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What happened at Hazelwood
The Simney family, of Hazlewood Hall, have a dubious history. Sir George Simney, who was travelling 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 responsible. This is an absorbing tale narrated by Simney's widow, Nicolette, and by young Harold, who has just joined the C.I.D.
191 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1946
About the author
Michael Innes
130 books91 followersMichael 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 13, 2020
Lady Simney, who writes the first and last parts of this story, assures us that she did not murder her husband, loathsome though she found him. The writer of the middle part, Harold, Inspector Cadover's assistant, is of the same opinion, although he's afraid it's wishful thinking. Lady Simney is very attractive, and most of the other Simneys are--not. George Simney, the bad baronet, has been found, as is traditional, in his study, during a snowstorm, stone dead. And who can put the pieces together to find out just what happened in what should have been an empty room? A passing mention of Gilbert and Sullivan gets Cadover part-way there.
June 24, 2023
"The end of Sir George Simney was sudden, unaccountable and violent. He himself, moreover, must have found its approach extremely surprising, since the features of the corpse displayed that expression of astounded and incredulous terror only assumed by persons who see they are about to be murdered in the most pronouncedly bizarre way.
"In fact this bad baronet died true to the conditions of his kind -- mysteriously in his library, at midnight, while a great deal of snow was falling outside."
~~back cover
With a candlestick? Or a lead pipe?
This book was rather a disappointment, in that the end was ridiculously complex, involving several people, some of them not who they purported to be, or thought they were. And in fact, having finished the book last night, this morning I cannot remember who the killer was. Or killers were.
"In fact this bad baronet died true to the conditions of his kind -- mysteriously in his library, at midnight, while a great deal of snow was falling outside."
~~back cover
With a candlestick? Or a lead pipe?
This book was rather a disappointment, in that the end was ridiculously complex, involving several people, some of them not who they purported to be, or thought they were. And in fact, having finished the book last night, this morning I cannot remember who the killer was. Or killers were.
March 4, 2017
Only Innes can conjure up such make-belief and make it convincing.
"Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss..."
First Line: Nobody could have predicted just what has happened at Hazelwood, and at the moment it appears as if nobody can elucidate it either.
Pages: 237
Source: Open Library
"Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss..."
First Line: Nobody could have predicted just what has happened at Hazelwood, and at the moment it appears as if nobody can elucidate it either.
Pages: 237
Source: Open Library
January 9, 2017
I was reducing our library the other day, picking books to give to the local library book sale, and came across this one and realized I had never read it. It turned out to be a "keeper," a clever, elegantly written and intelligent mystery. No, the new character, Detective Inspector Cadover, does not have the flair of Innes' previous character, Appleby, but he has a few quirks and is generally one step ahead of the reader.
This book is strikingly similar to Ngaio Marsh's "Final Curtain," also written in the 1940's, which I happened to read a couple of weeks ago. In each case, a country manor is filled with the numerous offspring of the patriarch and some of their offspring, and each family member is more unlikable then the next (though, if it is possible, even more so here!). Harold, Cadover's young partner, is nowhere near as compelling as Alleyn's Fox in the Marsh series, but he has some charm and narrates about half the story.
You can tell the author's educational pedigree ("Michael Innes" is a nom de plume). The story is replete with cultural references from the interesting to the obscure (try "Cuvier's feather," which even Wikipedia did not explain, though Innes does a hundred pages after the phrase initially appears).
The plot is wonderfully inventive. The story is meticulously crafted and generally hangs together well. You can almost guess who dunnit, except for a significant clue which I either missed as I read it or only appears in the final chapters. How it was done is memorably unique in mystery fiction.
This book is strikingly similar to Ngaio Marsh's "Final Curtain," also written in the 1940's, which I happened to read a couple of weeks ago. In each case, a country manor is filled with the numerous offspring of the patriarch and some of their offspring, and each family member is more unlikable then the next (though, if it is possible, even more so here!). Harold, Cadover's young partner, is nowhere near as compelling as Alleyn's Fox in the Marsh series, but he has some charm and narrates about half the story.
