Two Albert Campion Mysteries by Philip Youngman-Carter, Now Available as eBooks

Ostara Publishing has recently released new editions of two novels by Philip Youngman-Carter, the artist and journalist husband of crime novelist Margery Allingham. Written after Allingham died in 1966, and featuring her famous series character Albert Campion, the books were originally published in 1969 and 1970.

This is the first time these two mysteries have been available as ebooks.

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Mr. Campion's Farthing
Philip Youngman-Carter
An Albert Campion Mystery

Inglewood Turrets, an expensive anachronism in the leafy outskirts of North London is a cross between St Pancreas Station and Holloway Gaol, and the house where the formidable Miss Charlotte Cambric recreates Victorian elegance for foreign culture-vultures.

Vassily Kopeck, the half-Russian, half-Polish physicist and an "attaché of sorts", disappears as effectively as a cat who turns a corner in a London fog after a visit to The Turrets — and thereby becomes a much-wanted man. Then Felix Perdreau, the flamboyant rare book dealer and friend of Kopek, who knows more than he is letting on, also goes missing …

L.C. Corkran, of Her Majesty's security service, is convinced that something awful is about to happen there.

Others showing an unnatural interest in the goings-on at The Turrets include Moryak, the Russian ‘diplomat' hunting the missing scientist; a ruthless property developer and his even more ruthless acolyte, a very dodgy private investigator with a penchant for stamp-collecting, and Rupert (whose surname just happens to be Campion) and Perdita, two innocent but resourceful young people hired to act out harmless Victorian charades in a far from harmless situation.

Fortunately, Albert Campion — that self-effacing professional adventurer who simply cannot resist a mystery — is also on hand.

  

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Mr. Campion's Falcon
Philip Youngman-Carter
An Albert Campion Mystery

Matthew James Matthew dies of natural causes whilst staying at the upmarket Drover's Arms in the Cotswolds. Max Newgate, the pompous manager of the inn is found dead miles away in a Suffolk river near an archaeological dig. The star geologist of Omega Oils, the brilliant but eccentric Francis Makepeace, could be connected to both, but he has disappeared and seems determined not to be found.

L.C. Corkran, whose retirement from Her Majesty's security service "has been greatly exaggerated" now consults for the multi-national Omega Oils and turns to his old friend Albert Campion (who has always behaved "like a civilised non-entity" but you wouldn't play poker with him) for help.

A carnival of delightful, and not so delightful, characters become involved in the hunt for the missing geologist: the cool-headed, independent Miss Anthea Peregrine; the love-struck schoolboy Robert Oncer Smith; the rather dubious antique-dealer Morris Jay; known thug and small-time villain Ginger Scott, Appleyard, a boorish Suffolk policeman; and the grotesque, repellent and very dangerous Claude Porteous.

But why is Makepeace, a brilliant and successful man, on the run? Is it because of a failed Omega Oil exploration project in the new African republic of Serendi, or connected to the archaeological excavation of a 4th Century Roman ship? Could the missing Francis Makepeace and the dead Matthew James Matthew somehow be one and the same person?

It takes all Campion's guile and charm to get to the bottom of the mystery and ensure that the new, youthful allies he recruits emerge unscathed.