John Appleby, formerly of Scotland Yard, is traveling through unfamiliar countryside when his car breaks down. After setting off to find an inn and get a place to spend the night, his flashlight dies. He has no choice but to hike along the dirt road hoping to find shelter. He is stunned - literal...
Ralph Dangerfield, an Edwardian playwright who belonged to the smartest young set of his day, kept a scandalous diary recording the intimate details of his own life and those of his friends. After his death, it was believed that his mother had burnt the incriminating evidence, but fifty years lat...
I sometimes forget how strange Michael Innes novels can be--and this is an odd one, definitely a lesser work, but not too bad. The first chapter is perfect--a portrait of a group of people in a cafe on an ocean liner, right before their ship is torpedoed. The group ends up on a tropical island, w...
Colonel Folliot Petticate's predicament begins when his novelist wife, Sonia, drowns during a sailing trip in the English Channel. A dramatic cover-up ensues in a tale full of humor, irony, and devastating suspense.
Sir John Appleby, Inspector at Scotland Yard, is on holiday in Italy and decides to stop in and see an acquaintance who is also abroad. Lewis Packford is a well-known, if flamboyant, Elizabethanscholar with a penchant for quoting Shakespeare at the most interesting moments. Packford often puts ...
A grueling night of shrouded motives and confused identities develops when the last of the Dromios is found murdered, with both of his hands burnt off. He was one of triplets, whose brothers had died in a fire forty years previously. Inspector Appleby wrenches the facts from a melodrama in which ...
Former Scotland Yard detective Sir John Appleby is taking a beach walk near Ampersand castle when a man literally drops dead at his feet. Dr. Sutch, part-time archivist for the penniless Lord Ampersand, has fallen to his death from the rickety external staircase rigged up to allow access to the c...
There are fifteen stories in this compelling collection, including: Poltergeist - when Appleby's wife tells him that her aunt is experiencing trouble with a Poltergeist, he is amused but dismissive, until he discovers that several priceless artefacts have been smashed as a result; A Question of C...
Rather a tiresome man. But it does seem extravagant to propose to murder him. (p. 84)But it begins to look like that may be what is in store for Sir Ambrose Pinkerton in Appleby's Answer by Michael Innes (John Innes MacKintosh [J.I.M.] Stewart; 1973). It all begins with Priscilla Pringle, well-kn...
Charles and Arthur Povey set out on a boating adventure. Charles is the rich brother who can afford to keep a yacht and Arthur is the less affluent brother with the sailing skills. His skills prove useless, however, when they run into a storm which leaves the boat mast-less and one brother dead (...
Every English mansion has a locked room, and Grinton Hall is no exception. The library has hidden doors and passages—and a corpse. But when the corpse goes missing, Sir John Appleby and Charles Honeybath have an even more perplexing case on their hands. Just how did it disappear when the doors an...
When half of the guests at a charity masquerade fˆte at Drool Court turn up dressed as sheiks, it must be more than pure coincidence. One of them is the real thing, however, and Sir John Appleby, master detective, discovers that he is in grave danger. When one of the pseudo-sheiks if murdered, Ap...
When portrait-painter and occasional detective, Charles Honeybath, pays a visit to his old friend Edwin Lightfoot, there are a few surprises in store. Edwin's irksome wife is packing her bags, while Edwin is indulging in an eccentric game of pretence - acting the part of a long-dead petty crimina...
Clusters, a great country house, is troubled by bats, as Lord and Lady Osprey complain to their guests, who include first rate detective, Sir John Appleby. In the matter of bats, Appleby is indifferent, but he is soon faced with a real challenge - the murder of Lord Osprey, stabbed with an ornate...
Appleby's End was the name of the station where Detective Inspector John Appleby got off the train from Scotland Yard. But that was not the only coincidence. Everything that happened from then on related back to stories by Ranulph Raven, Victorian novelist - animals were replaced by marble effigi...
Sir John Appleby dines one evening at Allington Park, the Georgian home of his acquaintance Owain Allington, who is new to the area. His curiosity is aroused when Allington mentions his nephew and heir to the estate, Martin Allington, whose name Appleby recognises. The evening comes to an end but...
