English Mysteries Club discussion

Here is the thread to discuss anything you like about Michael Innes and his books. Our member John will be hosting this thread :)

(If you're going into specifics about a plot though, please use spoiler tags!)

I have read all the Appleby books I own but there are still 5-10 that I have yet to read. Unfortunately they disappeared from Hoopla where I had been borrowing them but I have discovered that Open Library has several.

I have read one book by this author- Death at the President's Lodging. I enjoyed it.

Rita, I hadn't heard of a lot of authors until I joined goodreads in 2016.

I thought that the first several books in the series were done in the style of other famous books (whether in satire or homage I leave to you!). Here is a link to my review of the second book (no spoilers):

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Hello, all, I'm the John referred to in Jean's first post in this thread. I have, over the years, managed to acquire hard copies of all Michael Innes' detective books, so I have them all to refer to. I've read all of them at least twice, and the best ones three or four times.

I'll try to drip feed information, without getting too boring, I hope.

Putting Innes in context, knowing that the re-launch has talked about the Golden Age, this abridged info is from Wikipedia:

Many of the authors of the Golden Age were British: Margery Allingham (1904–1966), Sir Henry Aubrey-Fletcher (1887-1969), Anthony Berkeley (aka Francis Iles, 1893–1971), G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), Dame Agatha Christie (1890–1976), Freeman Wills Crofts (1879–1957), R. Austin Freeman (1862–1943), Joseph Jefferson Farjeon (1883–1955), Michael Innes (1906–1993), Msgr. Ronald Knox (1888-1957), E.C.R. Lorac (1894-1958), Philip MacDonald (1900–1980), John Rhode (1884-1964), Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957), Josephine Tey (1896–1952), Anne Hocking (1890–1966), Edmund Crispin (1921-1978), Cyril Hare (1900-1958), Nicholas Blake (1904-1972) and many more.

Dame Ngaio Marsh (1895–1982), was a New Zealander but was also British, as was her detective Roderick Alleyn. Georges Simenon was from Belgium and wrote in French; his detective, Jules Maigret, was a Frenchman.

The Queens of Crime is a term for authors Christie, Sayers, Allingham and Marsh.

So, Michael Innes was later on the scene than the Golden Age heavyweights.

His first book, Death At The President's Lodging, was in 1936, by which time -

Agatha Christie had published 20 novels, Dorothy Sayers 14, Margery Allingham 7, and Ngaio Marsh 4.

Thanks John. This list is in the "What is a Mystery" thread, but it's good to have a recap., especially with so many new members :) And to put him in context.

I can't remember if/when I read anything by Michael Innes. Was he drantised at all, do you know? He's such a familiar name ...

Lesley's point about homage or satire is well-taken. Maybe amused homage from a 'superior' intellectual standpoint - more of that later.

Anyway,

Between 1936 and 1986, Michael Innes, published nearly fifty crime novels and short story collections, which he later described as "entertainments". These abound in literary allusions and in what critics have variously described as "mischievous wit", "exuberant fancy" and a "tongue-in-cheek propensity" for intriguing turns of phrase.

The best-known of Innes's detective creations is Sir John Appleby, who is introduced in Death at the President's Lodging, in which he is a Detective Inspector at Scotland Yard.

Appleby features in many of the later novels and short stories, in the course of which he rises to become Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

Other novels feature portrait painter and Royal Academician, Charles Honeybath, an amateur but nonetheless effective sleuth.

The two detectives meet in Appleby and Honeybath. Some of the later stories feature Appleby's son Bobby as sleuth.

Last thing today.

The first book, Death At The President's Lodging is a classic locked room whodunnit.

Inspector Appleby is called to St Anthony's College, where the President has been murdered in his Lodging. Scandal abounds when it becomes clear that the only people with any motive to murder him are the only people who had the opportunity - because the President's Lodging opens off Orchard Ground, which is locked at night, and only the Fellows of the College have keys.

There are seven suspects, and the book includes a map of the college showing quadrangles, studies doors and gates.

The murder is impossible!!

I haven't read any of the Honeybath books - perhaps a project for next year ;)

I did read The Case of the Journeying Boy which is a stand-alone book. Though that was more of a thriller/suspense/adventure story than a mystery as I recall...

Jean,

Christmas at Candleshoe was made into a terrible jokey film Candleshoe, nothing like the book, in 1977. A good cast, though: Jodie Foster, David Niven, Leo McKern, Helen Hayes.

Rita, yes, Seven Suspects in the USA

Leslie, yes, as you said earlier, Innes tries/parodies, or whatever, many genres. The Appleby ones are certainly the best, but many of those have the madcap if erudite adventure feel, as you know.

I tend to group Innes and Crispin together in my mind because of that erudite style and the dry wit is present in both of their books. But Innes wrote a lot more books and played around with his style much more.

