Mr. Campion’s Visit

Ripley neatly combines humor and mystery in his sixth outing for Margery Allingham’s gentleman sleuth, Albert Campion (after 2018’s Mr. Campion’s War). In 1970, Campion returns to the scene of an old crime, a house called Black Dudley, where his first case was set. Black Dudley is now part of a new school, the University of Suffolk Coastal, where Campion has been tapped by one of the university’s main supporters, the Bishop of St. Edmondsbury, to serve as the Visitor, an ombudsman position. When a faculty member, Professor Pascual Perez-Catalan is stabbed in the back on university grounds, Campion investigates. The victim was researching ways to predict the presence in the earth of valuable minerals and metals. At one point, Campion teases the local inspector by suggesting that the suspects all be gathered in the library, explaining that this is a request he has always wanted to make. Having the sleuth’s family members, who played prominent parts in earlier books, largely offstage allows Ripley to focus on the endearing Campion. Fans of Allingham’s originals will be well pleased. [em](Oct.) [/em]