Appleby's Other Story

Sir John Appleby #28

by Michael Innes

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, flirtatious, younger wife of the deceased; Egon Raffaello, disreputable art dealer; and the prodigal son, Mark Tytherton, who has just returned from Argentina. Could the death be linked to the robbery of some paintings several years ago?

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Audiobook

Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

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

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sir John Appleby may have retired as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police but that doesn't mean he doesn't still get pulled into mysteries now and again. When his friend Colonel Pride, a local Chief Constable, invites Appleby to join him in a visit to Elvedon Court, he suspects that Pride is angling to get him to look into a little matter of art theft which occurred two years ago. After all, Appleby has had a bit of success in that area. But he isn't expecting to find the courtyard full of police cars when they arrive.

It seems that Maurice Tytherton, the owner of Elvedon Court, has been shot in cold blood right in front of his prize Goya. Appleby is inclined to let the local constabulary get on with the job despite Pride's invitation to take a hand, but then he spies an old acquaintance among the house guests--one Egon Raffaello, well-known shady art dealer. And his curiosity gets the better of him. Perhaps Tytherton's death has something to do with paintings. If so, how does the two-year old theft figure in the picture?

Of course, there are other motives lurking about as well. Tytherton's son Mark, who has been in Argentina for years, has just returned home in time to have an argument with his father. Mark's cousin Archie Tytherton also had a huge quarrel with his uncle the evening of the murder and there are rumors that the elder Tytherton had mentioned changing his will--an intention he was prevented from making a fact. The house is also full of people with all sorts of sexual motives from Maurice's disappointed "lady friend" to his wife's lover to his wife herself. In addition, there's Ramsdon the overly efficient secretary and Miss Kentwell who claims to be on the hunt for charitable donations, but whom Appleby suspects of being a hunter of a different sort. The place is absolutely bulging with suspects--even the butler may have done it.

The mystery is slight and the investigation is done almost entirely through conversation, but the characters are memorable--especially Mark Tytherton, Raffaello, and the Catmulls (our butler and cook). There is also a rather ingenious alibi method that when broken manages to explain how a man could be dead before he was found to be dead. It all makes for an entertaining and enjoyable read. ★★★ and 1/2.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of the review. Thanks.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

A good country house murder mystery with retired Appleby still on the top of his form.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Retired Sir John Appleby is brought by the Chief Constable to meet Maurice Tytherton, only to find that he'd been murdered the night before. Appleby is positive that he won't get involved in this case, but then he meets Maurice's son, returned unexpectedly from the Argentine, and realizes that he's already interested in the case. Drat! Almost the whole small houseparty has a reason to kill Maurice, and so do the inhabitants of the house, including his disaffected second wife and his possibly corrupt butler. Naturally, Appleby wraps the matter up in time to go home to sleep in his own bed that night.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

The retired police detective John Appleby is lured by his old friend Tommy Pride, now the local Chief Constable, to visit the stately home Elvedon Court, ostensibly just for a social visit but in fact in connection with the theft of some of the house's paintings a few years back. When the pair get there, however, it's to discover that the owner, Maurice Tytherton, has been murdered. Pride ropes Appleby in to perform a kind of informal investigation of the case, paralleling that of the cops.

It proves that Elvedon Court is a bit of a hotbed (geddit?) of fornication and adultery, and it seems possible the motive for the killing was a sexual one. Then again, it could have been financial: despite outward appearances, Tytherton and the estate were in pretty poor financial shape. There are so many cross-currents among the occupants of the house that literally everyone there, even the butler and the cook, is a potential suspect. There's also a sort of locked-room mystery to be solved, the lock in this case being not a physical but a chronological one.

Innes was an Oxford Eng Lit don, real name J.I.M. Stewart; in days of yore I tried a couple of the non-crime novels he published under his own name, and got nowhere with them. A lot of people have a similar difficulty with his Innes novels -- the prose tends to the orotund, and all the characters talk as if they were, well, Oxford dons -- but I've found the effort of persevering with the books well rewarded. The mysteries are usually good ones, and there are moments of laugh-aloud humor. Here's just a very brief example of the orotundity:

It was certainly noon. The fact had been signalized at some middle distance by the unassuming chime of a stable clock.

Nothing so simple as, say,

The stable clock struck noon.

This novel, one of the later volumes in the Appleby series, is a fairly slight affair. The solution to the quasi-locked-room mystery is extremely clever, and I couldn't help grinning toward the end as I realized quite how skilfully Innes had misled me with various red herrings. All in all, a very enjoyable read, but not a novel that will stick long in the mind.

[Miss Lemon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Right up there with any of the English cozy manor house murder plots. Just discovered Sir John so need to back up and find some of his early successes in tracking down the damnable bad guy/gal. No really intricate plot twists but plenty of suspects and marvelous characters and conversations. Do try.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This late entry to the Appleby series compares poorly with earlier works in the series, but there are still some good parts. The plot is fairly slight, the detecting is sketchy, and most of the book consists of lengthy conversations, so it's quite a heavy-going read. But it's worth persevering for the occasional wry observation. I especially like Innes' tongue-in-cheek comments about the upper classes. When Appleby expresses sympathy to the lady who first discovers the body, she responds "...it was most distressing. It is probably best that dead bodies should be found by servants. They are less sensitive, and therefore less easily upset." And later, when Appleby comments that the house party (one of whom must be the murderer) were listening to pop music on the evening of the murder, 'The Chief Constable made an expressive gesture. "A thoroughly rackety crowd. Ashamed, my dear John, that I thought of introducing you to them." ' It's a funny old world when one is more ashamed of someone listening to pop music than of murdering their host!!!

If you're new to Innes' work, don't start here, but keen fans will probably enjoy this swan song.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

"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, flirtatious, younger wife of the deceased; Egon Raffaello, disreputable art dealer; and the prodigal son, Mark Tytherton, who has just returned from Argentina. Could the death be linked to the robbery of some paintings several years ago?"

Michael Innes always creates a suitably difficult murder, and then has Sir John Appleby wandering through the scene, picking up small clues here, nuances there, undiscovered secrets behind closed doors, etc. This book was no different: an easy and enjoyable read, murder in a country house and a plethora of dubious characters to choose from.

[Alistair Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty average detective novel. I enjoyed the authors early Inspector Appleby (Sir John as he became) tales but the later novels tend to be shorter and looser. There are a few cleverish plot devices here and it's a decent story but not particularly memorable or even overly enjoyable. Distinctly average

[Jeff Keehr · Rating 3 out of 5]

A seedy aristocrat, Maurice Tytherton, gets murdered and Sir John Appleby is on hand to unravel the crime. Written when Innes was 68 years old. A good read but not nearly dramatic enough for me. 12-22-95

[Ann Repetto · Rating 2 out of 5]

First I've read of this series so don't know if it's typical. the resolution was crazy.

[Sara Aye Moung · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. Good puzzle and as usual good storytelling and characters

[Littlelixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

These books are amazingly wordy with double negatives aplenty and sentences that seem to strangle themselves and leave you gasping for breath. Despite that the story is good and the characters are well described.

One final thing - You'll only understand the title when you get to the end...