Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse (USA 2024)

From the Publisher:
"If I had to vote for the single best detective story, this would be it." -- A.S. Byatt
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

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse. Early Bird Books / Open Road Integrated Media, ISBN: 9781504091763 (January, 2024), 242 p., $20.99.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse (USA 2023)

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

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse. Early Bird Books / Open Road Integrated Media, ISBN: 9781504087254 (April, 2023), eBook, 3 MB (ca. 242 p.), $11.99.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse (UK 2016)

From the Publisher:
A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY
Agatha Christie called her 'a shining light'. Have you discovered Margery Allingham, the 'true queen' of the classic murder mystery?

Celebrated 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 recognise even his faithful servant Lugg or his own fiancée, Campion struggles desperately to put the pieces together while the very fate of England is at stake.

As urbane as Lord Wimsey... as ingenious as Poirot... Meet one of crime fiction's Great Detectives, Mr Albert Campion.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse. A Campion Mystery. Vintage, ISBN: 9780099492832 (February, 2016), 207 p., £8.99.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse (UK 2013)

From the Publisher:
A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY
Agatha Christie called her 'a shining light'. Have you discovered Margery Allingham, the 'true queen' of the classic murder mystery?

As urbane as Lord Wimsey... as ingenious as Poirot... Meet one of crime fiction's Great Detectives, Mr Albert Campion.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse. A Campion Mystery. Vintage, ISBN: 9781448138135 (March, 2013), eBook, 0.28 MB (ca. 208 p.), £4.99.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse (USA 2009)

From the Publisher:
Albert Campion, international spy, on His Majesty's secret service? Stranger things have happened, but if they have, Campion can't remember them: He's in hospital, the victim of an apparent accident, and with no memory of anything except the fact that the fate of the British Empire is somehow cradled in his bandaged hands. He can't remember his faithful manservant, he can't remember his fiance, and most particularly, he can't remember killing a policeman, a crime for which whispering voices outside his hospital room claim he will shortly hang. Escaping in a stolen car, Campion finds odd shreds of memory returning. His mission, he's certain, has something to do with the number 15 and also with the town of Bridge, which -- he dimly recalls -- is run by an ancient, hereditary, and extremely secretive sect.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse. The 11th Albert Campion Mystery. Felony & Mayhem, ISBN: 9781934609422 (October, 2009), 243 p., $14.95.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse (UK 2006)

From the Publisher:
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 recognise even his faithful servant Lugg or his own fiancée, Campion struggles desperately to put the pieces together while the very fate of England is at stake.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse. A Campion Mystery. Vintage, ISBN: 0099492830 (March, 2006), 207 p., £6.99.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse (USA 1997)

From the Publisher:
Albert Campion had had a very bad night. It wasn't just the rain, or the problems with the rental car. It wasn't even waking up in the hospital after the accident-with no identity. His mind was wiped completely blank, only vague, indistinct nightmares remain.

The worst of it was waking up as a condemned man. From the first audible words upon waking-"Think he'll hang?"- through every turn of the twisted trail he followed out of the hospital, Albert Campion had to find out what crime had been committed by whom. He was forced to race against time to clear his name and he didn't even know what it was.

MARGERY ALLINGHAM authored over thirty-three novels, including Mystery Mile and Pearls Before Swine, more Albert Campion Mysteries available from Carroll & Graf.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse. An Albert Campion Mystery. Carroll & Graf, ISBN: 0786704470 (May, 1997), 224 p., $4.95.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse (UK 1985)

From the Publisher:
An unputdownable novel of heroism and treachery by the Queen of Suspense
Introduced by JESSICA MANN
He awoke in a neat hospital bed to the sound of voices mumbling in the corridor. "They'll hang him, I suppose?' He knew instinctively that they were talking about him, but what had he done, who was he exactly and, more important, what was his name?