John wrote: "Jean,

Christmas at Candleshoe was made into a terrible jokey film Candleshoe, nothing like the book, in 1977..."

I shall avoid it! Thank you for the warning John.

I'm loving this thread, by the way. It's really making me want to read Michael Innes!

Leslie, yes Innes and Crispin have a niche of there own. I could easily see the plot of Crispin's The Moving Toyshop as the basis for an Innes novel.

Jean, thank you.

Such a shame when good actors/actresses disappear in a stinker!

But at least all those are household names.

A bit more information about Michael Innes, showing us, perhaps how his erudite and often fantastical whodunnits came about. He really wasn't Michael Innes at all!

'John Innes Mackintosh Stewart HFRSE (30 September 1906 – 12 November 1994) was a Scottish novelist and academic. He is equally well known for the works of literary criticism and contemporary novels published under his real name and for the crime fiction published under the pseudonym of Michael Innes. Many devotees of the Innes books were unaware of his other "identity", and vice versa.

Stewart was born in Edinburgh, the son of Elizabeth (Eliza) Jane (née Clark) and John Stewart of Nairn. His father was a lawyer and later the Director of Education for the City of Edinburgh.

Stewart was educated at Edinburgh Academy from 1913 to 1924 and then studied English literature at Oriel College, Oxford, graduating BA in 1928. At Oxford he was presented with the Matthew Arnold Memorial Prize and was named a Bishop Frazer's scholar. Using this, in 1929 he went to Vienna to study psychoanalysis. He was lecturer in English at the University of Leeds from 1930 to 1935 and then became Jury Professor of English in the University of Adelaide, South Australia.[1]

In 1932 he married Margaret Hardwick (d.1979).

He returned to the United Kingdom to become Lecturer in English at the Queen's University of Belfast from 1946 to 1948. In 1949 he became a Student (equivalent of Fellow in other Oxford colleges) of Christ Church, Oxford. By the time of his retirement in 1973, he was a professor of the university.

In 1990 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He died at Coulsdon in south London on 12 November 1994.

Stewart wrote several critical studies, including full-length studies of James Joyce, Joseph Conrad, Thomas Love Peacock and Thomas Hardy, as well as many novels and short stories. His last publication was his autobiography Myself and Michael Innes (1987).

It is said that Innes wrote his first Appleby whodunnit to pass the journey while on the ship from England to Australia to take up his Adelaide professorship!

And more about Innes' detective, with a defective timeline!

Sir John Appleby is a fictional detective created by Michael Innes in the 1930s who appeared in many novels and short stories.

Appleby had perhaps the longest career of any of the great detectives. In Silence Observed he states that his age is fifty-three, which, if the action of the book takes place in the year of publication, would mean that he was born in 1907 or 1908. This is contradicted in The Gay Phoenix where he says that he was twenty-nine when he married. He becomes engaged in Appleby's End, published 1945, which would mean that he was born in 1916.

He was born in Kirkby Overblow (as mentioned in Hare Sitting Up) and brought up in a back street in a Midland town (Appleby's Other Story). His grandfather had been a baker and he himself had won a scholarship to university (There Came Both Mist and Snow).

He first appeared as a youthful Detective Inspector from Scotland Yard in Death at the President's Lodging (Seven Suspects in the United States) in 1936. He retired from Scotland Yard at a very early age just after World War II, on marrying Judith Raven, a sculptor first encountered in Appleby's End. He had two younger sisters, Patricia (Stop Press) and Jane (Operation Pax), both of whom figure prominently in one novel each and then are never mentioned again.

He then reappeared as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, a position rewarded by a knighthood. Although he later retired to Long Dream Manor, his wife's family home in the countryside, he continued to solve crimes well into the 1980s, his last appearance being in Appleby and the Ospreys in 1986, 50 years after his fictional debut. For a couple of the later tales his son Bobby serves as the chief protagonist.

In 2010, eighteen previously uncollected short stories appeared in Appleby Talks About Crime.

Appleby is mentioned in the Edmund Crispin novel Holy Disorders and the Isaac Asimov Union Club short story "The Three Goblets."

Oh my, he's Scottish?! With English, Australian and Irish connections? And what a mystery about his timeline. You're doing us proud here John!

I think Michael Innes was the writer who got me hooked on GA detectives, when I was in my teens. I love the flippant-but-erudite style, which he shares with my other favourites. The best Applebys for me are Hamlet, Revenge! and Appleby's End - the quality can be a bit patchy, but there are still lots of good books. I also used to enjoy his other books, the Duncan Patullo ones.

GCat,

I couldn’t agree more with your choices, and I love your summary of Innes’s work as ‘flippant-but-erudite.’

