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Welcome to our Jan/Feb 22 buddy read of Cargo of Eagles Cargo of Eagles published in 1968 and the last of the Campion books, being the 19th in the series (not counting continuations by other authors, short stories, etc.). Indeed, incomplete at her death, it was finished by her husband.

Back at the Intelligence Department, Albert Campion takes an interest in Saltey, a remote and tight-lipped Thames estuary village. The place has a long history of smuggling - and holds a secret rich enough to make someone threaten, terrorize, murder and raise the very devil to keep strangers away.

Please feel free to post spoilers in this thread.

This is more Morty's adventure than Campion's or Lugg's. He made a gallant and idealistic hero, determined to risk all to protect his lady love. Very likeable character.

Thought the scenes with demon motorcyclists scary. At first the isolated village with only a couple of unarmed policemen seemed to be helpless to stop them......then the locals provide their own brand of defense.

I enjoyed this one. I am glad I didn't give up on this author after having a negative reaction to the first one I read. Loved the tidbits of humor.. My favorite line was talking about a character rising in his profession but fortunately he wasn't afraid of heights.

I have read the earliest books and these last ones, but not yet the middle ones. Do we learn where his wife is?

I couldn't warm to Morty at all, nor to Dido, and would have preferred more of Lugg (I always enjoy Lugg) and Campion himself.

I didn't find anything odd about a village with a couple of unarmed policemen! Except, of course, the rather out-dated idea of actually having a village policeman! I remember the days of Mods and Rockers having sea-front battles ...

I didn't really warm to Morty either, especially when he seems to think it's fine to kiss the woman at the bar in the shed (or was it a barn?) as Dido hasn't shown an interest!

The mods and rockers, and mentions of the Mersey beat, seemed a bit incongruous in an Allingham mystery! A bit like when Christie starts mentioning hippies etc.

Chris, there are occasional references to Campion’s wife Amanda and there are a few where she’s with him and partly involved, but she’s mostly a background figure.

In this book I really felt the difference after Youngman Carter took over writing. Allingham has a nose for the bizarre and a vigorous way of portraying lower-class people that Carter just completely missed. Lugg serving tea in the conservatory without a mocking running commentary and insults hurled at Campion? Heresy! Carter’s sensibilities seemed much more conventional in general, so the central couple became very milky and the mods and rockers more facelessly menacing, the way oldsters in the 1960s inveighed against hippies without seeing them as individuals. I feel Allingham would have found more macabre possibilities in them.

I also thought the pub mistress’s sweetness would have covered something more sinister in an Allingham novel, while Carter accepted her at face value.

And the ending! So clumsy. Campion sitting down to explain everything at length, dragging in elements we’d never gotten the least hint about! And cheerfully letting bad guys go and misappropriating a fortune. I felt we’d strayed a long way from Allingham’s world, even if she provided Carter with a detailed outline.

This being the final book in the Campion series, I thought did round it off fittingly. At this time we have worked our way through Campion's career and some of his social life, bringing us up to the 60's with the mods and rockers of that time. The area in which it is set was known for it's smuggling, so we had that included together, with espionage with which Campion has been associated, and of course a murder. I was pleased that Lugg was included, even if it was just a small role.
I have really enjoyed this author's books, and working my way through them has really built the characters and the style of the writing.

Abigail wrote: "In this book I really felt the difference after Youngman Carter took over writing...."

Abigail, thank you for the great comments on this. Where did you think the join was? I was looking out for it but wasn't sure where it came - I thought it must be quite late on.

By the end I did think the style felt different from Allingham, and very much agree with your comment about Campion "sitting down to explain everything at length" - this was the main difference I noticed, as usually he is so terse and elliptical.

I believe I've read that Youngman Carter used to draw up the plots together with Allingham, but am not sure now exactly where I read this.

The ending troubled me, too, and Abigail has identified some of my quibbles - the landlady ought to have had more nuance, more attention should have been paid to the (important) individuals among the nasty young people, instead of them being mainly an amorphous mob of trouble, the wartime backstory that appears unheralded to be explained at length ...

Youngman Carter's handling of these issues, either as writer or tidying up editor, may have compounded the problems, but I have felt similarly 'cheated' with other late Allinghams, so it's not just him.

I can’t say I felt a join, more like something throughout apart from the very start where Campion and Morty are watching from inside the car. I think I had got used to Campion handing problems over to Luke but maybe keeping something back.
I didn’t expect much from Lugg, as I always felt he was considerably older than Campion. Maybe I’m wrong. But it was nice to see him again.

On this reading I didn’t spot this join (in my arrogant youth I believed I had) but I feel it’s somewhere not long after Monty and Wishart have their nighttime conversation out at the fort. At that point the dialogue went from hard-to-follow to self-explanatory. Also the first encounter with Doll, when the glass was scattered, felt like Allingham but the scene where she picked up Monty definitely did not—I was cringing at the clichés!

Thanks for pointing out the fact that this was finished by her husband-I didn't know that and it had just felt a bit off.

While I've enjoyed reading through all the Allinghams in order and discussing them here, I've decided I'm not a great fan. I might even have joined this group for the chance to read through as I remember Allingham as one of my favourites, but that I'd never really understood her characters. I hoped that reading them in order would give me a better grasp of the backstory and the whole family/secret identity/other job of Albert Campion but no, none of this is ever really explained. That is perhaps a very modern aspect of Allingham, but not one I enjoy in a mystery series!

While I may at some future point reread one or two, I plan to give away the paperbacks I had already owned or accumulated for this read as I wouldn't ever reread the series.

Nonetheless, it's been a pleasure doing this buddy read with all of you and again I was glad to get the chance for a full read through of the series.

We never do get much about Campion’s real identity, though from the first few books he seems to be a minor royal.