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The Mysterious Commission
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Portrait painter, Charles Honeybath, is intrigued when he is visited by a mysterious Mr Peach and is commissioned to paint an anonymous, aristocratic sitter, known only as 'Mr X', whom relatives claim is insane. Under cover of night, Honeybath is taken to the house and asked to stay while he completes his work; but when he returns to his studio, he discovers that the bank next door has been robbed and that he is under suspicion!
A Private View
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Sir John and Lady Appleby attend a memorial exhibition of the oils, gouaches, collages and trouvailles of artist Gavin Limbert, who was recently found shot, under very suspicious circumstances. As Assistant Commissioner of Police, Sir John is already interested, but he becomes even more intrigued when Limbert's last masterpiece is stolen from the gallery under his very eyes.
Rachel Weeping
Brett Michael Innes
Rachel Weeping is a contemporary drama that explores the theme of motherhood, loss and forgiveness through the experience of three victims of a horrible accident. This job was money. It was the roof over her head. It was what kept her parents alive and what allowed her to remain in South Africa legally. She knew how hard it was to find stable work, especially as a domestic worker when there were ten other women ready and willing to do your job for half the wages. She had seen the trucks at the border post taking illegals back to Mozambique and had heard the stories of the weeks spent in detention centres if you were caught in South Africa without a work visa. She had no choice. Rachel Nyaga, a Mozambican domestic worker living in Johannesburg, is forced to make a life-changing decision after her young daughter dies whilst under the care of her South African employers, Chris and Michelle Jordaan. She can either leave her job and return to poverty stricken Mozambique, losing her...
Going It Alone
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Gilbert Averell avoids some of the rigours of taxation by living for part of each year in France—but he is unhappy about the number of weeks he spends away from his native country. So when his look-alike friend, Georges, suggests that they swap passports for a short spell, Gilbert seizes the opportunity. However, a number of incidents, involving Gilbert's sister and nephew, begin to suggest that Georges's offer was not made out of simple friendship.
Appleby Talks Again
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Ralph Dangerfield, an Edwardian playwright who belonged to the smartest young set of his day, kept a scandalous diary recording the intimate details of his own life and those of his friends. After his death, it was believed that his mother had burnt the incriminating evidence, but fifty years later, a famous collector of literary curiosities claims to have the diary in his possession and threatens to blackmail fashionable London with belated secrets about people now in respectable old age. Sir John Appleby reveals how he uncovered this unscrupulous crime and talks about his key role in seventeen more intriguing cases.
Death At the President's Lodging
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Inspector Appleby is called to St Anthony's College, where the President has been murdered in his Lodging. Scandal abounds when it becomes clear that the only people with any motive to murder him are the only people who had the opportunity - because the President's Lodging opens off Orchard Ground, which is locked at night, and only the Fellows of the College have keys?
Christmas at Candleshoe
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
When an American multi-millionaire is keen to buy an Elizabethan manor, she comes up against fierce opposition from a young boy, Jay, and his band of bowmen, who are prepared to defend the manor and its nonagerian owner against all comers. It seems likely that that behind a monumental, seventeenth-century carving, by the hand of Gerard Christmas, lies a hoard of treasure.
Death at the Chase
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
When master sleuth, Appleby, leaps over a stile during a country stroll, he is apprehended by an irate Martyn Ashmore, owner of the land on which Appleby has unwittingly trespassed. But when the misunderstanding is cleared up, eccentric, aged Ashmore reveals that he is in fear for his life—once every year, someone attempts to murder him. Is it the French Resistance, or a younger Ashmore on the make? When Martyn dies, Appleby sets out to find who exactly is responsible.
Stop Press
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Famous writer, Richard Eliot, has written numerous detective novels, featuring 'The Spider', a daring, clever criminal in earlier books, and an equally canny private investigator in later ones. But when he comes to life - first to burgle an odd neighbour, then to harass the Eliot family, and finally to attend his own 'birthday party' - Inspector John Appleby is sent to investigate.
Appleby at Allington
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Sir John Appleby dines one evening at Allington Park, the Georgian home of his acquaintance Owain Allington, who is new to the area. His curiosity is aroused when Allington mentions his nephew and heir to the estate, Martin Allington, whose name Appleby recognises. The evening comes to an end, but just as Appleby is leaving they find a dead man electrocuted in the son et lumière box which had been installed in the grounds.
Appleby and the Ospreys
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Clusters, a great country house, is troubled by bats, as Lord and Lady Osprey complain to their guests, who include first rate detective, Sir John Appleby. In the matter of bats, Appleby is indifferent, but he is soon faced with a real challenge - the murder of Lord Osprey, stabbed with an ornate dagger in the library.
