Traitor's Purse

by Margery Allingham

Paperback, 1941

Status

Available

Call number

823.912

Publication

Manor

Description

"If I had to vote for the single best detective story, this would be it." -A.S. Byatt Celebrated amateur detective Albert Campion awakes in hospital, accused of attacking a police officer and suffering from acute amnesia. All he can remember is that he was on a mission of vital importance to His Majesty's government before his accident. On the run from the police and unable to recognize even his faithful servant or his beloved fianc�e, Campion struggles desperately to put the pieces together-while World War II rages and the very fate of England is at stake. Published in 1941, Traitor's Purse is "a wartime masterpiece" (The Guardian). "Uncommonly exciting stuff, replete with Allingham's skill in story-building and the plausible characters that make her as much a fine novelist as a mystery writer." -The New Republic "Margery Allingham stands out like a shining light. And she has another quality, not usually associated with crime stories, elegance." -Agatha Christie.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member JustAGirl

Brilliant, brilliant book. Set in the early 1940s Albert Campion is trying to foil a plot that will have a catastrophic effect on Britain. The only problem is he's lost his memory and can't remember a thing about it. The plot is slowly revealed as he works out who is friend and who is foe and what

is going on, all the while trying to hide the fact that he can't remember anything.

Show Less

13 more

LibraryThing member tripleblessings

In this one Campion has suffered a concussion and amnesia, and spends the first half of the book trying to remember who he is, and what disaster he must prevent, and what "number 15" means. It's deep in WWII, with spies and double agents suspected everywhere. The book is so deeply immersed in that

particular time and place that it is somewhat difficult to follow the logic and the desperate stress and fear in the atmosphere. This one doesn't stand the test of time as well as the rest of the Campion series, but still an interesting suspense story.

Show Less

LibraryThing member overthemoon

a dastardly plot to destroy Britain revealed slowly and mysteriously as Albert Campion's befuddled mind gradually unfuddles itself, ending in a bang not a whimper.
Now I have to read Tiger in the smoke again.

LibraryThing member cmbohn

A man wakes up in a hospital. He knows it's a hospital, but he can't remember how he got there, where the hospital is, or who he is. Then he overhears a nurse speaking with a policeman about someone who's going to be arrested for murder.

The man escapes the hospital, only to be faced with trouble

all along the way. The man is Albert Campion, and although he can't remember anything, he does find out that the police are counting on him to stop an enemy from ruining the country. And he only has 3 days to stop it.

Show Less

LibraryThing member bcquinnsmom

Truthfully I didn't like this one as much as others have liked it but that's okay. Once I started reading it, I felt muddled in the head, but then again, in this installment our hero Albert Campion wakes up in a hospital with amnesia and is foggy, so I guess I was right there along with him.

After

waking with amnesia, he remembers that there's something vital he must do, but all he can think of is the number 15. With Amanda by his side, he tries to reconstruct what it is that depends on his intervention, but it seems hopeless.

A good read, but really, imho, not as good as some of the ones preceding.

Show Less

LibraryThing member thornton37814

While I think I've read an Albert Campion mystery before, it's been a long time, and I think that this was the wrong one for my re-introduction to this character. I found myself almost as clueless as the sleuth himself who had suffered a bump on his head about the other characters in the

book--characters that I feel were not developed enough in this story for me to fully appreciate this story. Campion remembers only that he must stop something about "15" when he awakes in a hospital. I won't give away the rest of the plot, but I will suggest that others not make this the first Campion novel they read. I also feel that the plot of this particular novel is perhaps more dated than others of the time period. I know Allingham is a "classic," but even classic authors sometimes have a novel that doesn't hold its own over a long period of time.

Show Less

LibraryThing member Figgles

Wonderful read, Albert Campion has woken in hospital with amnesia, all he knows is he has something of vital importance to do and it relates to the no. 15. This is a wonderful piece of writing, for 3/4 of the book Allingham takes us with Campion as he battles his ignorance of himself and in the

process becomes oddly more self aware. The main plot device is strangely relevant to our current financial mess. Highly recommended.

Show Less

LibraryThing member wyvernfriend

My experience of this story was coloured a bit by reading the first half while sitting in a hospital waiting to be called for xrays, which was an interesting experience as the story opens with our hero in a hospital, suffering from acute amnesia and being accused of attacking a police officer. He

escapes and the adventure starts. He doesn't know who to trust or who to distrust and people around him keep dying.

It's an interesting read, full of snippets of World War II experiences and reminds me of Foyles War. I will have to read more of this series, I have a suspicion that it would be interesting. There were times when I wanted more details but overall it was an interesting read. I think some of my frustrations with the story are because it's a late book in the series.

Show Less

LibraryThing member CarltonC

A really enjoyable thriller/mystery story. I read 15 of Allingham's Albert Campion novels in 1991/92, having read many of Sayer's Peter Wimsey novels and thinking that Campion was a good imitation, but imitation nevertheless. By the time I read this (11th in the series), I was clearly feeling jaded

and only rated it average in memory.
Rereading it 24 years later and I find it a fascinating idea, beautifully executed, so revise my rating of the story accordingly.

