Innes, Michael - Appleby at Allington / Death by Water (1968)

Review by Nick Fuller

3/5

Late, and despite Barzun and Taylor’s review, mediocre Innes. Three ‘accidents’ happen at Allington Park, owned by Owain Allington, who is the only possible candidate for the role of murderer. He is, of course; and the reader is likely to tumble to this fact long before Sir John Appleby, now retired, who discovers two of the victims — the first, while a dinner guest of Allington’s; the second, at a fête. The tale is slender and improbable, the characters thoroughly annoying (it is a pity that the abominable Lethbridge and Barford parents were not murdered in a particularly horrible manner), and the solution, relying on electrical gadgets, not particularly ingenious.

Back to the scene of Appleby's End, Judith's milieu near Linger. A rather boring country house murder mystery -- three killings but still nothing much really happens dramatically, son et lumière and a village fête notwithstanding. Some amusing character studies, like the appalling golf and tennis fathers and the heterodox vicar; otherwise, a disappointment. There seem to be a lot of big country houses in this neighborhood -- several books were set in the area (apparently Gloucestershire).

Wyatt James