Silence Observed [Hardcover]

Michael Innes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 18, 1976 | Series: [Gollancz vintage detection]

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.'

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

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Inimitable blend of urbanity, fantasy, erudition, and violence' -- Sunday Telegraph --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.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Littlehampton Book Services Ltd; New impression edition (March 18, 1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 057501525X
• ISBN-13: 978-0575015258
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Silence unobserved, July 19, 2004

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: Silence Observed (Paperback)

It is extraordinary what many people judge to be 'quite up the street' of an about-to-retire Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police (New Scotland Yard). Sir John Appleby can't even escape into the peaceful surroundings of his club without a fellow member bending his ear.

Charles Gribble usually corners Appleby and bores on about mediaeval English pottery, but this time he wants to gloat over a poetry manuscript he picked up for a song.

Naturally this book being what it is, the manuscript is a forgery. In fact, it's a forgery of a forgery. Next, a Rembrandt that might or might not be authentic floats into London and vanishes just as mysteriously as it appeared. A collector buys what he supposes to be Toulouse-Lautrec's walking stick, as well as one of his paintings.

Then an antiquarian bookseller is murdered. One of the Appleby's dinner guests fails to show up. The dealer who was asked to authenticate the Rembrandt is also killed.

Appleby's missing dinner guest is found at the scene of both murders, and Sir John weighs into a case from the netherworld of faked art and forgeries. While the young art appraiser who is the chief murder suspect leads Sir John on a merry chase across England, the murderer strikes again, this time much closer to the Police Commissioner's home.

If "Silence Observed" can be said to have a moral, it is be careful whom you invite to dinner.

One thing this book has definitely got is the most sinister old woman in all of Innes. This author's characters are always vividly drawn, but this dweller in Rose Garden cottage reminded me of Shelob the spider in "The Return of the King." When Appleby finally arrives at her dwelling, the bell pull falls limp in his hand like "the limb of an infant corpse...before rigor mortis set in."

Innes usually doesn't resort to such melodramatic phrases, but this book is one of his combination mystery-thrillers. It has a vigorous chase scene, a very unlikely love story, and of course Sir John in his erudite, crime-solving prime. Do not heed his complaints about feeling elderly. Innes's favorite serial detective ultimately appears in sixteen more finely-wrought novels and short-story collections that were published after "Silence Observed" (1961).

5.0 out of 5 stars Sir John Appleby in his ironic, literate, crime-solving prime, May 13, 2006

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: Silence Observed (Hardcover)

It was extraordinary what many people judge to be 'quite up the street' of an about-to-retire Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard). Sir John Appleby can't even escape into the peaceful surroundings of his club without a fellow member bending his ear.

Charles Gribble usually corners Appleby and bores on about mediaeval English pottery, but this time he wants to gloat over a poetry manuscript he picked up for a song.

Naturally this book being what it is, the manuscript is a forgery. In fact, it's a forgery of a forgery. Next, a Rembrandt that might or might not be authentic floats into London and vanishes just as mysteriously as it appeared. A collector buys what he supposes to be Toulouse-Lautrec's walking stick, as well as one of his paintings.

Then an antiquarian bookseller is murdered. One of the Appleby's dinner guests fails to show up. The dealer who was asked to authenticate the Rembrandt is also killed.

Appleby's missing dinner guest is found at the scene of both murders, and Sir John weighs into a case from the netherworld of faked art and forgeries. While the young art appraiser who is the chief murder suspect leads Sir John on a merry chase across England, the murderer strikes again, this time much closer to the Police Commissioner's home.

If "Silence Observed" can be said to have a moral, it is be careful whom you invite to dinner.

One thing this book's definitely got is the most sinister old woman in all of Innes. This author's characters are always vividly drawn, but this dweller in Rose Garden cottage reminded me of Shelob the spider in "The Return of the King." When Appleby finally arrives at her dwelling, the bell pull falls limp in his hand like "the limb of an infant corpse...before rigor mortis set in."

Innes usually doesn't resort to such melodramatic phrases, but this book is one of his combination mystery-thrillers. It has a vigorous chase scene, a very unlikely love story, and of course Sir John in his ironic, literate, crime-solving prime. Do not heed his complaints about feeling elderly. Innes's favorite serial detective ultimately appeared in sixteen more finely-wrought novels and short-story collections.