Inspector Appleby: Death At The President's Lodging : Seven Suspects (Paperback)

from themulhern

In this, his first mystery, Innes had not quite realized his individual voice. There are odd echoes of Ngaio Marsh's Alleyne and Fox in the interaction between Appleby and the local inspector. Innes' undergraduate characters are generally caricatures; in this novel they are obtrusively and painfu...

from JBD1

A complicated (one might say a bit too convoluted) academic murder mystery, the first appearance of Inspector Appleby. I'll be interested to see how the character develops; I enjoyed the humor and wit of this one, and will certainly read more from the series.

from Judy_AA

This is the first of the marvelous John Appleby series by Michael Innes. The Appleby books are soothingly literary and often comic. This particular mystery sets the tone for Innes' educated and pragmatic detective. Unfortunately, the solution to the mystery is beyond contrived and convoluted. I a...

from datrappert

While reading this, I was sometimes convinced that Michael Innes was writing primarily for his own amusement. This tale, which takes place in a cloistered university setting, such as those he was intimately familiar with, takes time to introduce us to all sorts of esoteric knowledge and the somew...

from phyllis2779

Probably read this when I was in grad school, but I no longer remembered it. Just read it again. It was fun and Innes is a very good writer but this was not nearly as good as the later books in the series. This one was drenched in academicism and the mystery plot was pretty close to ridiculous.