Death on a Quiet Day: Volume 16

By Michael Innes

Book Overview

From a British Golden Age author "in a class by himself among detective story writers," Scotland Yard Inspector Appleby helps a student solve a murder ( The Times Literary Supplement ). On holiday in the English countryside with his fellow university students, young David Henchman sets out alone for a hike across the moor. But instead of finding tranquil solitude, he stumbles upon a dead body. At first, David suspects suicide--until he spots a stranger on the moor. At the sound of gunfire, David flees for his life. Once Inspector Appleby heads to the moors, it seems as if Scotland Yard's most respected detective might have the matter in hand. But things go south when Appleby discovers the corpse on the moor has been swapped with another dead body. With the investigation underway, are Appleby and David bound to become victims of some perilous game? Praise for Michael Innes and the Inspector Appleby series "Wickedly witty." -- Daily Mail "As farfetched and literary as Sayers." -- The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1504092775
• ISBN13: 9781504092777
• Release Date: July 2024
• Publisher: Open Road Media Mystery & Thri
• Length: 206 Pages
• Weight: 0.59 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Undergraduate romp turns deadly

A tutor and his reading-party of undergraduates spend a quiet fortnight at a Dartmoor inn, preparing for final examinations. Their usual idea of relaxation is composing scatty limericks. Sometimes the discussion becomes more serious. One evening, the tutor Pettigrew proposes that the passage into manhood requires a rite of initiation. Much to his regret, the discussion turns to the American concept of 'playing chicken.' That night after the tutor retires to bed, six of the reading-party pile into an ancient automobile and set out on their own version of the supposed American pastime. You may be wondering where Sir John Appleby makes his entrance into this moody thriller. Not until page 96, well after the undergraduate David Henchman discovers a body on the moor and is hunted, shot at, temporarily corned in an abandoned bottle factory, and nearly run over. When David and Appleby return to the scene of the murder on lonely Knack Tor, they discover a body but it's not same one David found earlier. Someone has made a switch, and David slowly begins to realize that he and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner are involved in a second, much deadlier game of chicken. The best features of this mystery-thriller-coming-of-age novel are the perilous, extended chase scene after David discovers the first body, and his interplay with Appleby whom he at first mistakes for a middle-aged London bureaucrat. Innes writes this sort of brave, intelligent but basically innocent undergraduate coming-of-age- under-the-threat-of-death novel so very well. His serial detective Appleby has gotten a trifle old and cynical, but when he assumes the role of stern but witty mentor-under-fire he is at his best. If you enjoy the type of thriller where an undergraduate romp turns deadly, try Innes's "The Secret Vanguard" (1940), "A Family Affair" (1969), "The Man from the Sea" (1955), "The Journeying Boy" (1949), or "Death at the Chase" (1970). You'll smile at the antics and earnest dialogues of Innes's young men and women right before your hair starts to stand up on the back of your neck, as they accidentally intrude on murder or conspiracy most foul. Poona stuff all around.

a.k.a. "Appleby Plays Chicken" (1957)

A tutor and his reading-party of undergraduates spend a quiet fortnight at a Dartmoor inn, preparing for final examinations. Their usual idea of relaxation is composing scatty limericks. Sometimes the discussion becomes more serious. One evening, the tutor Pettigrew proposes that the passage into manhood requires a rite of initiation. Much to his regret, the discussion turns to the American concept of 'playing chicken.' That night after the tutor retires to bed, six of the reading-party pile into an ancient automobile and set out on their own version of the supposed American pastime. You may be wondering where Sir John Appleby makes his entrance into this moody thriller. Not until page 96, well after the undergraduate David Henchman discovers a body on the moor and is hunted, shot at, temporarily cornered in an abandoned bottle factory, and nearly run over. When David and Appleby return to the scene of the murder on lonely Knack Tor, they discover a body but it's not same one David found earlier. Someone has made a switch, and David slowly begins to realize that he and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner are involved in a second, much deadlier game of chicken. The best features of this mystery-thriller-coming-of-age novel are the perilous, extended chase scene after David discovers the first body, and his interplay with Appleby whom he at first mistakes for a middle-aged London bureaucrat. Innes writes this sort of brave, intelligent but basically innocent undergraduate coming-of-age- under-the-threat-of-death novel so very well. His serial detective Appleby has gotten a trifle old and cynical, but when he assumes the role of stern but witty mentor-under-fire he is at his best. If you enjoy the type of thriller where an undergraduate romp turns deadly, try Innes's "The Secret Vanguard" (1940), "A Family Affair" (1969), "The Man from the Sea" (1955), "The Journeying Boy" (1949), or "Death at the Chase" (1970). You'll smile at the antics and earnest dialogues of Innes's young men and women right before your hair starts to stand up on the back of your neck, as they accidentally intrude on murder or conspiracy most foul. Poona stuff all around.