From London Far
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
As Meredith, an academic, stands in a Bloomsbury tobacconist waiting for his two ounces of tobacco, he murmurs a verse of 'London, a Poem' and is astounded when a trap door opens into the London Catacombs, bringing him face to face with the Horton Venus, by Titian. From then on he is trapped in a maze of the illicit art trade, in the company of the redoubtable Jane Halliwell.
What Happened at Hazelwood?
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
The Simney family, of Hazelwood 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.
The Long Farewell
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Lewis Packford, the great Shakespearean scholar, was thought to have discovered a book annotated by the Bard—but there is no trace of this valuable object when Packford apparently commits suicide. Sir John Appleby finds a mixed bag of suspects at the dead man's house, who might all have a good motive for murder. The scholars and bibliophiles who were present might have been tempted by the precious document in Packford's possession. And Appleby discovers that Packford had two secret marriages, and that both of these women were at the house at the time of his death.
The Journeying Boy
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Humphrey Paxton, the son of one of Britain's leading atomic boffins, has taken to carrying a shotgun to 'shoot plotters and blackmailers and spies'. His new tutor, the plodding Mr Thewless, suggests that Humphrey might be overdoing it somewhat. But when a man is found shot dead at a cinema, Mr Thewless is plunged into a nightmare world of lies, kidnapping and murder—and grave matters of national security.
The Weight of the Evidence
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Meteorites fall from the sky but seldom onto the heads of science dons in redbrick universities; yet this is what happens to Professor Pluckrose of Nestfield University. Inspector Appleby soon discovers that the meteorite was not fresh and that the professor's deckchair had been placed underneath a large, accessible tower—he already knew something of academic jealousies but he was to find out a great deal more
Hare Sitting Up
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
When a germ-warfare expert goes missing, his twin brother impersonates him as a cover-up, but for how long can this last? Inspector Appleby is sent on a series of wild goose chases, which take him to a preparatory school, to the estate of an eccentric earl, and to a remote Atlantic rock, before a truly shocking climax.
The Bloody Wood
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
An assorted party of guests have gathered at Charne, home of Charles Martineau and his ailing wife, Grace, including Sir John Appleby and his wife, Judith. Appleby's suspicions are soon aroused with the odd behaviour of Charles, and the curious last request of Grace, who desires that upon her death Charles marries her favourite niece, Martine. When Charles and Grace die on the same day, foul play is suspected.
A Family Affair
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Over a period of twenty years, a series of highly elaborate art hoaxes have been perpetrated at carefully time intervals, and in each case, the victim has a very good reason for keeping quiet. Inspector Appleby's interest is kindled by an amusing dinner-party anecdote, when he enlists the help of his wife and son, the ensuing investigation is truly a family affair. The scenes shift swiftly between glorious stately homes and the not-so-glorious art gallery of the irrepressibly dubious Hildebert Braunkopf.
The Daffodil Affair
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Inspector Appleby's aunt is most distressed when her horse, Daffodil - a somewhat half-witted animal with exceptional numerical skills - goes missing from her stable in Harrogate. Meanwhile, Hudspith is hot on the trail of Lucy Rideout, an enigmatic young girl has been whisked away to an unknown isle by a mysterious gentleman. And when a house in Bloomsbury, supposedly haunted, also goes missing, the baffled policemen search for a connection. As Appleby and Hudspith trace Daffodil and Lucy, the fragments begin to come together and an extravagant project is uncovered, leading them to South American jungle.
A Connoisseur's Case
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
When John Appleby's wife, Judith, sets eyes on Scroop House, she insists that they introduce themselves to the owners—a suggestion that makes her sometimes reserved husband turn very pale. When Judith hears the village gossip about the grand house, she is even more intrigued; but when a former employee is found dead in the lock of the disused canal, and the immense wealth of Scroop's contents is revealed, Appleby has a gripping investigation on his hands.
The Secret Vanguard
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Successful minor poet, Philip Ploss, lives a peaceful existence in ideal surroundings, until his life is upset when he hears verses erroneously quoted as his own. Soon afterwards, he is found dead in the library with a copy of Dante's Purgatory open before him.
Silence Observed
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Respected Fine Art experts are deceived in one of the most intriguing murder cases Inspector Appleby has ever faced, beginning with Gribble, a collector of forgeries whose latest acquisition is found to be a forged forgery! In the words of Appleby himself: 'Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad. Just a little mad, for a start. Inclined, say, to unreasonable jokes in the course of business. But later—well, very mad indeed.'
