  It's been some time since I read anything in this series but I wouldn't mind reading more by this author.

Mr. Campion's wife is a force in own right.  Everyone around her obeys her.  She will allow no one to harm her husband or her son.  And she's willing to defend them herself.  She's quite the lady.

They have done nothing except tail Mr. Tate in town.  When he leaves for the weekend to go hang out with the ambassador's daughter, they think their job is done.  Unfortunately, he gets killed and the girl goes missing.  Instead of being done, they are just getting started.

There's something for everyone in this book.  You have two old women who are bossy and opinionated and own almost the whole town and the brewery, which is the major employer.  You have Rupert's friend and his family that Rupert and his wife go to stay with.  You have a nosy cop.  You also have a mad man who chops wood and smokes fish and never baths.  (He saw bad things in the war and was injured there, too, you see.)  There's also a dog and a fox, and even a few spies.  What more could you want?

With secrets everywhere and even Frank not being Frank, most of the mysteries are solved.  However, the young woman is still missing.  No body is has been found.  It's not until a chance conversation brings up a thought for Rupert that they have any chance of finding her.  But will they be in time?

This book is an enjoyable read and is busy to the last page.  Even if you never met Mr. Campion before, you can enjoy this read.  Give it a try!

It's always hard for readers when a beloved series ends. We want more of the characters we love. But, all too often, those who write further volumes in the series can't quite capture the magic of the original.

Happily that isn't the case with Ripley and this volume featuring Albert Campion and his family. Many of the familiar characters from the original books are here, along with some new faces, including Albert and Lady Amanda's daughter-in-law.

What I liked about this book is that it has such a charming combination of the familiar (in the habits and manner of speech of the familiar characters) with the new (references to fashion and the moon landing). It updates the series without being obvious. 

Instead of being "timeless" in the way mysteries often are, time has passed for the Campions. Albert is in his 70's and is "retired." His son, Rupert is grown and maried to an actress.

The plot of this mystery is one of its strengths. Although murders are usually the central point in a mystery, the central problem is the disappearance of an au pair on the same night as her boyfriend's brutal murder. Tie this in with a seaside location in Suffolk, possible smuggling and spying, featuring a cast of eccentrics more than worthy of a Bitish mystery and you get a heady brew that will keep you guessing as you read it with delight.

I'm so glad Campion is in such good hands.

Title: Margery Allingham's Mr Campion's Fox.  By Mike Ripley Publisher: Severn House 272 pp Genre: mystery, English mystery, English cozy, series, murder mystery 4 stars****
Author: Mike Ripley is an award winning British author of mysteries  (Fitzroy MacLean Angel series) and historical novels (Legend of Hereward and Boudica). He also writes a brilliant column (March 2015 was his 100th: gems include an axiom of Raymond Chandler "...with agents, it's enough that you let them live." And "this column prides itself on being reliably unreliable.") Working with the Margery Allingham Society he wrote the first Campion mystery in 40 years Mr Campion's Farewell (2014). He is obviously a long time fan and finds her voice, not just of Campion and his companions but also of the English countryside. I read every Allingham, as well as Sayers, Marsh Tey and Christie. Lord Peter Wimsey was my favourite, but Campion developed his own following, not just as a similar detective (English, aristocrat, well educated, amateur sleuth helping Crown and Scotland Yard). Campion is an alias as he disliked his first name (Rudolph) and as a second son wouldn't inherit so was encouraged by his grandmother (the Dowager) to be an adventurer. (His grandmother who demanded the Church of Scotland change its name in 1884.) Campion is an old french word for champion, but also may refer to martyr St Edmund Champion given other clues.  Story Line:
These are character driven novels, more adventure than mystery. The Danish Ambassador has requested personal help as his daughter has fallen in with a shady chap. Then they disappear, and of course a body turns up. Finally, Campion's wife Lady Amanda Fitton has a larger role (she wants him retired, and isn't altogether approving when her son gets involved). No spoilers, read and enjoy! Campion has aged in this series, he is now in his early seventies(?), but is still mentally sharp, full of wit and t wisdom of age. He recruits his unemployed actor son Rupert, which involves his interesting wife Perdita. I always look forward to any appearance of Lugg too, the reformed burglar/ butler "with the courage of his previous convictions"! Lugg is now Beadle of Brewers' Hall.
I think you need to know the series in order to fully enjoy these books, but it does make a delightful entertaining read as a stand alone. Lovely details with village map and building facades. I do hope there is another sequel to follow to continue their lives. I loved the glimpses of London,  Suffolk countryside, Gapton Spit, and the pubs. North Sea seaside, in November. I am also picturing Peter Davison from the 1989/1990 BBC adaptations of the first 8 novels. (Not forgetting Brian Glover as Lugg and Andrew Burt as Insp Oates).
Read On:
Mike Ripley Mr Campion's Farewell (2014)
Margery Allingham from 1929-1969) in order! Novels and short stories.
(Tiger in the Smoke (1952) and Death of a Ghost (1934) were among the Best 100 mysteries of the 20th century)
Dorothy Sayers Lord Peter Wimsey series Josephine Tey Inspector Grant series Julia Jones biographer Adventures of Mary Allingham Note Several authors have also taken on these previous characters including Jill Paton Walsh with the Lord Peter Wimsey and Sherlock (by so many!). But of note also are novels using authors: Josephine Tey is the subject of excellent mysteries by Nicola Upson.
Quotes:
From the preface "For the insatiable collector of trivia, British passport number 1111924, which I have allocated to Francis Tate in this story, was in fact issued to Mrs Margery Louise Carter (nee Allingham) in 1947."
Opening: "My wife's people have never quite forgiven you for the Battle of Maldon, Mr Ambassador." (991AD!)
Like most titles, a hindrance more often than an advantage...
I hope you took an improving book with you...
Immediately would do very nicely, sir.
I reckon he's the only man in England to go into mourning when the halfpenny stopped bein' legal tender.

Read as an ARC from Netgalley! Thanks!

Mike Ripley has struck the proper note in Margery Allingham's Mr. Campion's Fox. A period murder mystery with bumbling spies and clever amateur sleuths.   The Cold War and British village life combine in this pleasing mystery.  A worthy continuation of the Albert Campion series.

(Editor’s note: The following short review comes from “Michael Gregorio,” a byline behind which hides the husband-and-wife writing team of Daniela De Gregorio and Michael G. Jacob. After penning four historical mysteries featuring early 19th-century Prussian magistrate-cum-detective Hanno Stiffeniis, including 2010’s Unholy Awakening, the pair most recently published Cry Wolf, the opening entry in a new crime series set in Italy’s Umbria region.)

Margery Allingham, one of the queens of the “Golden Age” of British detective stories, died in 1966. Her husband of almost four decades, Philip Youngman Carter, took up the baton for a few years after that, composing fiction starring his wife’s “gentleman sleuth,” Albert Campion, and writing under her name, but then he, too, passed away in 1969. Allingham fans were left in the lurch, so to speak, until author author-critic Mike Ripley stepped bravely into the breach more than 40 years later, having been invited to compose Mr. Campion’s Farewell from notes that Youngman Carter left to the Margery Allingham Society, the members of which were desperate to read more.

No one could have been better suited for the job.

Ripley, better known to his fans as “The Ripster” (the nickname with which he signs each edition of “Getting Away with Murder,” his monthly Shots column), is a truly entertaining writer. Rap Sheet contributor Jim Napier included Mr. Campion’s Farewell among his favorite mystery novels of 2014, describing it as “a delightful, timeless tale.” The new Mr. Campion’s Fox (Severn House), the latest installment in what promises to be a sparkling continuation of Margery Allingham’s series, takes the Ripster one step further into her bygone literary world, producing a classic-style detective yarn that’s exquisitely faithful to the original design, but also great fun to read.

Set for the most part in a tiny village on the Suffolk coast of England, with occasional trips into London’s sometimes seedy Soho district, this novel is peopled by a rich and varied cast of characters straight out of the 1960s. There’s the Misses Mister, for example, two eccentric spinster sisters who own the local brewery, and the lugubrious Mr. Lugg, the beadle, who plunges readers into the mystery involving the disappearance of Vibeke, a Danish au pair girl, and the death of her boyfriend, Frank Tate. Murders there are in these pages, and they can be violent. However, they never overstep the limits of taste established by Margery Allingham and her fellow Golden Age authors--Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L. Sayers, and their like.

A tight and lively plot is generously seasoned with sardonic quips and humor, as those who have read any of Ripley’s 15 novels about musician-gumshoe Fitzroy Maclean Angel (Angels Unaware, etc.) have come to expect. At the same time, Ripley has to cope in this story with the fact that Allingham’s hero, Albert Campion, has become an old man, and he does so quite cleverly by employing Campion’s (younger) wife, Lady Amanda, and his son, Rupert, to do all the footwork, while the senior Campion’s brain remains as lively as ever. The same goes for his sense of the absurd. What does Mr. Campion wish to have inscribed on his tombstone, for example? “‘Albert Campion. Permanently in the Dark.’ How’s that for an epitaph?”

Mr. Campion’s Fox will delight both longtime Margery Allingham enthusiasts and a generation of younger readers who may not yet be familiar with her work.

Hats off to Mike Ripley!

In this lighthearted addition to the Campion series, we find our retired detective enjoying life with his wife in the quiet of the country.  He is approached by and old friend, the Ambassador from Denmark, an asked to check out the man who is dating his 18 year old daughter.  

Campion takes this opportunity to enlist his son Rupert in helping him.  Rupert has been trying to make a living as an actor, but mostly he isn't doing anything.  Rupert is given the job of watching the boyfriend, but then both of the lovers disappear.  

Ripley does a fine job of using the characters that have been working with Campion for many years, though some are in different positions.  As always his Lady wife is the one who seems to always be ahead of all of the rest of us, especially Campion.

It's all good fun for those of us who have been reading about Campion for years.

Zeb Kantrowitz