You can tell the author's educational pedigree ("Michael Innes" is a nom de plume). The story is replete with cultural references from the interesting to the obscure (try "Cuvier's feather," which even Wikipedia did not explain, though Innes does a hundred pages after the phrase initially appears).
The plot is wonderfully inventive. The story is meticulously crafted and generally hangs together well. You can almost guess who dunnit, except for a significant clue which I either missed as I read it or only appears in the final chapters. How it was done is memorably unique in mystery fiction.
August 13, 2025
Summary: The master of Hazelwood Hall is murdered shortly after Australian relatives join a manor of people who hate him.
What Happened at Hazelwood is Michael Innes’ version of a country manor murder mystery. One of the unusual features is that the story is narrate by two narrators in three parts. Firstly, Lady Simney, the unhappy actress wife of the murdered Sir George Simney narrates events up to the murder. Then the assistant of Inspector Cadover (no Appleby!) narrates their investigation. Finally, Lady Simney narrates the denouement, an ending that surprises her as well as many readers.
Sir George Simney is the master of Hazelwood Hall, the ancestral country seat of the Simney’s. Sir George is not well-liked and the household an unhappy one. As a young man, he ventured to Australia, surviving an accident killing his brother Denzell, pulling off a swindle of relatives known as the Dismal Swamp affair, and landing back in England as Lord of the manor. His butler Alfred Owden has a son, Timmy, who looks like a Simney. A widowed sister, Lucy, has a son, Mervyn, who could be a twin of Timmy. There is also an unmarried sister Grace, who in cohoots with the local vicar, wants to stamp out sin in the manor. A younger brother, Bevis is also visiting, with his artist son Willoughby.
A fight breaks out among them at dinner, only to be interrupted by the arrival of Australian relatives. Hippias Simney is accompanied by his son Gerard and Gerard’s wife, Joyleen, who subsequently has a flirtation with George. Immediately, a quarrel breaks out about the Dismal Swamp. And later that night, an encounter with the guests results in Albert dropping a tray full of crystal.
Without going into all the doings of the next unhappy day, the household turns in on a snowy night. Then Alfred enters Sir George’s library, bring refreshment as he is accustomed to do when he discovers Sir George dead from a blow to the back of the head. There is a look of surprise and terror on the dead man’s face.
Cadover’s assistant then picks up the narrative. He renders the account of the household’s whereabouts and movements. There are tracks in the snow to explain as well as a pair of boots in Sir George’s safe (and nothing else). The arrival of an old flame of Lady Simney’s in town adds another wrinkle. The problem is, while there are a lot of subjects, the evidence on hand does not clearly point at any of them.
Lady Simney narrates the final part. One more person dies. Timmy reads a letter. Cadover unravels the manner of Simney’s death. All of this is full of surprises for the readers, and for some of the characters.
This book was uncharacteristic for those of Innes I have read. He takes a long time to unfold the plot. I found implausible a number of elements. The change of narrators seemed a bit clumsy. Yet I liked the conclusion. But it just seemed that the plot to get there was not as elegant as other Innes books.
What Happened at Hazelwood is Michael Innes’ version of a country manor murder mystery. One of the unusual features is that the story is narrate by two narrators in three parts. Firstly, Lady Simney, the unhappy actress wife of the murdered Sir George Simney narrates events up to the murder. Then the assistant of Inspector Cadover (no Appleby!) narrates their investigation. Finally, Lady Simney narrates the denouement, an ending that surprises her as well as many readers.
Sir George Simney is the master of Hazelwood Hall, the ancestral country seat of the Simney’s. Sir George is not well-liked and the household an unhappy one. As a young man, he ventured to Australia, surviving an accident killing his brother Denzell, pulling off a swindle of relatives known as the Dismal Swamp affair, and landing back in England as Lord of the manor. His butler Alfred Owden has a son, Timmy, who looks like a Simney. A widowed sister, Lucy, has a son, Mervyn, who could be a twin of Timmy. There is also an unmarried sister Grace, who in cohoots with the local vicar, wants to stamp out sin in the manor. A younger brother, Bevis is also visiting, with his artist son Willoughby.
