Traitor's Purse by Margery Allingham

There is something so delightful about a really good Margery Allingham Mystery. She is one of the best at complicated plots and so very English. This story was published in 1941 and has complex characters, murder and enemy agents. It also has more of Amanda and romance if you are familiar with the Allingham Series.

Albert Campion wakes up in a Hospital with total amnesia. The thing that is driving him is his mission. It is terribly important and very secret. During this time he has to "act normal" even among his dearest which includes Amanda and Lugg, his Servant.  The problem is he can't remember anything, including the mission. He is afraid that he has killed a policeman and that the force is after him. Albert escapes from the hospital and ends up riding with Amanda and a guest- who will soon be murdered. Amanda and he are staying at a Place called the Institute he found out.  She has been following him...but how does it all tie in? Why the murder?

The texture of the first half of the book, at least, has Albert Campion sick and working in the dark. But it is a finely-drawn wording that has him discovering his friends and enemies in a new light. Allingham, is a master at leading you through a mosaic of word patterns holding it tense and fine in parts. She also has the ability to make you feel that you are at a golden time of the mystery and privy to the well-educated class of Great Britain. I always feel I have read a Master when I finish. If you enjoy Sayers and Christie then you should enjoy Allingham and in the words of Amanda,"Be gone across the raging tide"


Blurb:
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 fiancée, 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