Inspector Appleby's aunt is most distressed when her horse, Daffodil - a somewhat half-witted animal with exceptional numerical skills - goes missing from her stable in Harrogate. Meanwhile, Hudspith is hot on the trail of Lucy Rideout, an enigmatic young girl has been whisked away to an unknown ...
Stunning Belrive Priory, consisting of a mansion, park, and medieval ruins, is surrounded by the noise and neon signs of its gaudy neighbors—a cotton mill, a brewery, and a main road. Nevertheless, Arthur Ferryman is pleased to return for a family Christmas, but is shocked to discover that his co...
Portrait painter, Charles Honeybath, is intrigued when he is visited by a mysterious Mr Peach and is commissioned to paint an anonymous, aristocratic sitter, known only as 'Mr X', whom relatives claim is insane. Under cover of night, Honeybath is taken to the house and asked to stay while he comp...
An assorted party of guests have gathered at Charne, home of Charles Martineau and his ailing wife, Grace, including Sir John Appleby and his wife, Judith. Appleby's suspicions are soon aroused with the odd behaviour of Charles, and the curious last request of Grace - who desires that upon her de...
Meteorites fall from the sky, but seldom onto the heads of science dons in redbrick universities; yet this is what happens to Professor Pluckrose of Nestfield University. Inspector Appleby soon discovers that the meteorite was not fresh and that the professor's deckchair had been placed underneat...
Businessman Carl Carson decides to make a dash for South America to escape the economic slump, leaving his home and his barmy wife. But he has a problem: if his company were seen to be drawing in its horns, it wouldn't last a week. His solution is his wife's favorite delusion—an imaginary son, na...
When an American multi-millionaire is keen to buy an Elizabethan manor, she comes up against fierce opposition from a young boy, Jay, and his band of bowmen, who are prepared to defend the manor and its nonagerian owner against all comers. It seems likely that that behind a monumental, seventeent...
During a walk to Elvedon House, palatial home of the Tythertons, Sir John Appleby and Chief Constable Colonel Pride are stunned to find a police van and two cars parked outside. Wealthy Maurice Tytherton has been found shot dead, and Appleby is faced with a number of suspects - Alice Tytherton, f...
Gilbert Averell avoids some of the rigors of taxation by living for part of each year in France, but he is unhappy about the number of weeks he spends away from his native country. So when his look-alike friend, Georges, suggests that they swap passports for a short spell, Gilbert seizes the oppo...
Arbuthnot is paying for a rash decision. He recently married a beautiful but slightly amoral girl whose crazy antics caught his rather cynical professional interest. His wife has taken a lover, Rupert Slade, and Arbuthnot wants nothing more than to see him dead, but the last thing he expected was...
As Meredith, an academic, stands in a Bloomsbury tobacconist waiting for his two ounces of tobacco, he murmurs a verse of “London, a Poem” and is astounded when a trap door opens into the London Catacombs, bringing him face to face with the Horton Venus, by Titian. From then on he is trapped in a...
When a germ-warfare expert goes missing, his twin brother impersonates him as a cover-up, but for how long can this last? Inspector Appleby is sent on a series of wild goose chases, which take him to a preparatory school, to the estate of an eccentric earl, and to a remote Atlantic rock, before a...
When a man swims to shore from a freighter off the Scottish coast, he interrupts a midnight rendezvous between Richard Cranston and Lady Blair. Richard sees an obscure opportunity to regain his honour with the Blair family after he hears the swimmer's incredible tale of espionage, treason and loo...
The Simney family of Hazelwood Hall has a dubious history. Sir George Simney, who was traveling in Australia before the baronetcy fell to him, sleeps with a shotgun by his side. When he is found dead in the library, the Reverend Adrian Deamer will not rest until he has discovered who is responsib...
A two-bit con-man is thrown in at the deep end as a desperate hunt takes place in Oxford in this gripping tale, the thrilling climax of which takes place in the vaults of the Bodleian Library.
George Gadberry, “resting actor,” packs his bags and heads for obscurity when the Tax Inspector beckons. Then he receives a mysterious invitation and a proposition that could lead to enormous riches. Wealthy imbiber, Nicholas Comberford, wants George to impersonate him in order to secure a place ...
