Mr. Campion’s Christmas

Ripley continues his impressive run of channeling Margery Allingham in his shrewd 12th whodunit featuring Allingham’s Albert Campion (after Mr. Campion’s Memory), which finds the aristocratic sleuth puzzling out a snowy closed-circle mystery. In 1962, Albert is celebrating Christmas at home in Norfolk with his wife and son when a blizzard strikes. The conditions lead the family to invite their housekeeper and her elderly father-in-law to wait out the weather with them. Then a bus from London crashes into the Campions’ gates, leaving its driver and seven passengers—three American soldiers, a priest, a professor, a postmistress, and a historian—in need of shelter. As Albert and his family scramble to accommodate the guests, one of them turns up dead, with a broken neck. Albert instantly assumes that the killer must be under his roof, but Ripley cleverly switches gears after the investigation gets underway, steering the proceedings out of golden age territory and toward a suspenseful espionage plot. He keeps tensions high until the gratifying conclusion, and his characterizations—particularly of Albert—are spot-on. This is a refreshingly surprise-packed entry in an always excellent series. (Nov.)