A fight breaks out among them at dinner, only to be interrupted by the arrival of Australian relatives. Hippias Simney is accompanied by his son Gerard and Gerard’s wife, Joyleen, who subsequently has a flirtation with George. Immediately, a quarrel breaks out about the Dismal Swamp. And later that night, an encounter with the guests results in Albert dropping a tray full of crystal.
Without going into all the doings of the next unhappy day, the household turns in on a snowy night. Then Alfred enters Sir George’s library, bring refreshment as he is accustomed to do when he discovers Sir George dead from a blow to the back of the head. There is a look of surprise and terror on the dead man’s face.
Cadover’s assistant then picks up the narrative. He renders the account of the household’s whereabouts and movements. There are tracks in the snow to explain as well as a pair of boots in Sir George’s safe (and nothing else). The arrival of an old flame of Lady Simney’s in town adds another wrinkle. The problem is, while there are a lot of subjects, the evidence on hand does not clearly point at any of them.
Lady Simney narrates the final part. One more person dies. Timmy reads a letter. Cadover unravels the manner of Simney’s death. All of this is full of surprises for the readers, and for some of the characters.
This book was uncharacteristic for those of Innes I have read. He takes a long time to unfold the plot. I found implausible a number of elements. The change of narrators seemed a bit clumsy. Yet I liked the conclusion. But it just seemed that the plot to get there was not as elegant as other Innes books.
January 5, 2021
Mind boggling! This somewhat humorous country house crime novel kept me guessing until the end. It was a sort of cross between Wodehouse, Christie and good old British farce, with people climbing up and down trellises, posing as other characters, dressing up, making hoax phone calls and generally causing confusion and provoking moral outrage. When I started reading, I was surprised that the author and book weren’t better known, but it appears that this is less well known than his Appleby series of crime novels. Perhaps one of the reasons for this is the fact that this story has particularly non-PC aspects. The brothers George and Denzell Simney had been on youthful ‘blackbirding’ raids in Pacific islands, i.e. they had been involved in small-scale slave-trading, though I’m not entirely sure where this was supposed to have taken place and exactly what it involved. As a result, they were on the run from the Australian authorities, but seemingly more so because one of them had shot at an anthropologist, not for the slaving raids themselves. Though this was used as one of the many examples of their appalling behaviour, there isn’t much moral outrage about these exploits. As for the language, not only is there the ‘blackbirding’ itself, but ‘the N word’ is also used. What is more, Mervyn is described as an effete mummy’s boy, Willoughby has aspersions cast upon his manliness as he is an artist and another character has had extensive psychotherapy to cure him of his aversion to marrying his beautiful fiancée Nicolette, a woman every other male character finds totally irresistible. This is definitely not a novel that translates well into 21st century sensibilities. The story, however, does stand the test of time and could be filmed as an entertaining period piece, bar the racism and homophobia.
April 23, 2023
I love Michael Innes! Especially his more farcially written mysteries. You don't read them for the plot--as here, labyrinthine--but who cares, really? It's all about the language and characters. A sample: Nicolette, the wife of the victim (the repellent George), in her report on the crime, addresses the reader:
"But this fracas in George's study mustn't raise false hopes. We haven't yet reached the main action of the piece. There will be no corpse available for your inspection, Gentle Reader, until you have struggled on some way ahead....
"If George was no fool, he certain was no student either, and there seemed small reason why he should have a study any more than a smith or a laboratory or a consulting room. Tradition of course, decrees something of the sort. A baronet must have a library, a study and a gun-room just as certainly as his wife must have a drawing-room and a boudoir. These necessities are mysterious--a boudoir means, it appears, a room to be sulky in, and why should the over-privileged have particular need of that?--but there seems to be no harm in them."
Innes wears his erudition on his sleeve, throwing out literary and historical references, which we sometime encounter through the other narrator, the detective's assistant Harold--who is pretty perceptive and educated in his own right, but who also has to look things up. It's all very silly and very entertaining.
