Innes, Michael - Appleby and Honeybath

Charles Honeybath and John Appleby, Innes's two main detectives, 'work' together in this case, involving a Body in the Library. It involves both watercolors by the painter Claude and an unknown satirical poem by Alexander Pope, a party of country-houseguests all up to nasty no-good in a cultured way. Too bad, as usual, that the treasures are both lost, especially that the awful Mrs Mustard gets away with her theft of the paintings. But on the other hand, Squire Grinton, a fox-hunting intentional illiterate, is not somebody the reader sympathizes with for his loss. Some clever 'contemporary' diary and book entries provided by Innes, so this is a pretty good book -- yet disappointing. No murder (the corpse died of a heart attack while laughing at the Pope MS), but plenty of cover-ups.

Wyatt James