Hamlet, Revenge was the first I bought, as a teenager, and I’ve been hooked ever since. It was a shame to see the length and subtlety of the books reduce in later years, presumably as Innes aged, but they were still very enjoyable to the last, in my opinion.

Here is a list of the Innes books, with and without Appleby:

As Michael Innes

John Appleby series Novels

Death at the President's Lodging (1936) (also known as Seven Suspects)
Hamlet, Revenge! (1937)
Lament for a Maker (1938)
Stop Press (1939) (also known as The Spider Strikes)
The Secret Vanguard (1940)
There Came Both Mist and Snow (1940) (also known as A Comedy of Terrors)
Appleby on Ararat (1941)
The Daffodil Affair (1942)
The Weight of the Evidence (1943)
Appleby's End (1945)
A Night of Errors (1947)
Operation Pax (1951) (also known as The Paper Thunderbolt)
A Private View (1952) (also known as One-Man Show and Murder Is an Art)
Appleby Plays Chicken (1956) (also known as Death on a Quiet Day)
The Long Farewell (1958)
Hare Sitting Up (1959)
Silence Observed (1961)
A Connoisseur's Case (1962) (also known as The Crabtree Affair)
Appleby Intervenes (omnibus volume, 1965, containing One-Man Show, A Comedy of Terrors, The Secret Vanguard)
The Bloody Wood (1966)
Appleby at Allington (1968) (also known as Death by Water)
A Family Affair (1969) (also known as Picture of Guilt)
Death at the Chase (1970)
An Awkward Lie (1971), ISBN 0-396-06345-4
The Open House (1972), ISBN 0-396-06524-4
Appleby's Answer (1973), ISBN 0-396-06744-1
Appleby's Other Story (1974), ISBN 0-396-06715-8
The Gay Phoenix (1976), ISBN 0-396-07442-1
The Ampersand Papers (1978), ISBN 0-396-07663-7
Sheiks and Adders (1982), ISBN 0-396-08063-4
Appleby and Honeybath (1983), ISBN 0-396-08247-5
Carson's Conspiracy (1984), ISBN 0-396-08395-1
Appleby and the Ospreys (1986), ISBN 0-396-08950-X

Short story collections

Appleby Talking (1954) (also known as Dead Man's Shoes)
Appleby Talks Again (1956)
The Appleby File (1975), ISBN 0-396-07279-8
Appleby Talks About Crime (Crippen & Landru, 2010), ISBN 978-1-932009-91-0

Other

What Happened at Hazelwood (1946)
From London Far (1946) (also known as The Unsuspected Chasm)
The Journeying Boy (1949)
Christmas at Candleshoe (1953) (also known as Candleshoe)
The Man from the Sea (1955) (also known as Death by Moonlight)
Old Hall, New Hall (1956) (also known as A Question of Queens)
The New Sonia Wayward (1960) (also known as The Case of Sonia Wayward)
Money from Holme (1964)
A Change of Heir (1966)
The Mysterious Commission (1974), ISBN 0-396-07134-1
Honeybath's Haven (1977), ISBN 0-396-07555-X
Going It Alone (1980), ISBN 0-396-07819-2
Lord Mullion's Secret (1981), ISBN 0-396-08005-7

Christmas at Candleshoe was the basis for the 1977 film Candleshoe starring Jodie Foster, Helen Hayes and David Niven.

Wow! He really write a lot. Do you have a favourite, John? Or maybe a few? You're doing us proud with all the info here :)

Could anyone recommend a "first novel" to read by Michael Innes? And are they better read in order?

Like so many series, those towards the end run out of steam.

And sometimes series get off to a slow start. Not so with the Appleby series.

Off to a brilliant start. And although they are all stand-alone, Appleby ages, marries, has children, one of whom plays large roles later on.

So, I would definitely start with the first two.

Death At The President’s Lodging (1936) is a closed college murder whodunnit. Possibly a bit mechanical, but brilliant.

Hamlet, Revenge (1937) is the first of Innes’ really fantastical and whimsical whodunnits.

Other brilliant ones are:

Appleby’s End (1945) - possibly the best, as Appleby takes a railway journey to a station called Appleby’s End, and meets an extraordinary range of characters, many from one family, and then In the end .... [but I can’t tell you!]

Operation Pax (1951)

And many more!

Thank you John! I'll definitely look out for Death at the President's Lodging and Hamlet, Revenge! (that one does sound particularly intriguing!)

👍

Just a word of warning Jean - though it might not be needed - I loved Hamlet, Revenge! but found the Scots dialect a difficult struggle for a lot of the book. But I have trouble with most written attempts of dialect (including some of Dickens - I'm glaring at you, Hard Times!).

Nevermind! I went back and looked at my reviews of the first few Innes books and see that I was thinking of the 3rd book, Lament for a Maker! That one reminded me a lot of Wilkie Collins and, despite my trouble with the dialect, was a wonderful book.