A boy and his tutor on a journey, suddenly there are spies and villains as the plot takes on a more sinister appearance. This is yet another good mystery from the pen of Michael Innes. ( )

This was a slow-burn story for sure. First published in 1949, this is a contemporary novel about the son of an eminent physicist who is sent off to Ireland for a holiday. He and his tutor run into danger at just about every turn and have to rely on their wits to get through. It’s heavy going because Innes wields a very precise vocabulary and many of the words he chooses are not in common use today. The sentence structure is also ponderous, especially in the beginning. But like the tutor, Mr Thewless, the writing style loosens up and even becomes quite funny by the end of the book.

Most of the book ends up getting this a 4, but I’ve knocked off half a star for the scene where Mr Thewless encounters a train car full of circus performers; the othering and fatphobic inner monologue made me cringe. So would I recommend this book? With caution. ( )

variable.

could have been much shorter

much unexplained eg the train accident

started this mid last year but put it aside

but it bugged me that it had good reviews so had to go back and finish it

Big ship ( )

(read as part of my "Michael Innes Treasury")

One of the things I like about (most) Innes' mysteries is his writing style. It won't appeal to everyone but I enjoy the way he uses language. In the first chapter, for example, Mr. Threwless is examining Sir Bernard Paxton's library and thinks of the furniture as covered in "horripilant velvet" -- I was unfamiliar with the word and could have passed it by assuming it was a fancy way of saying 'horrid' but decided to look up the word. The Merriam Webster online dictionary gave me this:

horripilation: a bristling of the hair of the head or body (as from disease, terror, or chilliness); goose bumps

What a great description of some types of velvet. And no wonder Mr. Threwless couldn't bring himself to sit on it!

I also enjoy the way Innes slyly pokes fun at himself & others who write mysteries and thrillers:
At one point on the train to Ireland, when Mr. Threwless is becoming suspicious of people & events that had occurred, there is this passage:

"Mr. Threwless halted, amazed at himself. He never read gangster stories. He never even read that milder sensational fiction, nicely top-dressed with a compost of literature and the arts, which is the produced by idle persons living in colleges and rectories."

Some readers might find that the "real plot" doesn't get going until the second half of the book (in which Threwless and his pupil Humphrey have some exciting adventures reminiscent of John Buchan's Richard Hannay) but I thought that the struggle Mr. Threwless undergoes during the train trip (deciding if Humphrey is an imposter or is mad or is just what he seems) fascinating. As much as I read suspense novels, I am sure that I would react in a very similar way if I was actually confronted by such a situation. ( )

Richard Thewless travels to Ireland with Humphrey Paxton, son of Sir Bernard Paxton, Britain's leading nuclear physicist. He was second choice as the tutor for the boy, the first choice having been shot in a cinema. Can Inspector Cadover identify the corpse before Humphrey is kidnapped?

Lots of twists and turns in this combination of thriller and detective fiction. ( )