The Fear Sign - Albert Campion, Bk 5 Author:Margery Allingham A LOST EARLDOM — A DISAPPEARING CROWN — A VAST ESTATE NOBODY COULD FIND — Campion knew these were only clues to a deeper mystery. His client was the Government. His adversary was one of the brainiest, richest, most powerful and ruthless men who ever lived. The stake were the peace and safety of the... more » entire world.
The challenge of an ancient riddle, a journey to a village accursed, and a corporate mogul in the business of murder prove the Pontisbright family legacy to be a deadly inheritance in this ingenious tale of witchcraft, myth, and mystery. The clues that lead to the solution and the heirlooms, however, do not elude urbane, erudite Albert Campion.
In this 1933 novel, goofy super-sleuth Albert Campion masquerades as the Hereditary Paladin of Averna in order to restore the tiny Baltic kingdom to its rightful owners and foil a murderous industrialist. Danger (a mad doctor) and romance (a local girl) add to the detective's adventures. This book was published as Sweet Danger and as The Fear Sign depending on the mood of the publishers.
Who is Albert Campion? A youngish man who seems equally at home with majesty and mystery, yet he goes by an assumed name. In The Fear Sign, Campion and two of his friends have been posing as the "Hereditary Paladin of Averna" and escort. They have done such a good job of impersonation that they have attracted assassins. As Campion becomes more entangled in the search for the lost regalia of the kingdom of Averna a small, strategically located and petroleum-rich piece of the British Empire he finds his life and the lives of his friends threatened. Francis Matthews excellently portrays the various characters. Allingham (The Fashion in Shrouds) keeps the suspense high in this delightful period novel, capturing the feel of rural England in the 1930s. « less