Innes, Michael - Appleby Talking (1954) aka Dead Man's Shoes

Very short for the most part; good bathroom reading. The Vicar, The Doctor, The Q.C. -- they are Appleby's audience over the port after dinner or a pint at the local. A lot of these literally turn out to be tall tales, and are usually wound up with a nice pun (such as the clue of the typewriter ribbon -- "It made an impression on me"). There is something very comfortable about fireside stories of this sort told by a good raconteur. There are also a couple of straightforward short stories in the third person, such as the very fine "Dead Man's Shoes," a spy tale.

Wyatt James

Twenty-three stories, all featuring Appleby, mostly told in the first person as after-dinner anecdotes. Some are merely set-ups for puns, and these and others may -- it is implied - have been fabricated by Appleby on the spot. Some of them, like "The Clock-face Case", poke gentle fun at the conventions of detective fiction. Stories of particular interest are "Appleby's First Case" (a highly improbable start to a highly improbable career), "Dead Man's Shoes", a longer piece which manages to generate some pathos, and "A Derby Horse", which is based around what was (to me at least) a completely original idea. This is Chinese food for the mind; engaging but quickly forgotten. One wonders how many of these were rejected ideas for Innes novels.

Jon.