Customer Reviews

THERE CAME BOTH MIST AND SNOW.

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"There Came both Mist and Snow" (1941---also titled "Comedy of Terrors") is very uncharacteristic Appleby in that he doesn't show up until the middle of the story. This novel is basically a British comedy of manners, thinly disguised as a whodunit. It is narrated in the first person by Arthur, one of the suspects who happens to be a writer:

The aristocratic Arthur and his relatives gather for the Christmas holiday at Belrive Priory, the ancient family seat in the north of England. Much to their dismay, they learn that the current owner of Belrive, Arthur's cousin Basil, is planning to sell his estate to a brewer.

Basil, the seventh Baronet of Belrive Priory, needs the money to fund an expedition to the Arctic.

When Basil's nephew Wilfred is shot, every one wonders whether Basil had been the real target---and whether there would be a second, fatal attempt on the seventh Baronet's life.

Inspector John Appleby happens to be a guest at dinner on the night of the shooting. The local constable is only too happy to turn the crime over to the young CID inspector, and so Appleby enters the fray with Arthur serving as his Watson and family historian.

Michael Innes (pseudonym for John Innes Mackintosh Stewart) has out-Agatha'd Christie in this early Appleby. Each character is suspected in turn, and each has a plausible motive and opportunity. The story's climax is very typical Christie, wherein all of the suspects gather in the drawing room, and each explains his or her version of the `night of terror.' There are a couple of false confessions, and finally Appleby explains ALL.

The mystery itself is very complex, and the solution rather contrived. Read "There Came both Mist and Snow" for its highly literate prose--Appleby solves the mystery only after he recalls a verse from "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (hence the book's title)--and for its in-depth characterizations.

"There Came both Mist and Snow" (1941---also titled "Comedy of Terrors") is very uncharacteristic Appleby in that he doesn't show up until the middle of the story. This novel is basically a British comedy of manners, thinly disguised as a whodunit. It is narrated in the first person by Arthur, one of the suspects who happens to be a writer:

The aristocratic Arthur and his relatives gather for the Christmas holiday at Belrive Priory, the ancient family seat in the north of England. Much to their dismay, they learn that the current owner of Belrive, Arthur's cousin Basil, is planning to sell his estate to a brewer.

Basil, the seventh Baronet of Belrive Priory, needs the money to fund an expedition to the Arctic.

When Basil's nephew Wilfred is shot, every one wonders whether Basil had been the real target---and whether there would be a second, fatal attempt on the seventh Baronet's life.

Inspector John Appleby happens to be a guest at dinner on the night of the shooting. The local constable is only too happy to turn the crime over to the young CID inspector, and so Appleby enters the fray with Arthur serving as his Watson and family historian.

Michael Innes (pseudonym for John Innes Mackintosh Stewart) has out-Agatha'd Christie in this early Appleby. Each character is suspected in turn, and each has a plausible motive and opportunity. The story's climax is very typical Christie, wherein all of the suspects gather in the drawing room, and each explains his or her version of the `night of terror.' There are a couple of false confessions, and finally Appleby explains ALL.

The mystery itself is very complex, and the solution rather contrived. Read "There Came both Mist and Snow" for its highly literate prose--Appleby solves the mystery only after he recalls a verse from "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (hence the book's title)--and for its in-depth characterizations.

I have been enjoying Michael Innes at least since this novel was publisheed (1940). He is one of that group of British literary figures who turned to the mystery story in the 1920's (e.g., Dorthy Sayers) and for some three decades put that nation in the forefront of the literate detective novel. Innes here gives us a notably idiosyncratic family, most of whom are prone to over-indulgence in literary badinage and all of whom are given to excessive play acting in presenting themselves to others. When one of the kin is shot with Inspector Appleby at the door awaiting admission as an invited guest, he is stirred into action and we are let in for a good time. FAIR WARNING. Not every reader will take to this kind of verbal sparring and intricate puzzle.

"There Came both Mist and Snow" (1941---also titled "Comedy of Terrors") is very uncharacteristic Appleby in that he doesn't show up until the middle of the story. This novel is basically a British comedy of manners, thinly disguised as a whodunit. It is narrated in the first person by Arthur, one of the suspects who happens to be a writer:

The aristocratic Arthur and his relatives gather for the Christmas holiday at Belrive Priory, the ancient family seat in the north of England. Much to their dismay, they learn that the current owner of Belrive, Arthur's cousin Basil, is planning to sell his estate to a brewer.

Basil, the seventh Baronet of Belrive Priory, needs the money to fund an expedition to the Arctic.

When Basil's nephew Wilfred is shot, every one wonders whether Basil had been the real target---and whether there would be a second, fatal attempt on the seventh Baronet's life.

Inspector John Appleby happens to be a guest at dinner on the night of the shooting. The local constable is only too happy to turn the crime over to the young CID inspector, and so Appleby enters the fray with Arthur serving as his Watson and family historian.

Michael Innes (pseudonym for John Innes Mackintosh Stewart) has out-Agatha'd Christie in this early Appleby. Each character is suspected in turn, and each has a plausible motive and opportunity. The story's climax is very typical Christie, wherein all of the suspects gather in the drawing room, and each explains his or her version of the `night of terror.' There are a couple of false confessions, and finally Appleby explains ALL.

The mystery itself is very complex, and the solution rather contrived. Read "There Came both Mist and Snow" for its highly literate prose--Appleby solves the mystery only after he recalls a verse from "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (hence the book's title)--and for its in-depth characterizations.