Sheiks and Adders
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
When half of the guests at a charity masquerade fête at Drool Court turn up dressed as sheiks, it must be more than pure coincidence. One of them is the real thing, however, and Sir John Appleby, master detective, discovers that he is in grave danger. When one of the pseudo-sheiks if murdered, Appleby finds himself in the midst of an international political crisis.
The Open House
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
When Inspector Appleby's car breaks down on a deserted road one dark night, he happens upon an imposing mansion, whose windows are all illuminated. His sense of curiosity gets the better of him when he discovers that the front door is wide open, and he gets a funny feeling of being watched as he wanders round this splendid house, looking for signs of life. When he finds an elaborate feast laid out, he wonders who is expected?
Lament for a Maker
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
When mad recluse, Ranald Guthrie, the laird of Erchany, falls from the ramparts of his castle on a wild winter night, Appleby discovers the doom that shrouded his life, and the grim legends of the bleak and nameless hamlets, in a tale that emanates sheer terror and suspense.
Appleby's Other Story
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
During a walk to Elvedon House, palatial home of the Tythertons, Sir John Appleby and Chief Constable Colonel Pride are stunned to find a police van and two cars parked outside. Wealthy Maurice Tytherton has been found shot dead, and Appleby is faced with a number of suspects: Alice Tytherton, flirtatious, younger wife of the deceased; Egon Raffaello, disreputable art dealer; and the prodigal son, Mark Tytherton, who has just returned from Argentina. Could the death be linked to the robbery of some paintings several years ago?
Appleby on Ararat
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Inspector Appleby is stranded on a very strange island, with a rather odd bunch of people—too many men, too few women (and one of them too attractive) cause a deal of trouble. But that is nothing compared to later developments, including the body afloat in the water, and the attack by local inhabitants.
Carson's Conspiracy
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Businessman Carl Carson decides to make a dash for South America to escape the economic slump, leaving his home and his barmy wife. But he has a problem—if his company were seen to be drawing in its horns, it wouldn't last a week. His solution is his wife's favourite delusion—an imaginary son, named Robin. Carson plans to stage a fictitious kidnapping—after all, what could be more natural than a father liquidating his assets to pay the ransom demand? Unfortunately, Carson has a rather astute neighbour—Sir John Appleby, ex-Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
Appleby File
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
There are fifteen stories in this compelling collection, including: Poltergeist. When Appleby's wife tells him that her aunt is experiencing trouble with a Poltergeist, he is amused but dismissive, until he discovers that several priceless artefacts have been smashed as a result. In A Question of Confidence Bobby Appleby's friend, Brian Button, is caught up in a scandalous murder in Oxford. Bobby's famous detective father is their first port of call. In The Ascham an abandoned car on a narrow lane intrigues Appleby and his wife, but even more intriguing is the medieval castle they stumble upon.
A Change of Heir
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
George Gadberry, 'resting actor', packs his bags and heads for obscurity when the Tax Inspector beckons. Then he receives a mysterious invitation and a proposition that could lead to enormous riches. Wealthy imbiber, Nicholas Comberford, wants George to impersonate him in order to secure a place in the will of fabulously affluent Great-Aunt Prudence, who lives in a Cistercian monastery and won't allow a single drop of liquor in the place. Gadberry's luck seems to have changed - but at what cost?
Operation Pax
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
A two-bit con-man is thrown in at the deep end as a desperate hunt takes place in Oxford, in this gripping tale the thrilling climax of which takes place in the vaults of the Bodleian Library.
An Awkward Lie
Part #8 of "Inspector Appleby" series by Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Sir John Appleby's son, Bobby, assumes his father's detective role in this baffling crime. When Bobby finds a dead man, in a bunker on a golf course, he notices something rather strange - the first finger of the man's right hand is missing. A young girl approaches the scene and offers to watch the body whilst Bobby goes for help, but when he returns with the police in tow, the body and the girl are missing.
Appleby's Answer
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Author of detective novels, Priscilla Pringle, is pleased to find that she is sharing a railway compartment with a gentleman who happens to be reading one of her books Murder in the Cathedral. He is a military officer, Captain Bulkington, who recognises Miss Pringle and offers her £500 to collaborate on a detective novel. To everyone's surprise, Miss Pringle is rather taken with Captain Bulkington - but is she out of her depth?
Lord Mullion's Secret
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
At Mullion Castle, sumptuous stately home, we meet the Earl and his family, who include his delightful daughters, Patty and Boosie, and dotty Great-aunt Camilla. Old school chum, Charles Honeybath, who has been commissioned to paint a portrait of the Earl's wife, finds himself at the helm of a complex investigation involving ancestral works of art and a young under gardener, Swithin, who seems to possess the family features somewhat strikingly . . .
