An Awkward Lie

Sir John Appleby #25

by Michael Innes

Sir John Appleby's son, Bobby, assumes his father's detective role in this baffling crime. When Bobby finds a dead man, in a bunker on a golf course, he notices something rather strange - the first finger of the man's right hand is missing. A young girl approaches the scene and offers to watch the body while Bobby goes for help, but when he returns with the police in tow, the body and the girl are missing.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Audiobook

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 1971

About the author

Michael Innes was the pseudonym of John Innes MacKintosh (J.I.M.) Stewart (J.I.M. Stewart).

He was born in Edinburgh, and educated at Edinburgh Academy and Oriel College, Oxford. He was Lecturer in English at the University of Leeds from 1930 - 1935, and spent the succeeding ten years as Jury Professor of English at the University of Adelaide, South Australia.

He returned to the United Kingdom in 1949, to become a Lecturer at the Queen's University of Belfast. In 1949 he became a Student (Fellow) of Christ Church, Oxford, becoming a Professor by the time of his retirement in 1973.

As J.I.M. Stewart he published a number of works of non-fiction, mainly critical studies of authors, including Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling, as well as about twenty works of fiction and a memoir, 'Myself and Michael Innes'.

As Michael Innes, he published numerous mystery novels and short story collections, most featuring the Scotland Yard detective John Appleby.

Reviews

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This entry in the Appleby series again features Sir John's youngest son Bobby; in fact, Sir John is very much in the background. At this time, Bobby has graduated from Oxford & become a novelist. While visiting his family home, he discovers a dead body during an early morning round of golf - and a beautiful girl too.

I don't want to say more as it is impossible to go on without spoilers. Bobby is shaping up into a good replacement protagonist for his father!

[Sharon]

A body in the sand bunker. A disappearing woman. Slang so archaic I can't understand it. Love at first sight. Improbable espionage and plots that strain credulity. Damn, I love Michael Innes.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bobby Appleby rather wishes his father were there when he finds a dead body in the golf club bunker during a solo early morning round. Then a rather beautiful girl appears, and when she--and the body--disappear, Bobby thinks he'd rather like to see her again. And, oh, yes, find the body before people think that he's seeing things. And that's how a charming, if slightly egotistical, young man becomes involved in espionage at his old prep school. Sir John doesn't have to take too much of a hand to help his son, who gets his own help in unexpected ways.

[Zoeb · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first Michael Innes thriller, inspired by a recommendation of the author from Graham Greene himself, proved to be a rather witty, reasonably well-plotted and often startlingly funny murder mystery. It is not perfect and feels a little half-baked in the end but Innes is able to subvert and even gently parody the very tropes of both murder mysteries and espionage thrillers in one smooth and sly cocktail of both the genres. The writing is almost Wodehouse-like in its punchy precision and what is most admirable is how lightly, irreverently but confidently does the author steer the improbable narrative into an audacious but entertaining Buchan-like climax.

[SB · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5⭐️

[Mark]

Gave up about 40 pages in. Turgid writing and unsympathetic characters.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a typical John Appleby book, in the sense that he appears mainly in the role of a concerned father. It is, in fact, his son, Bobby, who becomes involved in a mystery when an early morning round of golf leads him to the discovery of a dead body. Before he can gather his thoughts, including a vague feeling that the victim's hand, which is missing a finger, is familiar to him, a pretty girl appears and urges him to call the police. When Bobby returns to the golf bunker with the police in tow, both body and girl have disappeared, and the sand has been neatly raked around his golf ball.

This makes Bobby, if not a suspect, at least someone who is getting caught in the police machinery. So he sets out to do a spot of independent investigating, including a return to his prep school, where he remembers a teacher with one finger missing. From then on, we find ourselves in the usual Innes universe of strange encounters, implausible coincidences, and literature-quoting eccentrics. I often find myself googling quotes while reading Michael Innes, and it makes me feel very poorly educated !