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 Groun...
When master sleuth, Appleby, leaps over a stile during a country stroll, he is apprehended by an irate Martyn Ashmore, owner of the land on which Appleby has unwittingly trespassed. But when the misunderstanding is cleared up, eccentric, aged Ashmore reveals that he is in fear for his life. Once ...
Sebastian Holme was a painter who, as the exhibition catalogue recorded, had met a tragic death during a foreign revolution. Art dealer, Braunkopf, has made a small fortune from the exhibition. Unfortunately, Holme turns up at the private view in this fascinating mystery of the art world in which...
Successful minor poet, Philip Ploss, lives a peaceful existence in ideal surroundings, until his life is upset when he hears verses erroneously quoted as his own. Soon afterward, he is found dead in the library with a copy of Dante's Purgatory open before him.
At Mullion Castle, sumptuous stately home, we meet the Earl and his family, who include his delightful daughters, Patty and Boosie, and dotty Great-aunt Camilla. Old school chum, Charles Honeybath, who has been commissioned to paint a portrait of the Earl's wife, finds himself at the helm of a co...
When mad recluse Ranald Guthrie the laird of Erchany, falls from the ramparts of his castle on a wild winter night, Appleby discovers the doom that shrouded his life, and the grim legends of the bleak and nameless hamlets, in a tale that emanates sheer terror and suspense.
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 b...
He had tapped an open packet of cigarettes which the sweating sergeant had inefficiently failed to conceal – with the result that the sergeant, in a great awe, obediently took out a cigarette and lit it. “Excellent,” Appleby said. “Now we’re really making progress. As only...
For the first time since that fatal moment on the beach beneath Dinwiddie, when John Day had risen from the waters to fasten mysteriously upon him like an incubus, his mind was free of any thought of the man from the sea. There was nothing in his head but the girl – whom he had unforgivably let p...
But when he entered the cave he knew at once that this was where the thing must act itself out. It was a cave such as adventure stories own – and must have owned, indeed, from the beginnings of story-telling, so familiar was it, so much part of the already existing furniture of the dreaming or da...
‘The Master has sent him down.’ ‘Good Lord! Rusticated him, do you mean?’ ‘Nothing of the sort. Poor old Paddy is sacked for keeps.’ ‘Whatever for?’ ‘Atrocious immoralities. He was found in the chaplain’s bedroom in the embraces of an enormous Negress. Paddy thought it was a fine and private plac...
There was a corresponding largeness about the tray with glasses and decanters which was being brought in by a parlourmaid. And Bertram Coulson, although he wore a preoccupied air, turned to her disapprovingly. ‘These things are too heavy for you, Jane. You ought not to be single-handed. Where is ...
But I’ve noticed often enough that it isn’t like that with him, really. He begins speculating straight away, if you ask me, and his speculations suggest what facts to hunt for next. You know I always do a bit of serious reading at bedtime, as auntie Flo advised? Well, the other night I was readin...
‘A red-letter day in the history of the parish, that is to say.’ ‘It’s a very good habit,’ Judith Appleby commented, and reached for her visitor’s cup. ‘But, of course, you mustn’t confine yourself to them,’ Appleby said. He had long ago got quite used to backing up his wi...
The voice was coming indistinctly through. ‘Yes,’ said the voice – a pleasant if ordinary voice, perhaps with a shade more of instinctive reasonableness than would be welcome to everybody – ‘yes, I know I’ve promised to come down. But I was thinking of Sunday morning; there’s a good deal of work ...
Both the Chief Constable and Inspector Craig had made remarks preparing Appleby for something of the kind. Of the crisis that had befallen this noble household Lady Grace had more or less taken charge. Her younger sister, Lady Geraldine, was also present. She might have be...
Presumably the reading party had by this time recruited itself after the hazards of the day, and some members of it at least could stand up to a little questioning. Appleby’s own meal had been hasty; there had been, not unnaturally, various local authorities to see; and there had also been certai...
She began with her remaining traveller’s cheques, went on to Italian banknotes, and ended up with small change. Her husband divided his attention between watching this operation tolerantly – Judith was always extremely businesslike on holidays – and surveying the tourists who thronged the Piazza ...