"But this fracas in George's study mustn't raise false hopes. We haven't yet reached the main action of the piece. There will be no corpse available for your inspection, Gentle Reader, until you have struggled on some way ahead....
"If George was no fool, he certain was no student either, and there seemed small reason why he should have a study any more than a smith or a laboratory or a consulting room. Tradition of course, decrees something of the sort. A baronet must have a library, a study and a gun-room just as certainly as his wife must have a drawing-room and a boudoir. These necessities are mysterious--a boudoir means, it appears, a room to be sulky in, and why should the over-privileged have particular need of that?--but there seems to be no harm in them."
Innes wears his erudition on his sleeve, throwing out literary and historical references, which we sometime encounter through the other narrator, the detective's assistant Harold--who is pretty perceptive and educated in his own right, but who also has to look things up. It's all very silly and very entertaining.
May 13, 2023
Wow. Sometimes Michael Innes writes charming little escapist puzzles; sometimes he writes archly-clever allusively-parodic and -satiric tours de force. This is one of them there, with a couple of less-than-convincing, less-than-reliable narrators narrating a locked-room mystery (of sorts) to end them all. If you can stand the revelations of the last thirty pages and deal with the truly awful people involved, you may like it a lot. I personally think it has arch-poisoning, but I can’t deny that the first part drew me in good, and kept me reading.
July 14, 2023
A warning: one of the characters uses the n word. The narrator does point out that this character and his opinions are awful - but just to let you know. Apart from that a good book to pass the time. Not as good as the last one by this author that I read. Two separate narrators which got a bit confusing so that I kept thinking narrator 2 was talking in the last section when they had gone back to narrator 1.
January 19, 2019
A bit too wordy. At times it seems like someone is writing a paper not how a person thinks in their own head, which is the pov of the book (2 different characters). However, there are some great sentences.
There are surprises and plenty of suspects in this mystery. The end surprised me.
There are surprises and plenty of suspects in this mystery. The end surprised me.
Want to Read
December 23, 2019Synopsis: Sir George Simney sleeps with a shotgun by his side. When he is found dead, Reverend Deamer vows to discover who is responsible.
September 30, 2020
Gripping and page-turning, but peopled with the most disreputable group of characters I've read for some time.
July 24, 2024
Unusual and intriguing.
October 15, 2023
Hazelwood is your standard country house in a murder mystery. Chock full of nasty characters--most of whom are related to Sir George Simney, the particularly despicable lord of the manor. Sir George has quite a reputation for despoiling the local ladies and he treats his family abominably. Including those born on the wrong side of the blanket. The unsettled household is even more unsettled when relatives from Australia show up announced--suddenly there are more shouting matches than usual and Owden the butler seems to have developed a habit of dropping cut glass decanters and wine glasses at the most inopportune moments.
When Sir George is found murdered--his head bashed in from behind--no one is really surprised.
In fact, this bad baronet has died true to the condition of his kind--mysteriously, in his library, at midnight, while a great deal of snow was falling in the park outside.
What is baffling is who could have done it? The door to the library was under observation during the relevant period and, though there are footprints leading to the trellis by which someone has obviously climbed to the library window, it appears that no one who conceivably has a motive could have gotten to the trellis. But Inspector Cadover and his sidekick Harold (who if he got a rank and last name, I completely missed it), are on the job and soon discover all sorts of goings on that some might have killed to keep covered up. There's blackmail. And evil deeds in the past. And a case of misappropriated identity. And...if the Reverend Deamer is to be believed a visitation from the Devil himself. Cadover is going to have to sort out who's who if he's going to find out whodunnit.
It seems to me that Innes was having a grand old time with a send up of Golden Age mysteries. He takes the standard country house mystery and gives it all kinds of little twists. Cadover is an over-the-top clever copper who constantly says that he sees things, can't believe that Harold doesn't see them too, and then, of course, won't tell us what he sees. He plays things closer to his chest than Holmes at his most inscrutable. We also have a play on the locked room mystery as well as the idea of identity. And, of course, we have the final wrap-up scene where Cadover goes through all the different scenarios of who could have done it and why before the solution is finally revealed.
