Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham

Albert Campion first encountered Judge Crowdy Lobbett on a ship returning to England from the United States. He learned that Lobbett had narrowly avoided death a number of times in the recent past. Now on this ship, Campion was instrumental in saving Lobbett from  being electrocuted in a magician's act. After the ship landed, Lobbett's son, Marlowe,  came to Campion, and asked for help in protecting his father. It seemed that Lobbett's life was threatened by a man called Simister who seemed to be evil incarnate.

Mystery Mile was a very small village on the coast of Suffolk. It got its name from the cloud of mist which seems to always hang over the village. The manor at Mystery Mile was a very old building dating to the 1500's. The squire was twenty three year old Giles Padgett who lived there with his twin sister Biddy. Campion brought Judge Lobbett, Marlowe, and Lobbett's daughter, Isopel to stay in the manor at Mystery Mile where they would be much safer than in London. Here they met the village rector, Swithin Cush who was a frequent visitor to the manor.

On their first evening, a roaming fortune teller named Anthony Datchett visited the manor and told the fortune of the Padgetts, the Lobbetts and Swithin Cush. The fortune teller left, and Swithin Cush went back to his rectory and shot himself. Cush left short notes to the residents of the manor house, and a red chess knight as clues for them to investigate.

What follows is a story of Campion's efforts to protect Judge Lobbett and to find out the identity of the mysterious Simister. This will result in quite an active battle with the henchmen of Simister and the effort to confront Simister in the dark and fog on a very dangerous part of the English coast.

This is the second Campion book and it was published in 1930. Campion is portrayed as a pale young man with very large glasses. He talks in a remarkably glib manner which is annoying to the people he is talking to as well, I should think, to the reader. I found this book quite an engaging read and Ms. Allingham provided enough suspense to keep the reader going.