Stop Press by Michael Innes

[Susan]

First published in 1939, this is the fourth in the Sir John Appleby series.

Richard Eliot has written bestselling crime novels for years. Begun as means to fund his son’s education at Eton, his protagonist 'the Spider' started out as a cunning criminal and later evolved into an ingenious investigator. Despite the series success, Mr Eliot is tiring of his own invention and is looking forward to retiring. But there’s someone out there who doesn’t want him to stop…

When Eliot’s manuscripts start rewriting themselves overnight, it seems the Spider has stepped right off the page and into real life. He commits a crime only to provide an anonymous tip to solve the case. Things get even more bizarre when the Spider starts enacting plots that only ever existed in the author’s mind. Harangued within an inch of his sanity, Eliot calls in Inspector John Appleby to get to the bottom of this twisted game.

With the line between fact and fiction so tangled, will Appleby be able to unravel the mystery before the Spider strikes again?

Please do not post spoilers in this thread. Thank you.

[Judy]

Just opening up this thread - who is reading this one? I have now finished it - it is rather long and I can't say it was really to my taste, but certainly an intriguing idea, with the fictional hero apparently coming to life!

[Abigail]

I am planning to read it. I thought I had a complete set of Michael Innes, but this is one I never heard of or possessed! So at a minimum it will be a curiosity for me.

[Jill]

The plot was good, being a non-murder mystery, but I find this author rambles so much. This made for a long read which was really too long to really hold my attention. I'm pretty much glad it is over, although I have learnt some new words. I still think his first was the best.
The characters in this book were quite a mixture, but not very likable so I did find myself not bothered about the outcome

[Judy]

I will be interested to hear what you think, Abigail.

I've just remembered seeing a mention that it does have an alternative title, The Spider Strikes, so might be worth checking you don't have that one - but I think that was only the title for the first US editions.

[Judy]

Jill wrote: "The plot was good, being a non-murder mystery, but I find this author rambles so much. This made for a long read which was really too long to really hold my attention. I'm pretty much glad it is ov..."

I agree about the rambling - I really felt it needed a good editor, as I was enjoying the witty conversations to start with, but there were just so many of them and they don't really move the story forward. I also agree about the main plot being good though.

[Abigail]

Omigod I am only up to chapter 2 but am ravished and elated over this book. It weds the Michael Innes focus on criminal psychology to the type of style the author indulges when writing under his real name, J. I. M. Stewart. That the subject is his beloved Oxford (at least in the beginning) makes it all the richer.

I should enter the caveat that I love writing that makes me pant to keep up. Also the caveat that J. I. M. Stewart is my favorite author.

But really, how could I not want to bathe in his gush of glorious verbiage? He opens chapter 2 by dashing off a little snatch go Gerard Manley Hopkins-esque pseudopoetry: "Oxford--adorable dreamer, cuckoo-echoing, bell-swarmed, lark-charmed, rook-racked, river-rounded--Oxford shivered, lurched, disintegrated into the fluidity of parallax." I am seduced!

I do get that many readers, especially those seeking a murder mystery, might not be. It's clearly a book that will demand time, space, and focus, and not just offer a puzzle to be solved. But I think fans of psychological insight will also enjoy the pleasures of the author's gift for close observation of the minute negotiations that fill every moment of human interaction.

Yoicks! I'm off and away!

[Judy]

Glad you are enjoying it, Abigail. I actually really liked the start, but then found it was too much all on one note for me - endless long and repetitive discussions.

I do like that quote you have picked out from chapter 2, though. Hope you continue to love it!

[Abigail]

I am at 32 percent and our detective has come on the scene. Enjoying how alive he is to all the shades of manner, manners, and ideas swirling around him. Mrs. Module is an interesting character, but I am focusing pretty much on Mr. Wedge. Innes keeps describing him in terms that reveal he is playing a part, or a false part. Thinking he might be the perp, for motives of ginning up sensational publicity. It's clear he knows his golden goose is not going to lay any more eggs--he even has a few authors lined up to pick up where Eliot leaves off.

Also enjoying all the young people, Toplady being my favorite.

[Judy]

I found it quite hard to keep track of the characters because there were so many of them.

On Toplady, I was interested that it is mentioned quite early on that Timmy is in love with him. Although this is clearly a fleeting attraction and the relationship doesn't develop, I feel it could have been daring even to mention it at this period?

[Abigail]

I don't think romantic or sexual love was intended. My sense is that Timmy is viewed as being still quite immature and at the age of getting same-sex crushes, adoring older men who seem to "have it together." Under this scenario, it's Toplady's confident sense of propriety that Timmy loves. He seems simultaneously not averse to negotiating feelings about Patricia, though she is evidently more adult than he in the sexual-feelings regard.

I would say that the very boldness of Innes's language in the matter argues for the innocence of his meaning. At the same time, there seems to have been a widespread view among British upper-crusters that a little same-sex activity in prep school, with the older students using the younger, was not abnormal and did not preclude heterosexuality when one matured; so you never know!

By the way,a I appreciate your taking the trouble to respond to my ravings! I believe I'm the only reader out there, after you plowed nobly through the book in preparation.

[Rosina]

I am not reading Stop Press at the moment, although I have re-read (re-listened to) it recently. As I have it as an audio book, it's difficult to join the discussion, since I can't back up my comments by checking the book. Usually I'm OK with this - I still have a good memory for plots and characters - but Stop Press contains too many characters, and too many plots for me to be happy with making comments blind.

I agree that I don't think Innes means us to read Timmy as gay, but I wonder if there was a 'trend' at Oxford, among the bright young things, for adopting gayness (as it wasn't called then) and magnifying admiration into crushes, and crushes into love.

(I think that view of adolescent same-sex activity refers to public schools, rather than prep schools, which only take boys until they are 13/14 - preparing them for the public school entrance exams.)

[Abigail]

That's what I was thinking of, Rosina, the public schools such as Eton and Harrow et al., but I didn't use the term because of it meaning something different in the USA.

I totally get hesitation to discuss the characters and events from memory! It is definitely a complex story. I am reading on Kindle but have ordered a paper copy because I try to have a complete set of Michael Innes/J. I. M. Stewart novels. I thought I already did until this group read came along and I learned of the existence of this book!

[Judy]

Thanks for your responses, Abigail and Rosina. Jill also read the book, so there are a few of us! I agree that Timmy doesn't seem to have serious feelings for Hugo, more of a crush. I thought this might be explored more, but it quickly faces into the background as he becomes more interested in Patricia.

[Jill]

I did indeed, struggle through this book, but I suppose because it didn't appeal to me, I tend to have dismissed it in eagerness of getting to a book that was more entertaining. I have to admit, after so much of the author's rambling, I just want to get it over and get to the punch line so to speak.

[Abigail]

I think a lot of people feel that way about this author, Jill! I'm just weird and enjoy all the havering and divagations (and love being exposed to words I've never heard before). I guess I love his books for all the reasons that make them less-than-ideal mysteries.

I think he got more terse (though never terse in an absolute sense) and plot-driven as the years went by. Many later Applebys are quite short!

[Abigail]

At 60percent and wondering: is the secretary really dead? That would certainly make all simple.

[Judy]

I was interested to read that the author studied psychology in Vienna. There’s certainly a lot of psychological speculation in this novel.