Cargo of Eagles: A Campion Mystery [Paperback]

Margery Allingham left this final Campion mystery unfinished when she died and it was completed by her husband Philip Youngman Carter. Albert Campion doesn't really fit into the Sixties scene with its Mods and Rockers, but this is a must-have for the serial detective's fans.

For one thing, it is a vast improvement on the previous novel, "The Mind Readers" (Campion #18 - 1965) where the author made an unfortunate essay into science fiction. Campion, who had been fading out of his own series in favor of Scotland Yard Superintendent Charles Luke, makes something of a comeback in "Cargo of Eagles." Of course, it is his last hurrah, although Youngman Carter wrote two more Campion novels on his own, after his wife's death from breast cancer in 1966.

"Cargo of Eagles" takes place in the marshy English village of Saltey--a town that time tried to forget, but couldn't. The villagers, many of whom are part-time pirates and smugglers turn a suspicious eye on newcomers, especially a beautiful young doctor who inherited a house from one of her deceased patients. The doctor begins to receive poison pen letters before she even visits her new house, and when she finally does venture to Saltey, one of the first things she discovers in her inherited home is the body of her solicitor.

Is his death somehow connected with rumors of buried treasure, or has it got something to do with the bands of motorcyclists now swarming through Saltey? Campion and his new sidekick, an American history professor attempt to sort out the acts of random violence from those that are directly connected to a pirate's treasure that went missing during the second world war.

Here is a complete list of the Campion novels that Allingham wrote. There are also short story collections and Campion novels that were written by her husband, Youngman Carter, which I didn't include in this list.

1. The Black Dudley Murder aka The Crime at Black Dudley (1929)
2. Mystery Mile (1930)
3. Look to the Lady aka The Gyrth Chalice Mystery (1931)
4. Police at the Funeral (1931)
5. Sweet Danger aka Kingdom of Death aka The Fear Sign (1933)
6. Death of a Ghost (1934)
7. Flowers for the Judge (1936)
8. The Case of the Late Pig (1937)
9. Dancers in Mourning aka Who Killed Chloe? (1937)
10. The Fashion in Shrouds (1938)
11. Traitor's Purse aka The Sabotage Murder Mystery (1941)
12. Pearls before Swine (1945)
13. More Work for the Undertaker (1948)
14. The Tiger in the Smoke (1952)
15. Estate of the Beckoning Lady (1955)
16. Tether's End (1958)
17. The China Governess (1963)
18. The Mind Readers (1965)
19. Cargo of Eagles (1968)

This is a poignant book - Margery Allingham left it unfinished when she died and it was completed by her husband Philip Youngman Carter.

This detective novel is mostly set in the fictional English coastal village of Saltey. It's a close-knit , rather unfriendly place, and the best entertainment can be found in the local pub by buying a local a pint and let him reminisce about the old smuggling days and the "Saltey Demon" - whatever that might be. We're in the 1960s here, a time when Mods and Rockers (scooter and motorcycle gangs) were wreaking havoc in seaside resorts. It reminds me of my childhood days at the beach - I can almost taste the Lyons Ice Cream and hear my mother saying that the tea is like dishwater.

Into this setting steps the unlikely figure of Albert Campion. Margery Allingham created him as an affable, well-spoken young man in 1928 - but ,unlike some other authors, she sensibly aged him as the decades went past, so he's now in late middle-age.

When he was a young man he had a deceptively foolish appearance, and that is one thing that hasn't really changed:

"Those that disliked him complained that he seemed negligible until it was just too late"

Campion is carrying out an investigation which doesn't have any official support. He seems to be quite disillusioned about the government and the powers-that-be. In fact one of his allies says:

"Good God, Albert, how out of date I sound. But it would be pleasant to retire knowing that one had slipped a final fast one past the New Establishment. I do not love it's silly face"

(Campion's reply is "Ora pro nobis" i.e. "pray for us")

Allingham spent most of her life on the edge of the Essex marshes and so it's not surprising that she gets the details right - Saltey certainly feels like a real place. The nearby underdeveloped area she calls the Trough more or less exists in real-life as the Essex Plotlands. If you think any of the goings-on in the novel are a bit unlikely, they are not as unlikely as the "Barling Bomber" of a few years ago who prevented a building from being completed and was never caught.

This isn't the greatest of the Campion novels but is definitely worth reading. The plot is pretty good and the setting is well-realised. A suitable read , perhaps, for a trip to the seaside on a cold day.

Margery Alllingham died while writing this book. It was finished by her husband, Philiip Youngman Carter, an artist and her lifelong collaborator -- and it's none the worse for that. It's got atmosphere by the bucket: the ragged edges of London that merge into noman's lands of forgotten buiding developments and old rubbish heaps, ending in a scruffy little seaside village haunted by kids on motorbikes. Lugg likes it so much he's planning to have a bungalow built there, and an American historian is fossicking around out of love for a young doctor who has inherited a house there. And why is a once-promising poet living there in obscurity? Campion co-opts the historian to help in a mysterious mission and the plot thickens. Sadly the two Campion novels Youngman Carter wrote after Allingham's death are not up to scratch, though the one that isn't Falcon (sorry I've forgotten the title) has just a touch of her elegiac poetry. Elegiac poetry in a mystery writer? Read her and find out.