Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham, 1930

 

ABE Books

This is Albert Campion #2. It also was published in the Collier Front Page Mystery series.

About the author: Margery Louise Allingham (1904 – 1966) was an English novelist from the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction". Allingham is best remembered for her hero, the gentleman sleuth Albert Campion. Initially believed to be a parody of Dorothy L. Sayers's detective Lord Peter Wimsey, Campion matured into a strongly individual character, part-detective, part-adventurer, who formed the basis for 18 novels and many short stories. (wikipedia) 

Major characters:

• Judge Crowdy Lobbett
• Marlowe Lobbett, his son
• Isopel Lobbett, his daughter
• Giles Paget, owner of the Manor on Mystery Mile
• Biddy Paget, his sister
• Ali Fergusson Barber, art dealer
• Anthony Datchett, palm reader
• St. Swithen Cush, rector
• Albert Campion, amateur detective

Locale: Mystery Mile, on an island in the River Orwell, Suffolk, England

Synopsis: Judge Crowdy Lobbett is heading to England on a liner, hoping to avoid assassins who seem to be after him in revenge for his sentencing members of the notorious Simister Gang. He is accompanied by his son Marlowe and daughter Isopel. He arranges to rent a quiet manor, owned by Giles Paget and his sister Biddy, who are anxious to get some rental income from it. 

The Manor is located on Mystery Mile, a the name given to a small village contained on an island, connected to the mainland by a causeway ("The Stroud"). The Lobbetts seek out Albert Campion to detect whether the assassins have followed the Lobbetts to England. All seems quiet until the rector, St. Swithen Cush, commits suicide; leaving behind a note and a red chess piece as a clue. Then Judge Lobbett disappears without a trace when walking through the hedges of the manor's maze, but leaves behind a cryptic note.

Review: I was pleased this paperback edition came with a map of Mystery Mile. I checked my Collier Front Page edition, it has the same map, larger with much clearer notations. I could not read some of them on the paperback version. The map is a piece of art in itself! Notice one cherub has a magnifying glass, the other a gun!

This is an enchanting story with lots of color. There are the Seven Whistlers who watch for comings and goings over The Stroud, a mysterious case full of children's books, a red chess piece, and of course the judge who walked into the maze and was not seen again.

Thoroughly enjoyable, and another Campion under my belt.