Mike Ripley

Lively, witty, ironic! Oh, and dangerous!

A lively piece of derring-do, although according to his wife Amanda he’s supposed to be derring-done, from our aging, yet smoothly contained, boy-like, retired supposedly, sleuth, Albert Campion.
It’s 1972 and a newspaper journalist, David Duffy, is mysteriously killed in a lay-by off the M1 near to the brutalist MacMansion of Sir Lachlan McIntyre. McIntyre is being considered for a life peerage which would have course have him entering the House of Lords.
Campion’s nephew Richard asks for his help. Richard is Sir Lachlan’s Public Relations Officer.
He wants Campion to look into McIntyre’s activities prior to 1932. His firm hadn’t deemed it necessary to go back that far when putting together their media “script”. (Training sessions covering questions the media might ask).
Just to clarify, McIntyre is the number 1 suspect on the police radar for Duffy’s demise. Richard wants Campion to use his influence to establish McIntyre’s innocence.
It turns out Campion’s name is in Duffy’s notebook, as was Lugg’s. (Comedic suppositions perform in Albert’s head around the police bringing Lugg in for questioning.)
Campion’s investigations take him back into the past happenings. Some memories are not so happy.
Albert places himself in danger, of “the heart in the mouth” variety. My heart rate has barely recovered.
A page turning, wryly written read, that brings forth old family history, looks at Campion’s relationship with Lugg, and opens Campion’s past as it blends into the now.

A Severn House ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.… (meer)

A deceptive read!

There I was completely foiled by Mr Campion’s mild mannered air of concern. Albert Campion, an investigator with formidable contacts including the Commander of the Metropolitan Police, has that rare something that makes him appear deceptively naive, concerned, and an old fashioned air of the polite gentleman who somehow stumbles into things. And stumble he does in this latest foray in his retirement. He’s been asked to speak to the Evadne Childe Society because their guest of honor had a mishap (which turned out to be an argument with a car). Evadne Childe was a mystery writer he happened to share a godmother with. The club asks him to follow a few things up about the Evadne’s book, The Moving Mosaic, to be remade into a two hour BBC production. The first of many it’s hoped. But there are problems and as Albert trundles on there are more—including attempted blackmail and murder.
Rupert, Albert’s son becomes his father’s chauffeur and foil. Magersfontein Lugg is ever present, and his wife Lady Amanda Fitton is the voice of reason.
A homage in many aspects to crime writer Margaret Allingham. Reading the author’s After Notes I was entranced by the twisted logic and air of benign benevolence that surrounds the story.

A Severn HouseARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher.… (meer)