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The Open House

Page history last edited by Jon 13 years, 11 months ago

Innes, Michael -- The Open House (1972)

 

Review by Nick Fuller

4/5

Highly fantastic, improbable and melodramatic — the wedding, the open house / return of heir, the South American conspirators, and the suspicious butler. The entire affair is hilarious, although there is little straight detection. Note the annoying Carrian tendency of INTERRUPTIONS.


Appleby's car breaks down at midnight in the middle of nowhere and on foot he blunders into a huge Palladian manor house, all lit up but seemingly empty. A typical bit of Innes syntax: "Unauthorized nocturnal intrusion within the purlieus of this august habitation automatically produced not a ringing of bells or the like, but a deluge of light calculated to appal and repel even the most temerarious burglar." Like many Innes mysteries, everything is resolved within a very short space of time. This involves the return (and murder) of a prodigal heir, gangs of South Americans, burglars, sinister butlers, and dotty old uncles. A pleasant jumble.

 

Wyatt James

 

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