The Daffodil Affair (Inspector Appleby Mystery S.) [Paperback]

Michael Innes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2001 | Series: Inspector Appleby Mystery S.

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 I 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"yet another surprising firework display of wit and erudition and ingenious invention" -- Guardian

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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 230 pages
• Publisher: House of Stratus (January 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1842327305
• ISBN-13: 978-1842327302
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,244,303 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The strangest of all Inspector Appleby mysteries, August 31, 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: The Daffodil Affair (Inspector Appleby Mystery S.) (Paperback)

Michael Innes plunged off the surreal deep end when he wrote "The Daffodil Affair." Maybe it was because of the war--this Inspector Appleby mystery was published in 1942--or maybe Innes just felt like seeing how far he could venture into the weird and still get published. All of his mysteries contain eccentricities: usually a farcical character or a setting that is just out of true. In this particular mystery, characters, plot, and setting are all seen through a glass, cross-eyed.

However, if you can swallow the premise that an obscenely wealthy individual is stealing paranormal objects (including a counting horse, a witch, and a haunted house) with the goal of cornering the market on the supernatural, then founding a new religion and ruling the world after the current dust-up (WWII) is ended, you'll enjoy this story. It has a Grand Guignol climax on the banks of the mighty Amazon River, that includes not only the cab horse, the witch, and the haunted house, but also the phosphorescing ghost of a murdered man.

It also has the strangest motive for murder in all of fiction.

Inspector Appleby is drawn into the Daffodil affair when a cab horse of that name goes missing in wartime London. Daffodil happens to be the favorite 'ride' of Appleby's elderly maiden aunt. Not only is he a gentle, slow-moving steed, he can also answer numerical queries by bobbing his head the requisite number of times, in the manner of the psychic horse, Clever Hans (although Clever Hans used his hoof not his head).

Meanwhile, another Scotland Yard detective named Hudspith is hard at work on the abduction of Lucy Rideout, a young woman with a multiple-personality disorder. He and Appleby converge on the scent when a haunted house in Bloomsbury goes missing.

The detectives follow the trail of the paranormal captives onto a ship bound for South America, posing as psychic Australian sheep ranchers in order to bamboozle the wealthy collector into abducting them, too. Appleby spends his time at sea philosophizing about the gullibility of mankind and persuading his partner Hudspith to fake supernatural visions.

Innes's C.I.D. inspector is more intellectually morose than usual (remember that the author wrote this story in the midst of the war), but his antic streak also emerges, especially when he is persuading the gullible Hudspith to act out yet another phantasmagoric visitation.

"The Daffodil Affair" is vintage Appleby, in spite of its preposterous plot. It shouldn't be the first Innes mystery you read (try "Hamlet, Revenge!" or "One Man Show"), but once you're hooked you won't be able to stop yourself from enjoying it--supernatural fizz, metaphysical speculations, counting horses, and all.

5.0 out of 5 stars The theft of a counting horse, September 6, 2006

By 

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

Michael Innes plunged off the surreal deep end when he wrote "The Daffodil Affair." Maybe it was because of the war--this Inspector Appleby mystery was published in 1942--or maybe Innes just felt like seeing how far he could venture into the weird and still get published. All of his mysteries contain eccentricities: usually a farcical character or a setting that is just out of true. In this particular mystery, characters, plot, and setting are all seen through a glass, cross-eyed.

However, if you can swallow the premise that an obscenely wealthy individual is stealing paranormal objects (including a counting horse, a witch, and a haunted house) with the goal of cornering the market on the supernatural, then founding a new religion and ruling the world after the current dust-up (WWII) is ended, you'll enjoy this story. It has a Grand Guignol climax on the banks of the mighty Amazon River, that includes not only the cab horse, the witch, and the haunted house, but also the phosphorescing ghost of a murdered man.

It also has the strangest motive for murder in all of fiction.

Inspector Appleby is drawn into the Daffodil affair when a cab horse of that name goes missing in wartime London. Daffodil happens to be the favorite 'ride' of Appleby's elderly maiden aunt. Not only is he a gentle, slow-moving steed, he can also answer numerical queries by bobbing his head the requisite number of times, in the manner of the psychic horse, Clever Hans (although Clever Hans used his hoof not his head).

Meanwhile, another Scotland Yard detective named Hudspith is hard at work on the abduction of Lucy Rideout, a young woman with a multiple-personality disorder. He and Appleby converge on the scent when a haunted house in Bloomsbury goes missing.

The detectives follow the trail of the paranormal captives onto a ship bound for South America, posing as psychic Australian sheep ranchers in order to bamboozle the wealthy collector into abducting them, too. Appleby spends his time at sea philosophizing about the gullibility of mankind and persuading his partner Hudspith to fake supernatural visions.

Innes's C.I.D. inspector is more intellectually morose than usual (remember that the author wrote this story in the midst of the war), but his antic streak also emerges, especially when he is persuading the gullible Hudspith to act out yet another phantasmagoric visitation.

"The Daffodil Affair" is vintage Appleby, in spite of its preposterous plot. It shouldn't be the first Innes mystery you read (try "Hamlet, Revenge!" or "One Man Show"), but once you're hooked you won't be able to stop yourself from enjoying it--supernatural fizz, metaphysical speculations, counting horses, and all.