Case of the Journeying Boy

by Michael Innes

Book Overview

Humphrey Paxton, the son of one of Britain's leading atomic boffins, has taken to carrying a shotgun to "shoot plotters and blackmailers and spies." His new tutor, the plodding Mr Thewless, suggests... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 006080632X
• ISBN13: 9780060806323
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 4.2" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Magnificent!

I had to go to some trouble to get this book, but it was worth it. I found a wonderful used copy on-line, and I ordered it. This book is not to be missed! It was written in 1949, but it is far from dated. I found it a beautifully plotted, taut thriller that had layer upon layer of suspense and tension. Humphrey Paxton is not your ordinary 15-year-old boy. He is very mature for his years, and he is very sure that he is being followed and is going to be kidnapped by people for important secrets that his nuclear physicist father has. He goes on a trip to visit some distant relatives on the west coast of Ireland, and he goes knowing full well that someone will make the atempt there. He is fortunate to have a rather stuffy, pedagogical tutor with him. Mr. Thewless is as far from being what the type of person who anyone would think would be any help to Humphrey, but he is surprisingly resourceful. Certainly a man that Humphrey needs in his corner. He also gets help from a rather stuffy white-haired lady, who is not at all what she seems. This is a cracker of a book! I couldn't believe how well written it was, and how much I enjoyed it! Definitely read this book if you like well-written fiction in the thriller genre.

Also published as "The Case of the Journeying Boy"

John Innes Mackintosh Stewart (pseudonym Michael Innes) was born in 1906 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, and his mysteries reflect both his scholarship (the title of this book is from a poem by Thomas Hardy), and the year he spent in Vienna, studying Freudian psychoanalysis. The setting of `Journeying Boy' (1949) is a product of the two years Innes spent at Queen's University in Belfast. I believe it is the only one of his mysteries to take place in Ireland. It is also notable in that it does not feature his most famous detective, Sir John Appleby, but rather Appleby's successor at New Scotland Yard, Detective-Inspector Thomas Cadover. The new Inspector is a bit of a dry stick compared to the irrepressible Appleby---he refers to his predecessor as `the wayward Appleby'---but Cadover detects with the best of his literary kin (Appleby, Lord Peter, Professor Fen, etc.) All of the characters are introspective (remember that year in Vienna) and finely drawn. No caricatures are to be found in `Journeying Boy'---not even the nuclear physicist.Not even the Irish. The narrative duties are divided between three main characters: Inspector Cadover; Humphrey Paxton, the adolescent son of a famous nuclear physicist; and Richard Thewless, the middle-aged and somewhat unimaginative tutor who is hired to take Humphrey on a vacation to Ireland. As always with Innes, the mystery is a mixture of high drama and low farce. `Journeying Boy' doesn't quite venture into the surreal depths of some of the Appleby novels. However, Innes displays his talent for hallucinatory description in several places, including a scene where the tutor, Mr. Thewless is stumbling through the dark halls of a draughty, decaying Irish country house. Just as he becomes certain that he is being followed, his candle gutters out:"All of the objects...that lined the broad corridors of the house were swathed in a white sheeting...It was as if, in addition to the [mansion's family and servants], the place owned another body of inhabitants, who waited, shrouded and silent in the gathering dusk."Even though `Journeying Boy' mentions Appleby only in passing, it is one of Innes's best, most intricate mysteries. This author can switch from farce to horror better and faster than any of his contemporaries. You'll be laughing while your hair is still standing straight up on the back of your neck. If you don't believe me, read the chapter that takes place in a labyrinth of sea caves, where the boy Humphrey attempts to escape from his enemies.Michael Innes is one of the finest, most unjustly neglected authors from the British Golden Age of Mystery. If you haven't already discovered him, a good place to start is "The Journeying Boy," or his very literate Appleby mystery, "Hamlet, Revenge!"

Towards a world unknown

John Innes Mackintosh Stewart (pseudonym Michael Innes) was born in 1906 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, and his mysteries reflect both his scholarship (the title of this book is from a poem by Thomas Hardy), and the year he spent in Vienna, studying Freudian psychoanalysis. The setting of `Journeying Boy' (1949) is a product of the two years Innes spent at Queen's University in Belfast. I believe it is the only one of his mysteries to take place in Ireland. It is also notable in that it does not feature his most famous detective, Sir John Appleby, but rather Appleby's successor at New Scotland Yard, Detective-Inspector Thomas Cadover. The new Inspector is a bit of a dry stick compared to the irrepressible Appleby---he refers to his predecessor as `the wayward Appleby'---but Cadover detects with the best of his literary kin (Appleby, Lord Peter, Professor Fen, etc.) All of the characters are introspective (remember that year in Vienna) and finely drawn. No caricatures are to be found in `Journeying Boy'---not even the nuclear physicist.Not even the Irish. The narrative duties are divided between three main characters: Inspector Cadover; Humphrey Paxton, the adolescent son of a famous nuclear physicist; and Richard Thewless, the middle-aged and somewhat unimaginative tutor who is hired to take Humphrey on a vacation to Ireland. As always with Innes, the mystery is a mixture of high drama and low farce. `Journeying Boy' doesn't quite venture into the surreal depths of some of the Appleby novels. However, Innes displays his talent for hallucinatory description in several places, including a scene where the tutor, Mr. Thewless is stumbling through the dark halls of a draughty, decaying Irish country house. Just as he becomes certain that he is being followed, his candle gutters out:"All of the objects...that lined the broad corridors of the house were swathed in a white sheeting from which one could have puffed the dust in passing. The effect could not well be other than spectral. It was as if, in addition to the [mansion's family and servants], the place owned another body of inhabitants, who waited, shrouded and silent in the gathering dusk, the stroke of some hour that should release them to their own nocturnal offices. Nor indeed did their silence appear entire, since the wind as it sighed through Killyboffin had the effect of prompting them to sinister confabulation, the result of which was...an uneasy twitch and stir in their enveloping garments."Even though `Journeying Boy' mentions Appleby only in passing, it is one of Innes's best, most intricate mysteries. This author can switch from farce to horror better and faster than any of his contemporaries. You'll be laughing while your hair is still standing straight up on the back of your neck. If you don't believe me, read the chapter that takes place in a labyrinth of sea caves, where the boy Humphrey attempts to escape from his enemies.Michael I