A Night of Errors
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
A gruelling night of shrouded motives and confused identities develops when the last of the Dromios is found murdered, with both of his hands burnt off. He was one of triplets, whose brothers had died in a fire forty years previously. Inspector Appleby wrenches the facts from a melodrama in which the final solution is written in fire.
Old Hall, New Hall
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
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.
Gay Phoenix
Part #15 of "Inspector Appleby" series by Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
When tycoon, Charles Povey, is killed in a bizarre boating accident, his corrupt, look-alike brother, Arthur, adopts his identity and his financial empire. But the charade becomes complicated when one of Charles's many mistresses sees through the guise and blackmails Arthur. Enter retired detective, Sir John Appleby.
Appleby's End
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Appleby's End was the name of the station where Detective Inspector John Appleby got off the train from Scotland Yard. But that was not the only coincidence. Everything that happened from then on related back to stories by Ranulph Raven, Victorian novelist - animals were replaced by marble effigies, someone received a tombstone telling him when he would die, and a servant was found buried up to his neck in snow, dead. Why did Ranulph Raven's mysterious descendants make such a point of inviting Appleby to spend the night at their house?
Honeybath's Haven
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
When portrait-painter and occasional detective, Charles Honeybath, pays a visit to his old friend Edwin Lightfoot, there are a few surprises in store. Edwin's irksome wife is packing her bags, while Edwin is indulging in an eccentric game of pretence—acting the part of a long-dead petty criminal named Flannel Foot. Days later, when Edwin disappears, Honeybath finds himself with a mystery to solve and some decisions to make about his life—will he be lured by his intended haven?
The New Sonia Wayward
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Colonel Ffolliot Petticate's predicament begins when his novelist wife, Sonia, drowns during a sailing trip in the English Channel. A dramatic cover-up ensues in a tale full of humour, irony and devastating suspense.
Appleby Plays Chicken
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
David was hiking across Dartmoor, pleased to have escaped the oppressively juvenile and sometimes perilous behaviour of his fellow undergraduates. As far as he could tell, he was the only human being for miles - at least, that is what he presumed when he found a dead manon top of the tor.
Appleby And Honeybath
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Every English mansion has a locked room, and Grinton Hall is no exception. The library has hidden doors and passages and a corpse. But when the corpse goes missing, Sir John Appleby and Charles Honeybath have an even more perplexing case on their hands - just how did it disappear when the doors and windows were securely locked? A bevy of helpful houseguests offer endless assistance, but the two detectives suspect that they are concealing vital information. Could the treasures on the library shelves be so valuable that someone would murder for them?
Appleby Talking
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Arbuthnot is paying for a rash decision. He recently married a beautiful but slightly amoral girl whose crazy antics caught his rather cynical professional interest. His wife has taken a lover, Rupert Slade, and Arbuthnot wants nothing more than to see him dead, but the last thing he expected was that he'd walk into his living room and find just that! Inspector Appleby shares the details of this and many other fascinating crimes in this un-missable collection.
The Man from the Sea
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
When a man swims to shore from a freighter off the Scottish coast, he interrupts a midnight rendezvous between Richard Cranston and Lady Blair. Richard sees an obscure opportunity to regain his honour with the Blair family after he hears the swimmer's incredible tale of espionage, treason and looming death. But this mysterious man is not all he seems, and Richard is propelled into life threatening danger.
Ampersand Papers
Part #1 of "Inspector Appleby" series by Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
While Appleby is strolling along a Cornish beach, he narrowly escapes being struck by a body falling down a cliff. The body is that of Dr Sutch, an archivist, and he has fallen from the North Tower of Treskinnick Castle, home of Lord Ampersand. Two possible motivations present themselves to Appleby - the Ampersand gold, treasure from an Armada galleon; and the Ampersand papers, valuable family documents that have associations with Wordsworth and Shelley.
Money from Holme
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Sebastian Holme was a painter who, as the exhibition catalogue recorded, had met a tragic death during a foreign revolution. Art dealer, Braunkopf, has made a small fortune from the exhibition. Unfortunately, Holme turns up at the private view in this fascinating mystery of the art world in which Mervyn Cheel, distinguished critic and pointillist painter, lands in very hot water.
There Came Both Mist and Snow
Michael Innes
Mystery & Thrillers / Biographies & Memoirs
Stunning Belrive Priory, consisting of a mansion, park and medieval ruins, is surrounded by the noise and neon signs of its gaudy neighbours - a cotton-mill, a brewey and a main road. Nevertheless, Arthur Ferryman is pleased to return for a family Christmas, but is shocked to discover that his cousins have taken up a new pastime - pistol-shooting. Inspector Appleby arrives on the scene when one of Ferryman's cousins is found shot dead in the study, in a mystery built on family antagonisms.