Michael Innes (1906–1994)

Charles Honeybath, the portrait painter, undertakes a commission in strange circumstances: he has a fortnight to paint the portrait in an unknown location without being told the identity of the sitter. When he returns home after completing the portrait he finds his studio has been used to rob the bank next door. Despite the Holmesian echoes, Honeybath thinks the bank robbery was not the primary motive.

Great fun, but as ever, it is the urbanity and humour of Innes's language that is the main show more draw rather than the plot. show less

In 1939, a minor poet called Philip Ploss is murdered at his home near London and a young Scottish woman travelling to visit relatives near Perth hears somebody on the train misquoting Swinburne. The connection puts her in deadly danger.

Part mystery and part spy story in the style of "The Thirty-Nine Steps", for me it's not one of Innes's best, though I am always willing to enter his world of urbane intellectuals and characters hovering on the borders between eccentricity and outright show more lunacy. This world probably never existed but as a teenager I desperately wanted to be part of it. show less

If the forgeries of a master-forger become collectible, is it worth faking them? Apparently so. But who would have thought it would lead to murder? Fortunately, Sir John Appleby is on the case.

The thoroughly enjoyable erudite lunacy of Michael Innes at his best is on show here.

It becomes clear pretty quickly why this is often considered Michael Innes' best mystery novel. Though Appleby makes an appearance, it comes very late in the epistolary style novel and only for a few chapters. Almost the first half is in Scottish dialect, and reads so much like a tale from the mid 1800s that it's a shock when motorcars appear. The book as a whole is classic gothic, with a decaying castle, a mad laird, a frail maiden, and three crazy servants. But it isn't silly, and when the show more laird falls -- or is pushed -- to his death at the midpoint (but foreshadowed at the very start) the narration moves to standard English and detection begins. This would be above average Innes just for the setup, but the mystery of the suicide? murder? is also stellar, with multiple twists and surprises.

Note: I have the Bantam leather-bound Mystery Classics edition with the foreword by Michael Gilbert. DO NOT READ the foreword until the end. It gives away almost the entire plot.

If you read only one Innes, this is the one. Highly recommended. show less