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?
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Inspector John Appleby's latest adventure in crime is sure of instant success with fans of the larger hat sizes, especially those who are up on their classic allusions.... You can hardly go wrong if you take this as a scholarly lark with detection in the same vein. Fantastic is the word.”–Weekly Book Review
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Phantasmal boars, hares, cucumbers, and pineapples,
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's End (Hardcover)
Detective Inspector John Appleby loses his heart to Judith Raven in "Appleby's End" (1945) after floating down an icy river on top of a carriage with her, then spending part of the night burrowed together in a haystack. She beguiles him with gothic tales that were written by her Victorian great-uncle, Ranulph--tales that are now seemingly coming true. Marble cows and pigs are being substituted for unsuspecting livestock. Her brother Luke received a personalized tombstone in the mail, with his date of death carved on it. Spot, the horse is found hitched up to the carriage, facing backward. These all seem like minor pranks. Then Judith and John stumble across a dead body buried neck-deep in the snow on their way home from the haystack.Judith, herself a sculptor lives in Long Dream Manor, along with a parcel of eccentric relatives and retainers. This is certainly the perfect set of in-laws for Detective Inspector Appleby, who is sometimes referred to by his colleagues as 'that wayward Appleby.' In fact at one point in this mystery, we find him wistfully thinking, "Would it not be pleasant to retire from the elucidating of crime and give oneself to the creating of unashamed fantasies--in which champion milkers might turn to marble at one's whim..." This is the first of the Appleby mysteries in which the reader is introduced to the Ur-folk. It never fails to astonish me how much information a good author can pack into the monosyllabic expression, 'Ur.' This conversational art reaches its zenith in "Night of Errors" (1948) which is inhabited by a butler by the name of Swindle, whose utterances consist mainly of the croaked "Urrr" sound and displeasing snuffles through his nose. I have to read the Innes novels at least twice before I really understand the plot and the subtleties of conversation, but his mysteries are certainly worth rereading. If you are a fan of the British Golden Age of Mystery, I can almost guarantee that Michael Innes (J.I.M. Stewart) will insinuate himself somewhere near the top of your list of favorite authors.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic British humor of the donnish variety. A masterpiece.,
This review is from: Appleby's End (Inspector Appleby Mysteries) (Paperback)
First of all, the story begins with a train journey. We settle in for a comfortable trip down into the English countryside. But comfortable for whom? Not Inspector Appleby, in a stuffy, frigid carriage littered with Sunday papers (and their lurid contents which bear all too much relevance for the mystery ahead). He muses learnedly of mythological figures such as Persephone, and the more recent legend of Emma Bovary. But after three or so pages of this (admittedly rather heavy going), we find ourselves in the fantastical and eccentric country of the Innes' imagination, where villages bear names like Sneak, Snarl, and Abbot's Yatter--not to mention Boxer's Bottom. Oh, and did I mention a place called Drool? The mythology is relevant, but forget about trying to untangle the plot--not that you have a chance in hell.Have you ever had the kind of English cake made of a sort of eggy batter which is just there to hold together large amounts of fruit and nuts? Appleby's End is like that cake, and the story line is just there to hold countless humorous jokes between the book covers. The conversation of Billy Bidewell, the interview with Gregory Grope, engine driver (concerning the sex life of his grandmother), the revelations chez Hoobin, the remarks of Father Smith ( a sort of English version of a Chinese zen master) and last but far from least, one of the most unusual courtships in any novel are the highlights, but there are countless little jokes as well. There are a dozen or so Innes books which I read and reread..but Appleby's End is in a class by itself. Wasn't there a man who told Mark Twain that he wished he had never read Huckleberry Finn? The reason: So he could read it again for the first time. I know just how he felt.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
funniest book ever,
By
This review is from: Appleby's End (Inspector Appleby Mysteries) (Paperback)
Appleby's End is the funniest book I've ever read -- and I read it at least once a year, some 28 times at last count! Other Innes books -- Candleshoe, Journeying Boy, From London Far, Awkward Lie -- have very funny sections, but this one is a delight all the way through. For my money, much more amusing than Lucky Jim etc
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