Escaping from the hospital he finds that everyone expects him to do something, not least the enchanting girl called Amanda. And clearly that something is not simply very important, it is vital for England, now on the brink of war. His only course is to rely on his wits and bluff his way forward, hoping that something will unlock his memory before it is too late.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse. London: Dent, 1985, Dent Classic Thrillers, ISBN: 0460022997, 201 p., £2.95.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse (USA 1983)

From the Publisher:
REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS DEADLY
The man had his first great shock when he awakened in a hospital, a nasty bump on his head, and no memory of who he was or how he got there. Now, driving through rural England, a lovely woman at his side claiming to be his fiancee and the police on his trail, he had his second shock: he discovered he was Albert Campion, on a mission of vital importance to His Majesty's government. But all Campion could remember of his assignment was a mysterious "number 15." Until he was presented with something he would never forget -- a murder.

CONFIDENTIAL INVESTIGATOR ALBERT CAMPION
A tall thin man with overly large spectacles, he is deceptively unobtrusive when tracking down a killer and uncannily capable of predicting the deadly twists of a criminal's mind. He is unquestionably a gentleman, but even Lugg, his dauntless valet, and his friends at Scotland Yard don't know all the secrets in Campion's past -- or the confidential cases he has covertly solved while in His Majesty's Service.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse. An Albert Campion Mystery. New York: Bantam Books, 1983, ISBN: 0553238221, 183 p., $2.50.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse (USA 1975)

From the Publisher:
VICTIM OR KILLER?
The man in the hospital bed woke up in a cold sweat. He didn't remember who he was or why he was being guarded. He didn't feel like a criminal, yet he heard the nurses saying he had killed a man.

From behind the maddening curtain that clouded his memory, only one fact stood out. He had to accomplish something that was more urgent than life itself. He had to get out... escape, even if he had to kill everyone who stood in his way.

Inspector Campion of Scotland Yard was working completely in the dark, in one of Margery Alingham's most complex and absorbing mysteries.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse. An Inpsector Campion Mystery. New York: Manor Books, 1975, Manor Books #12340, 176 p., $1.25.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse (USA 1969)

From the Publisher:
Margery Allingham At Her Very Best - A Strange Tale Of a Man Who Wakes Up In a Hospital Room Totally Unable To Recall His Own Identity...

WHO AM I?
The man in the hospital bed didn't feel like a criminal, yet he heard the nurse saying he had killed a policeman.
From behind the maddening curtain that clouded his memory, only one fact stood out. He had to do something that was vitally urgent to the fate of the world. He must get out and go... somewhere... even if he had to kill every policeman who stood in his way.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse. New York: MacFadden-Bartell, 1969, MB Book #75-222, 176 p., ¢75.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse (UK 1961)

From the Publisher:
He simply could not remember anything, not a thing: his mind was a blank, his memory gone: his brain groped for knowledge as a baby's would. Yet he was acutely conscious that he had to do something quickly, and he became increasingly, urgently aware that that something was of immense consequence. At first, when he awoke in the hospital bed alone, untended, and in the dark, he could not react at all. But then afterwards, once he had managed, by some incredible fluke, to get out of the place, to get away in a car, to be picked up, people seemed to accept him. Not just accept him, but expect him to do something. What is more, they were prepared to allow for the oddest behaviour -- and no questions asked.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse. Lost memory in blackout Britain. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1961, Penguin Books #772, 207 p., 2'6.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse (USA 1961)

From the Publisher:
He awoke in a strange hospital room with a desperate feeling. He had to get out, no matter what...
He couldn't remember who he was or why he was here, but some sixth sense told him he was involved in something vitally important -- that people were depending on him in a matter of life and death...

This same sixth sense helped him elude doctors and nurses, told him to sound the fire alarm, steal the fireman's coat, slip out into the hospital parking lot and take a waiting car...

He drove frantically for some miles when the car stopped dead. And he was further confounded when a lovely girl -- the driver of another car -- came to his aid, introducing herself as Lady Amanda Fitton, his fiancee.

A brilliant yarn by one of the cele-brated queens of English mystery writing -- in which famous detective Albert Campion solves a sinister mystery -- a top security case -- while fighting off the effects of a partial mental blackout.

Margery Allingham: Traitor's Purse. Berkley Medallion #G496 (January, 1961), 176 p., ¢35.