Review by Nick Fuller
3/5
On the fourth page, Ambrose Chase is described as “horripilant like the porpentine against its foes,” a description that should alert the reader to the fact that this Innes at his most verbose and obscure. Obviously he has confused himself with Donne, for every paragraph is as much a conceit as the author’s state in writing the novel. A few passages of wit in the middle sections are let down by the presence of three egregiously jejune and callow youths. Since the murder is committed three-quarters of the way through, and to the accompaniment of excessive coincidence and too many cardboard mad villains, there is little room for any interest in the crime, so the solution is as anticlimactic as it is unconvincing.
It is never really specified where Long Dream Manor (Appleby's estate) is located in England -- probably Gloucestershire -- but wherever it is is the most heavily populated by grand manor houses environment on the island. This is yet another country-house murder case, with repeat characters Bobby Appleby and Chief Constable Tommy Pride. The story is about the murder of a rich and ancient miser, with a bevy of quarrelsome and mutually hating relatives, and is a lot of fun to read in a Wodehouse way. But not much of a mystery (more like an expanded short-story gimmick).
Wyatt James
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