I have to say that this is a mixed bag for me--I thoroughly enjoyed Harold's narration of the second part of the story and many of his comments on both the Simney family and his boss Inspector Cadover. And I thought the basic premise of the sleight-of-hand with identity was good. But I found the solution to be overly complicated and unrealistic--involving more people than necessary in a rather bizarre turn of events. And yet I did enjoy myself--Innes's sense of fun must have spilled over. A solid, middle-of-the-road read for me.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
When Sir George is found murdered--his head bashed in from behind--no one is really surprised.
In fact, this bad baronet has died true to the condition of his kind--mysteriously, in his library, at midnight, while a great deal of snow was falling in the park outside.
What is baffling is who could have done it? The door to the library was under observation during the relevant period and, though there are footprints leading to the trellis by which someone has obviously climbed to the library window, it appears that no one who conceivably has a motive could have gotten to the trellis. But Inspector Cadover and his sidekick Harold (who if he got a rank and last name, I completely missed it), are on the job and soon discover all sorts of goings on that some might have killed to keep covered up. There's blackmail. And evil deeds in the past. And a case of misappropriated identity. And...if the Reverend Deamer is to be believed a visitation from the Devil himself. Cadover is going to have to sort out who's who if he's going to find out whodunnit.
It seems to me that Innes was having a grand old time with a send up of Golden Age mysteries. He takes the standard country house mystery and gives it all kinds of little twists. Cadover is an over-the-top clever copper who constantly says that he sees things, can't believe that Harold doesn't see them too, and then, of course, won't tell us what he sees. He plays things closer to his chest than Holmes at his most inscrutable. We also have a play on the locked room mystery as well as the idea of identity. And, of course, we have the final wrap-up scene where Cadover goes through all the different scenarios of who could have done it and why before the solution is finally revealed.
I have to say that this is a mixed bag for me--I thoroughly enjoyed Harold's narration of the second part of the story and many of his comments on both the Simney family and his boss Inspector Cadover. And I thought the basic premise of the sleight-of-hand with identity was good. But I found the solution to be overly complicated and unrealistic--involving more people than necessary in a rather bizarre turn of events. And yet I did enjoy myself--Innes's sense of fun must have spilled over. A solid, middle-of-the-road read for me.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
May 14, 2012
This isn't an Appleby mystery (although the detective is referenced; I suspect he has recently retired when this story picks up), but I'm glad I read this lighthearted who-done-it. The story is narrated by a first-person tag-team of the young widow, Lady Simney (a former actress who is the first to admit that her in-laws are "dubious") and the assistant police detective, Harold (a Watson type [without a Sherlock] who's writing a letter to his father and has quite a crush on the pretty Lady Simney).
The story, which takes place at Hazelwood, the late Baron's estate, is full of Australian relatives, suspected former pirates, anxious pastors, and illegitimate sons, all of whom add a nice mix of crazy flavor. It kept me guessing until the last page and solid in my admiration of Michael Innes.
The story, which takes place at Hazelwood, the late Baron's estate, is full of Australian relatives, suspected former pirates, anxious pastors, and illegitimate sons, all of whom add a nice mix of crazy flavor. It kept me guessing until the last page and solid in my admiration of Michael Innes.
January 14, 2013
I always enjoy Michael Innes, but I had a bit of a surprise here. I’d plucked this off the shelf more or less at random, thinking it had been too long since I’d read an Appleby mystery—only to find that Appleby wasn’t in it at all (apart from two or three remarks such as “the best since Appleby’s time”). Nonetheless I thought it was a good story. And (I was very pleased about this) instead of being five steps behind the police as I usually am, I was only two steps—or even sometimes just half a step—behind. And when I was truly gobsmacked by a twist in the plot the police were just as gobsmacked. Revelation after revelation until at the end we find out that…
Well that would be a spoiler, wouldn’t it?
Well that would be a spoiler, wouldn’t it?
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews