While Sir John and Lady Appleby are walking back to her uncle's along a canal path, they find a body in one of the locks, with its head bashed in. The victim had only just returned after 15 years in America, so who would want to murder him and why?

The Ravens can always be counted on to lend even more whimsy and lunacy to the proceedings. ( )

Hard not to love an archetypal English countryside mystery first published 1962, that has a homage to Tom Lehrer in it.

'A piano, you idiot?....I'm not expecting a piano. What should I want a piano for? To play myself to sleep with Mozart and that crowd?' Channing-Kennedy gave a short, sharp bellow of laughter on this, so that one had to suppose he considered it a considerable witticism.

It is undeniable that the story line is thin - a fan tells me that is often the case - but it isn't why you read an Innes. You read it to share his lighthearted love of language, the fun he has with it, the droll wit. It's so jolly English, what.

I complained in my review of Donleavy recently that he is frequently described as having a staccato style, which I think is predicated on a misunderstanding of how he writes, perhaps because Donleavy himself played the master of the manor. But here Innes captures exactly that staccato upper class English way, that inability to construct sentences. Having read these books back to back it really struck me, the contrast between this, and the dreamy melodic nature of Donleavy's prose.

rest here: https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2020/01/10/a-connoisseurs-case-by-mi... ( )

Hard not to love an archetypal English countryside mystery first published 1962, that has a homage to Tom Lehrer in it.

'A piano, you idiot?....I'm not expecting a piano. What should I want a piano for? To play myself to sleep with Mozart and that crowd?' Channing-Kennedy gave a short, sharp bellow of laughter on this, so that one had to suppose he considered it a considerable witticism.

It is undeniable that the story line is thin - a fan tells me that is often the case - but it isn't why you read an Innes. You read it to share his lighthearted love of language, the fun he has with it, the droll wit. It's so jolly English, what.

I complained in my review of Donleavy recently that he is frequently described as having a staccato style, which I think is predicated on a misunderstanding of how he writes, perhaps because Donleavy himself played the master of the manor. But here Innes captures exactly that staccato upper class English way, that inability to construct sentences. Having read these books back to back it really struck me, the contrast between this, and the dreamy melodic nature of Donleavy's prose.

rest here: https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2020/01/10/a-connoisseurs-case-by-mi... ( )

Traditional English cozy mystery, following the "busman's holiday" template. John and Judith Appleby are in the country, and meet a slightly eccentric elder gentleman who has just returned after decades abroad. A few hours later they find his body in an out of use canal. The primary suspects are at the Scroop house, but approximately have the book passes in hearing various people talk about the history of the house before they actually go there. While there's the classic "gather all the suspects together" to wrap things up, this is more uncovering of the story than detection and puzzle solving.

The denouement was a bit too flip about death for my liking, but overall an enjoyable few hours of reading. ( )

Middle-of-the-road potboiler from Innes this time, with a decent twist. ( )