Mr Campion's Wings

by Mike Ripley

Overview

A gruesome discovery at an aircraft hanger leads Albert Campion into a turbulent mystery set in Cambridge in the middle of the Cold War.

"Ripley again marries a crafty plotline with a persuasive evocation of Allingham’s style and characterizations. Fans of the originals will be delighted"- Publishers Weekly Starred Review

“I have often said that my wife is a constant surprise to me.”

Cambridge, 1965. The honorary doctorate ceremony for Albert Campion’s wife takes a dramatic turn when Lady Amanda is arrested by Special Branch for breaking the Official Secrets Act.

Never before having taken much interest in his wife’s work in cutting-edge aircraft design, Mr Campion sets out to discover more about the top-secret Goshawk Project in which Amanda is involved. He quickly realizes he is not the only one keen to learn the secrets of the project.

When a badly mutilated body is discovered at the Goshawk Project’s hangar – the result, it would appear, of a bizarre accident – Campion is drawn into a turbulent mix of industrial espionage and matters of national security. And as he attempts to get to the bottom of the deadly goings-on, it seems that the bicycles and punts are almost as dangerous as the aircraft . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780727850409
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	01/04/2022
Series:	An Albert Campion Mystery , #9
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.91(w) x 8.98(h) x (d)

About the Author

Mike Ripley has twice won the Crime Writers’ Association’s Last Laugh Award, and is the author of twenty-four comedy thrillers and historical novels. He writes a hugely respected monthly review column for Shots Magazine entitled Getting Away With Murder and is also the author of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, a ‘reader’s history’ of the heyday of British action and spy thrillers, 1953–75, which won the H.R.F. Keating Award for non-fiction in 2017.



With Mr Campion’s Farewell (Severn House, 2014 and Black Thorn, 2019), he completed a manuscript left unfinished in 1969 by Margery Allingham’s widower, Pip Youngman Carter. He regards the follow-ups including Mr Campion’s Visit, Mr Campion’s Séance and Mr Campion's Coven as his attempts ‘to fly solo with, and do justice to, a great fictional character’.

Editorial Reviews

'Ripley again marries a crafty plotline with a persuasive evocation of Allingham’s style and characterizations. Fans of the originals will be delighted'  – Publishers Weekly Starred Review

'Exceptional ... Both old and new Campion fans will hope for many more exploits’  – Publishers Weekly Starred Review of Mr Campion’s Coven

'A solid yarn that captures a sense of the times’  – The Historical Novels Review

'A highly satisfying showdown'  – Kirkus Reviews on Mr Campion’s Coven

'Ripley spins a head-scratching whodunit while effectively recreating Allingham’s tone and characters. This clever continuation of a beloved series keeps getting better'  – Publishers Weekly Starred Review of Mr Campion's Séance

From the Publisher

2021-09-29
A well-deserved honor for his brainy wife drags Albert Campion out of retirement yet again in 1965.

Under the sponsorship of Professor Emeritus John Branscombe, St. Ignatius College, Cambridge, has chosen to confer an honorary doctorate on Lady Amanda Fitton for her work as head of the Goshawk Project, which develops state-of-the-art aircraft designs. The only false note in Amanda’s big day comes when she’s spirited away by police officers who detain her under the Official Secrets Act. And even that comes with a silver lining: She has a perfect alibi when Branscombe’s former student Alan Wormold is killed in a suspicious and very bloody accident in the Goshawk workshop. Since Amanda can’t believe that workshop manager Alf Bagley, who discovered Alan’s body, is responsible for his death, that leaves only four suspects, all of them Goshawk employees: senior engineer Kevin Loder, American design engineer Gary Cupples, ex–RAF officer Nugent Monck, and self-styled old man Melvin Barnes. Offered the hospitality of Branscombe’s home and his housekeeper, the formidable Finn Astra Jarvela, Campion settles down to figure out who might have stolen some sections of Reynolds steel tubing and who might secretly be working to leak information about Goshawk’s latest project, a jet plane with swept-forward wings. Fans of this genial series should be prepared to swallow enough technical information about aeronautics to distract them from the possibility that Cambridge is home to an awful lot of guilty parties.

Alternately muddled and gently amusing.

Kirkus Reviews

Albert remains a winning protagonist, possessed of both eccentric charm and dry wit, and this time Ripley gives him a particularly meaty case, full of noteworthy twists. Another winner in a reliably entertaining series

Booklist on Mr Campion's Séance