Traitor's Purse

I have commented before on the wonderful service that Vintage are performing by keeping some of the country's most brilliant crime fiction in print. I have just finished Traitor's Purse by Margery Allingham, a novel that I had never spotted in the Penguin Classics series but has been released relatively recently by Vintage.

It is an amazingly compulsive read. The central idea is that AC wakes up in hospital to find that he has complete amnesia and that he quickly discovers that he is supposed to be saving Britain from complete disaster in the middle of the second world war. The reader shares all of Campion's bewilderment, frustration, confusion and fear as he races to re-discover his mission and prevent the destruction of Britain - for we see (or rather don't see!) everything from Campion's perspective. See this link for more comprehensive information, but beware the spoilers!

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is completely different from The Tiger in the Smoke and indeed from all her other novels. Absolutely thrilling.

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I've also bought my first new book of the year - Pompeii (Robert Harris). I really want to read Ghost, but I'm waiting for the paperback!