This is more a thriller, or an espionage novel, than a mystery or police procedural. I enjoyed it, but less than most Michael Innes novels. Perhaps that's because this book, from 1971, reflects a very different Zeitgeist than the earlier novels from the post-WWII period.

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A young man finds a corpse lying beside his golf ball in the bunker one morning. While he inspects the situation, he notes that the man seems to have been shot in the head and is missing the first finger on his right hand. A 'girl' appears - we don't know her age, but she is smoking. She agrees to go to the nearest people in view, while he goes to phone the police. When the young man returns with police, nobody is in sight, not even the dead man.
The first comment by the police sergeant is that missing the first finger was a common injury at the time, as it got soldiers out of the war. He doesn't quite say it was the trigger finger and could have been self-inflicted, but it's clear.
Our young man is the son of a retired DI, and this gives him some credibility and sticking power. He questions people at his former school, where he knew someone missing a finger. The small boys are all made to quote Latin and the master extracts a cheque for a fiver from the former pupil. We're told novelist William Golding "could really 'do' children." Not any you'd want to read about, in my view.
I guess this is a portrait of the times, among a certain class. It's entirely male oriented and seems to belong to an earlier period. Women generally provide food. But in this story, one young woman plays a much greater role towards the end, so it gets an extra star.

[Nancy Thormann · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was the most incredibly unbelievable spy story I've ever read. There's a Russian spy ring that's connected with a boy's prep school in England. Even more incredible is that the boys at the school know that there's a Russian spy ring but the adults are oblivious to it.

I have to admit that by the time I got to page 32 I was ready to stop reading the book, but I decided to slog through it anyway. The style of writing is not my style. There were a few points in the book where the characters took so long to explain something that I was ready to crawl into the book and tell the characters to s**t or get off the pot. They took five or six pages to say something when one or two would have done.

I won't be reading another Michael Innes book.

[Chad D · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my read-through of Innes years ago, I'd marked this as one to come back to, then the other week had a chance to buy it, then looked at the reviews on Goodreads and saw that they were disproportionately low.

But, no worries. There's a lot of pleasure here.

Yes, the plot is full of coincidence. But I think that's because Innes likes to think in set pieces. He's willing to sacrifice plausible cause-and-effect sequence if he can pull off a big set piece.

Like a dude golfing in the morning, finding a dead body in a bunker, seeing the girl of his dreams come over the hill, going off to alert the authorities, and returning to find body and girl vanished.

[Lila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although a John Appleby mystery, this is mostly about his son's encounter with spying activity at his old school. Featuring lots of British atmosphere and language, this is an enjoyable light read.

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog here in November 2000.

An Awkward Lie is more of a thriller than a detective story. It is very short, and contains one memorable piece of deduction and one memorable joke. The central character is Bobby Appleby, Sir John's son who has both won a cap for the England rugby team and written an intellectual "anti-novel" - an unusual combination. He is playing a round of golf, or, rather, intending to do so, when on the bunker near the first hole, he sees a corpse. Upon investigation, he meets a pretty woman apparently taking a walk, and goes to call the police while she stays with the body, an elderly man with a missing finger whom Bobby almost immediately identifies as one of the teachers from his prep school from long ago. However, when he returns with the police (having waited at the callbox for them, per their instructions), the body has gone, the bunker has been raked back to a pristine condition, and the woman has disappeared. All that remains is Bobby's golfball and, as the policeman remarks, this leaves him in an awkward lie. (This is, of course, the joke.)

The deduction works out the reason why the body should be left somewhere where it would obviously be discovered, but then be taken away as soon as the discovery takes place. This piece of cleverness, which I suspect was the first aspect of the novel to occur to Innes, is all that is needed to work out what has been going on, before the abrupt ending kicks in.

Though really a thriller masquerading as a crime novel, An Awkward Lie is not paced very well; it suddenly picks up near the end. Interesting, but not one of Innes' best.