Sweet Danger
First US edition cover
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| Author | Margery Allingham |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Albert Campion |
| Genre | Crime novel |
| Publisher |
Heinemann (UK) The Crime Club (US) |
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Publication date
|
1933 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 286 pp |
| OCLC | 56648155 |
| Preceded by | Police at the Funeral |
| Followed by | Death of a Ghost |
Sweet Danger is a crime novel by Margery Allingham, first published in October 1933, in the United Kingdom by Heinemann, London and in the United States by The Crime Club as Kingdom of Death; later US versions used the title The Fear Sign. It is the fifth adventure of the mysterious Albert Campion, aided as usual by his butler/valet/bodyguard Magersfontein Lugg.
When Averna, a tiny but oil-rich principality on the Adriatic Sea, becomes a vital port after an earthquake, Albert Campion is called in to track down proof that the land belongs to an family, believed long died out. With an unscrupulous financier and his hired thugs also on the trail, Campion and his confederates must unravel the mystery, while defending the Fitton family, claimants to the title, in the strange Suffolk village of Pontisbright.
Guffy Randall is surprised to find his old friend Albert Campion in a French hotel, accompanied by Eager-Wright, a mountaineer, and Farquharson, a prospector, masquerading as minor royalty. When Campion explains that they are seeking proof of British rights to a small territory, recently disturbed by an earthquake and turned into a strategically important harbour with its own fuel, Randall joins the team. Following their adversaries, headed by a secretive financier named Savanake, they travel to the village of Pontisbright in Suffolk, former seat of the heirs to the crown of Averna.
They spend a night in the local inn, the Gauntlett, during which Lugg sees a corpse wrapped in a winding cloth on the nearby heath. They move to the local mill, which is run by impoverished Fitton family, who claim to be the lost heirs to the Earldom of Pontisbright: siblings Mary, Amanda, and Hal, and Aunt Hattle. 17-year-old Amanda, the middle child, has an interest in electricity and radio, and runs a generator from the watermill. Aunt Hattie recently disturbed a burglar in the house, who Campion immediately identifies as "Peaky" Doyle, an old associate of Savanake who recently shot at Campion on the continent.
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