Books: Margery Allingham’s Mr Campion’s Fox
Exclusive interview with author Mike Ripley and a review of the latest Mr Campion mystery
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed By Gabrielle Pantera
“In 2012 I was given the chance to complete a Mr Campion novel left unfinished on the death of Margery Allingham’s widower, Youngman Carter, in 1969,” says author Mike Ripley. Youngman Carter had written three Campion novels after his wife’s death.
“The reception for that book, Mr Campion’s Farewell, from dedicated Allingham fans was so kind and so enthusiastic that I embarked on Mr Campion’s Fox”, says Ripley. “It features much-loved Allingham characters but is an entirely new story of my own making. Albert Campion was one of the great detectives of the Golden Age of English crime-writing in the1930s and ranks alongside Hercule Poirot and Lord Peter Wimsey in the pantheon of famous fictional sleuths.”
Mr Campion’s Fox is a welcome return to classic British detective novels. The book is humorous, witty and very engaging. The wry British humour in the dialogue will make you laugh. If you love old movies, think of the repartee beween Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man.
In Mr Campion’s Fox, Albert Campion has retired. That doesn’t stop the Danish ambassador asking him to keep an eye on his daughter’s boyfriend Frank Tate. Because Albert’s retired, he has his son Rupert follow Frank. However, Albert keeps an eye on his son to make sure nothing happens to him. The ambassador’s daughter disappears and Frank is found dead. Rupert and his wife Perdita go to stay with their friends the Sandymans, where the ambassador’s daughter was an au pair. Can Rupert become the detective his father is?
“I was introduced to the detective stories of Margery Allingham in 1967, when aged 14 and living in Cambridge, by a philosophy lecturer at the university who insisted I read them,” says Ripley. “More than 40 years after I last saw him, I was able to track down that philosopher, now a retired professor, and invite him to the launch of Mr Campion’s Fox in Cambridge.”
Margery Allingham wrote first Campion book in the series, The Crime at Black Dudley, in 1929. In that first book, Albert Campion is not a main character. In her second novel, Mystery Mile, Albert takes on a much bigger role. Allingham’s American publishers preferred this character above the others. Allingham wrote 17 novels and over 20 short stories featuring Campion. After Allingham’s death, her husband Philip Youngman Carter completed Allingham’s novel Cargo of Eagles (published 1968), and two further Campion books: Mr Campion’s Farthing and Mr Campion’s Falcon.
There were fragments of two novels written by Carter that when he died. In 2012 Ripley got the approval of the Margery Allingham Society to complete Carter’s manuscript, retitled Mr Campion’s Farewell which came out March 2014.
Mr Campion’s Fox is Ripley’s 21st published book. He may be best known for the Fitzroy Maclean Angel comedy crime novel series, with a roguish hero who is mostly honest and drives a de-licensed London black cab. “Early fans of the Angel novels, in the 1990s, were Lord Ted Willis, the creator of Dixon of Dock Green, who took me for many splendid lunches in the House of Lords, and Pierce Brosnan, who went on to play James Bond,” says Ripley, “and who invited me on to the set of the film Tomorrow Never Dies.”
Ripley is based in East Anglia. He was born in West Riding of Yorkshire. He doesn’t have a personal website, but has written the monthly Getting Away With Murder column at www.shotsmag.co.uk for the last eight years.
Margery Allingham’s Mr Campion’s Fox (Albert Campion Mysteries) Series: Albert Campion Mysteries, Hardcover: 288 pages, Publisher: Severn House Publishers; First World Publication edition (June 1, 2015), Language: English, ISBN: 9780727884787 $28.95
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