The Gay Phoenix

This book shines in both execution and in characterization.

And that’s saying a lot. I’ve read three books this year with the plot line of this book:
Two people are in a fraught relationship. In isolated circumstances one is killed by accident. The other takes over the dead person’s identity, with more or less success. One of these books was also by Innes.

But this one is tops. It’s a fascinating exploration the psychology of personal identity. There’s not much mystery here, but there’s some suspense involved.
Highly recommended.

When brothers Charles and Arthur Povey run into a storm while sailing across the Pacific, Charles is killed and Arthur concussed by a falling mast. When he comes to, Arthur decides to throw the much wealthier Charles's body overboard and impersonate him. Easy enough to do when he lands in Australia but can he keep it up in the UK where he may meet people who know them well enough to tell them apart?

It was entertaining but I definitely felt tropes were being recycled from Innes's earlier books.

A barely-mysterious mystery; Appleby doesn't really do much here, though there are some pretty amusing moments and set pieces spread throughout. A good quick read.

A lightweight effort by Michael Innes. Appleby investigates but just barely. The psychological aspect is really not all that interesting. The humour is mildly amusing. However, I learned that joss, as in in joss stick, is derived from the Latin word deus. The author uses the word "constatation" which is not even in my online dictionary. A constatation appears to be a statement of fact, as opposed to any number of kinds of speech which are intended to have an effect, e.g., a curse or a decree.

A somewhat unusual Appleby: Appleby is intermittently in the story; he does some detecting; but long stretches are with Arthur Povey, who (when the story opens) is floating in a boat in the middle of the Pacific with the body of his dead brother Charles.