Appleby and the Ospreys [Hardcover]

Michael Innes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1987

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.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Esteemed British scholar J. I. M. Stewart writes his witty, ingenious mysteries as Innes, whose indefatigable sleuth is Sir John Appleby. Although retired, Appleby immerses himself in the murder of Lord Oliver Osprey, as requested by the victim's widow. The detective and his wife had met weekend guests at the Ospreys' splendid county home, where a bat infestation was deplored by Miss Minnychip and other Dickensian types. Uninterested in the flying rodents, Appleby concentrates on Osprey's valuable coin collection, missing after his fatal stabbing. Questioning Mr. Broadwater, Lady Osprey's brother, saturnine son Adrian and all those present, the detective has definite suspicions but no solid evidence. It's a surprise to him when the pesky bats play a stunning role, confirming his intuitions and trapping the criminal.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Born in Edinburgh in 1906, the son of the city's Director of Education, John Innes Mackintosh Stewart wrote a highly successful series of mystery stories under the pseudonym Michael Innes. Innes was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, where he was presented with the Matthew Arnold Memorial Prize and named a Bishop Frazer's scholar. After graduation he went to Vienna, to study Freudian psychoanalysis for a year and following his first book, an edition of Florio's translation of Montaigne, was offered a lectureship at the University of Leeds. In 1932 he married Margaret Hardwick, a doctor, and they subsequently had five children including Angus, also a novelist. The year 1936 saw Innes as Professor of English at the University of Adelaide, during which tenure he wrote his first mystery story, 'Death at the President's Lodging'. With his second, 'Hamlet Revenge', Innes firmly established his reputation as a highly entertaining and cultivated writer. After the end of World War II, Innes returned to the UK and spent two years at Queen's University, Belfast where in 1949 he wrote the 'Journeying Boy', a novel notable for the richly comedic use of an Irish setting. He then settled down as a Reader in English Literature at Christ Church, Oxford, from which he retired in 1973. His most famous character is 'John Appleby', who inspired a penchant for donnish detective fiction that lasts to this day. Innes's other well-known character is 'Honeybath', the painter and rather reluctant detective, who first appeared in 1975 in 'The Mysterious Commission'. The last novel, 'Appleby and the Ospreys', was published in 1986, some eight years before his death in 1994. 'A master - he constructs a plot that twists and turns like an electric eel: it gives you shock upon shock and you cannot let go.' - Times Literary Supplement. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 185 pages
• Publisher: Dodd Mead; 1st edition (June 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039608950X
• ISBN-13: 978-0396089506
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,090,428 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bats in the belfry, July 12, 2002

By 

E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Appleby and the Ospreys (Crime, Penguin) (Mass Market Paperback)

In this particular Appleby mystery, Sir John, lately retired from Scotland Yard, is lunching at Clusters, the neighboring Osprey estate. Most of the luncheon chit-chat concerns bats in the church belfry, and the reader is gently introduced to the people who will soon be suspects in the murder of Lord Osprey.

As always with Michael Innes's mysteries, you can enjoy "Appleby and the Ospreys" for its sophisticated, veddy upper-class British dialogue, as well as for the fiendish commission and solution of the murder

H.R.F. Keating in his 1987 book, "Crime & Mystery: the 100 Best Books," says this about our literate ex-Commissioner of New Scotland Yard:

"To Appleby one could well apply the words which Michael Innes, writing under his own name in the novella "The Man Who Wrote Detective Stories," employs to describe that hero: 'He loved tumbling out scraps of poetry from a ragbag collection in his mind - and particularly in absurd and extravagant contexts.' "

Since this is a vintage British manor house mystery, the guests and family of Sir Osprey are in the library drinking sherry when a mysterious shadow is seen on the balcony over the moat. Upon investigation, no one is seen, but the mysterious intruder is remembered when Sir Osprey is found, stabbed to death in his library later that evening.

Appleby soon discovers that many people had a motive for killing the late, unlamented lord. The local publican bursts into the manor and threatens to murder an already-dead Sir Osprey, who he claims had been fooling around with his daughter. There is also a valuable coin collection hidden somewhere within the vast architectural pile of Clusters. Supposedly only Sir Osprey knew its whereabouts, but many of his guests are avid numismatists. Did one of them gain access to the coins, then murder his or her host?

Appleby solves the mystery with his usual wit, ingenuity, and aplomb. The bats come to his aid in a very startling manner upon the discovery of the murderer.

4.0 out of 5 stars Customary Fine Innes, Reader a Bit TOO British, January 12, 2011

By 

drkhimxz (Freehold, NJ, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Appleby and the Ospreys: An Inspector Appleby Mystery (Audible Audio Edition)

Michael Innis's Appleby, now in retirement, engages once again in crime-solving. Witty, literate, decent, in a word, classy. I took to the very British reader immediately; however, as the book went past mid-point his British accent seemed to go to an extreme and my ease of listening ended. Could be my own hearing. At any rate, there was little I could not understand, though the strain of trying to hear, did decrease the pleasure of the last thirty or so minutes. Recommended for anyone who can take the accent in stride.