Old Hall New Hall

by Michael Innes, Richard Pearce (Reader)

The forbears of Sir John Jory, of New Hall, would seem to have committed several foul acts, including tomb-robbery and murder. Old Hall, the family's former residence, is now a University. Biographer Colin Clout, engaged to write an account of one of Jory's ancestors, gets caught up in a frenzied treasure hunt as rival interests and rival claimants probe the past and naked greed comes to the fore.

Genres: Mystery

MP3 CD

First published January 1, 1956

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 2 out of 5]

Colin Clout has returned to his alma mater in search of job. Not that one has been advertised, he's just sure that one will magically open up for him. And, lo and behold, it does. He maneuvers his way into the Shufflebotham Fellowship--the only requirement of which is to take on a few students in a subject called "Higher Literary Form" and to write a biography of a subject that will be given to him after acceptance. It winds up that he is appointed to write the biography of Sir Joscelyn Jory (circa early-mid 1800s), of the Jories from whom the buildings for the university had been purchased. Clout doesn't expect the research to be riveting (but then neither does expect it to be too onerous). But...

It seems that Sir Joscelyn and his brother Edward had gotten themselves into an epic wager. Joscelyn was an amateur archaeologist in a way--digging up things to bring home. He had designed a mausoleum which was to serve as sort of museum for his collection. Edward was a collector of sorts as well--a collector of feminine beauty all round the world. Friends of the brothers had egged them on in a wager where each brother was to produce the finest specimen from their collection that they could and Sir James Dangerfield (first of the friends) was to judge whose was better. Joscelyn was supposed to have produced a fabulous treasure and Edward a beauty like never seen before. But odd things happened, a swap was supposed to have taken place, and, to cut a long story short, the treasures disappeared. So...

Instead of biographical research, Clout, the Jories, various academics and hangers-on are all on a hunt for the fabulous treasure. Clout thinks he's working with Olivia Jory (descende, a lovely young woman whom he met on his first day back and with whom he's fallen in love. He has a rival in George Lumb, another academic type who had also wanted the Sufflebotham position. There's an American academic wandering in and out of the picture. Professor Gingrass, the man who hired Clout, wants to find the treasure for the prestige. The Jories want to find it--but the question is whose descendants should get to have it? Joscelyn's--because he produced it--or Edward's--because of the rumored swap? Soon the entire grounds are riddled with holes as Professor Gingrass arms the undergraduates with picks and shovels and a mandate to find the treasure!

This is not, in my opinion, one of Innes's successes. There is too much build-up to the action (such as it is). It takes way too long to get to the treasure-hunting and even then the hunt isn't particularly exciting. There's a bunch of digging, but the actual discovery of the treasures takes place completely off-stage. He makes an effort at academic satire, but it doesn't really come off. The writing is dense and convoluted--the only defense of it could be that he was making fun of dense, convoluted academic writing but it doesn't really approach good parody. He has done much better with his commentary on academic life in The Weight of the Evidence, Death at the President's Lodgings, and to a certain extent The Open House (which does odd and elliptical rather well).

Optional reasons for my lack of enthusiasm for this particular Innes academic-oriented "mystery." Possible spoilers ahead....

1. This is Innes as his most whimsical and elliptical and I just wasn't in the mood. Or I'm getting too old for this nonsense.*
2. I've just gotten tired of Innes's whimsy and elliptical style.
3. The plot doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
4. There really isn't much of a mystery here and, though deaths are mentioned, there are no murders. And...it's really obvious that the "villain" of the piece is really the "villain" of the piece. (Quotes because even the villain isn't really all that villainous.)
5. Clout, Lumb, Olivia, and Sadie (our main four) are all pretty annoying people.
6. The "twist" regarding one of the treasures was heavily telegraphed...I'm surprised that Clout was surprised.
*7. Nonsense alert...Clout and Lumb's rivalry is meant, I think, to be funny. Looking at it from this side of fifty, I'm appalled at how quickly they adjust their sights from one young woman to the next. If I'm Sadie, I certainly wouldn't be flattered.
8. All I could think about when Clout met Olivia and immediately fell in love with her while sheltering her under his umbrella was the song "Bus Stop" by the Hollies. "Bus stop, bus goes, she stays, love grows under my umbrella." Except it didn't--love didn't grow, not matter how much Clout deluded himself about Olivia's interest in him.

I've given it two stars...but it's possible I'm being generous.

First posted on my blog

[Candy Wood]

If this hadn’t been brought out by Penguin Crime, I might have thought it was meant to be one of the social commentary novels J.I.M. Stewart published under his own name instead of the Michael Innes pseudonym. Not only is it not about Inspector Appleby, it barely has any crime unless we count the strange doings at Old Hall in the past century. The US title, A Question of Queens, must have seemed quite misleading to any Americans who might have read it. We have some mostly stereotypical academics (the American one is a bore who keeps explaining English society to the English and says “I guess”), a treasure hunt, references to class differences, and too much of which young man will get which girl. Entertaining, but far from my favorite of the Innes books.

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

'New Hall Old Hall', a 1950's story by mystery/crime writer Michael Innes was a struggle. The author's propensity for difficult and tortuously long words and constant literary allusions make it hard going for the modern reader. It was a complicated plot concerning hidden treasure but didn't get going for almost three-quarters of the way through as Innes takes his time in setting the scene and all the characters - none of whom was particularly noteworthy. And for all the literary high-handedness and word play, it was fairly easy to pick the solution and which characters were on the level and which ones weren't in the final mad dash for the 'treasure'.

[Avril · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of fun. Not one of his murder mysteries; a treasure hunt and academic satire. The middle section contains three fabulous letters, ostensibly written in the early years of Victoria’s reign, although they read a little ‘Regency’ to me - Jane Austen or Georgette Heyer.

[Simon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Utter bilge.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm still reading more Michael Innes because I've not completely come to a decision about whether or not I like his writing. He definitely is a "wordy" writer, which kind of puts me off a bit. However, I've been listening to audiobooks only (so far) and it may just be the pace of the narrator and perhaps, for me, because seeing something in print sticks in my cognisance better than hearing all the words go by.

This is an interesting mystery, but there are no police nor professional or amateur detectives involved. It involves several people trying to discover what happened in events quite some time in the past in relationship to a particular family - the residents of Old Hall. Old Hall is no longer a residence, but has become a school. As in a couple of other Michael Innes books I've listened to, there is a sense of the English university setting such as Oxford or Cambridge, but only sketchily so in this book. There are also some potential romantic relationship that do not move along as one might expect. That is a little disconcerting, but keeps one reading to find out how that turns out.

[David Lowther · Rating 2 out of 5]

Old Hall, New Hall was as dull as ditch water. I remember reading some excellent Michael Innes thrillers years ago but this was not one of them.

The plot was inconsequential, the characters boring and the dialogue colourless.

I will try another Michael Innes sometime in the future.

David Lowther. Author of The Blue Pencil, Two Families at War and Liberating Belsen, all published by Sacristy Press.

[Rog Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

The edition I read was simply titled "Old Hall, New Hall" and was originally published in 1956. I had read many of the author's books in the late 1970s and early 1980s but this is the first time I have read this one. (Yet again my memory let me down as I had actually read it before in 1980.) It's a well written, witty story with some bizarre characters but is not one of the author's better books.