The story starts with Albert Campion (although he does not remember his name) awaking in a hospital bed to find he has lost his memory, from a conversation he overhears from outside his ward he learns that he has killed a policeman, but he knows that he has an urgent mission - somehow connected to the number 15. Unfortunately, he cannot remember more than that. The story is of his escape to piece together the jigsaw puzzle of his urgent mission. We are in wartime Britain (WWII) and the mission must have something to do with the Nazis; what, is gradually revealed with great twists and turns (if a good number of coincidences).
The story is also of Campion's discovery of his love for Amanda Fitton, who he was to marry, but of course he had forgotten that too. This part of the story is very well handled.
Rereading this after so many years, I now want to go back and reread other stories in the series.

The novel was first published in 1941 and whilst of its time in its preoccupations, is also social history for us now. It is also amazing that Allingham had time for writing this as well as the work she was doing with evacuees from London.

I read the beautifully produced Folio Society edition with suitably atmospheric illustrations by James Boswell, capturing the the fractured view of reality from Campion's amnesia and drab colours of wartime Britain. The cover is especially successful in suggesting the amnesia from a blow to the head and the maze like nature of revelations.

Show Less

LibraryThing member saroz

...And Allingham changes style again. Three years after her last Campion adventure, she's completely given up the ghost of the upper-class murder mystery that informed most of the 1930s; now, she's devoted herself completely to the World War II spy thriller. This isn't the light, Golden Age romp we

got ten years earlier with Mystery Mile at all. This is serious business, made all the more urgent by starting in media res. Albert Campion wakes up in hospital with a head injury and amnesia, and from there on, the action never really lets up. Allingham uses that to her benefit, especially in the final third of the book, where there is so much exposition - and, frankly, Campion leaps to so many deductions - that you really have to be moving at speed to accept it. Is it entertaining? Well, yes, it's practically a Hitchcock film (think Suspicion or Secret Agent), and it's immensely readable. Does it make sense? Well, that's debatable. It doesn't feel much like anything that came before, and if it weren't for the cast of secondary characters - Oates, Amanda, and most especially a fun little entrance by Lugg - you might wonder if the book was originally written for Campion at all. Still, full credit to Allingham for trying something new. It will be interesting to see if she continues in this darker, more cynical vein from here on out, and whether or not Campion will regain any of his former personality.

Show Less

LibraryThing member idiotgirl

I enjoy the Campion series. This is my favorite so far. Campion has amnesia. Narrative begins in his confusion. And stays pretty close to what he knows. Very clever. Set in early WW II.

LibraryThing member neurodrew

Traitor's Purse
Margery Allingham
October 25, 2016
I finished this novel in a day. Inspector Albert Campion awakens in a hospital ward after a head injury with a certain knowledge that he has only a short time to avert some disaster, but no clear idea of who he is, or what the disaster might be. He

escapes, driving wildly, followed by his girlfriend. He is convinced he is wanted by the police, but allies himself with a constable, and breaks into a secret society in an English country town; he learned he should do this from the constable. His identity is doubted, and he escapes again, encounters his accomplices, and is finally back in the hands of police, where another head trauma restores some old memories. He finally thwarts a scheme to ruin the finances of England on the verge of the second world war. Very well plotted, intelligent dialog, but the plot turns on neurologically unrealistic features of head injury and amnesia, although the description of Campion's thought processes when he is in his amnesia is very well done.

Show Less

LibraryThing member DeltaQueen50

Traitor’s Purse by Margery Allingham is a novel of wartime suspense as a severely handicapped Albert Campion tries to successfully complete his mission to uncover a group of enemy agents that were about to seriously derail England’s war efforts.

The book opens with Albert Campion waking to find

himself in a hospital but having no idea of who he is or how he got there. He then finds that he is accused of attacking a police officer. He has taken a blow to the head and is suffering from a concussion and experiencing amnesia. He begins the slow process of putting the pieces together on his identity and the details of his under cover work for the government. Although he has no idea of what he is investigating, he does have a strong sense that he must stop something from happening. So with the clock ticking down and not knowing who he can trust, he sets to work.

An enjoyable outing that sees Campion thwarting the Nazis and giving the reader a taste of wartime Britain. Albert’s long time love interest, Amanda is on hand and their relationship takes a giant step forward as Campion finally recognizes just how much she means to him. Also there is an appearance by his long-time manservant Lugg, whose feelings are hurt when Campion doesn’t seem to know who he is.

Show Less

LibraryThing member Helenliz

This is another very different book from those earlier in the series. In this we start with Albert in hospital, having been unconscious and with amnesia. He overhears a conversation that has him believing that he's about to be charged for killing a police officer and the feeling that there is

something urgent he needs to do. And so he scarpers, dressed in fisherman's oilskins. A car chase ensues and any number of odd events take place from there. Set in the start of WW2, this has quite a different feel from the earlier novels as well as a very different narrative tale. I did wonder how he was going to recover his memory and that takes place a little too neatly, but it was one way out of the situation. The final chapters are at a breakneck pace as Campion strives to stop a swindle that would put the country's economic stability at risk.
I listened to this and the narrator had a somewhat annoying habit of making Campion sound like a blithering idiot. I admit that he is, at times, an entitled arse, but he;s not actually stupid. That aside, this was a good entry in the series, but I;d not try and read it first. Like Campion at the start, you'd be a touch too much at sea.

Show Less

Fewer