Michael Innes Books In Order
Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.Publication Order of Inspector Appleby Books
Death at the President's Lodging / Seven Suspects | (1936) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Hamlet, Revenge! | (1937) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Lament for a Maker | (1938) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Stop Press / The Spider Strikes | (1939) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Secret Vanguard | (1940) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
There Came Both Mist and Snow / A Comedy of Terrors | (1940) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Appleby on Ararat | (1941) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Daffodil Affair | (1942) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Weight of the Evidence | (1943) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Appleby's End | (1945) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Night of Errors | (1948) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Operation Pax / The Paper Thunderbolt | (1951) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Private View / One-Man Show / Murder Is an Art | (1952) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Appleby Plays Chicken / Death On a Quiet Day | (1957) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Long Farewell | (1958) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Hare Sitting Up | (1959) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Silence Observed | (1961) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Connoisseur's Case / The Crabtree Affair | (1962) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Bloody Wood | (1966) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Appleby At Allington / Death By Water | (1968) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Family Affair / Picture of Guilt | (1969) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Death at the Chase | (1970) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
An Awkward Lie | (1971) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Open House | (1972) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Appleby's Answer | (1973) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Appleby's Other Story | (1974) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Gay Phoenix | (1976) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Ampersand Papers | (1978) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Sheiks and Adders | (1982) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Appleby and Honeybath | (1983) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Carson's Conspiracy | (1984) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Appleby and the Ospreys | (1986) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Inspector Appleby Collections
Appleby Talking | (1954) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Appleby Talks | (1954) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Appleby Talks Again | (1956) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Appleby Intervenes | (1965) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Appleby File | (1975) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Appleby Talks About Crime | (2010) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Charles Honeybath Books
The Mysterious Commission | (1974) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Honeybath's Haven | (1978) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Lord Mullion's Secret | (1981) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Appleby and Honeybath | (1983) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Staircase In Surrey Books
The Gaudy | (1975) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Young Pattullo | (1975) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Memorial Service | (1976) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Madonna of The Astrolabe | (1977) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Full Term | (1979) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
From London Far / The Unsuspected Chasm | (1946) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
What Happened At Hazlewood? | (1946) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Journeying Boy / The Case of the Journeying Boy | (1949) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Christmas at Candleshoe | (1953) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Man from the Sea / Death By Moonlight | (1955) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Old Hall, New Hall / A Question of Queens | (1956) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Use Of Riches | (1957) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The New Sonia Wayward / The Case of Sonia Wayward | (1960) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Acre of Grass | (1962) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Money From Holme | (1964) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Aylwins | (1966) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Last Tresilians | (1966) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Change of Heir | (1966) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Vanderlyn's Kingdom | (1967) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Mungo's Dream | (1973) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Andrew and Tobias | (1980) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Going It Alone | (1980) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Villa in France | (1982) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
An Open Prison | (1984) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Naylors | (1985) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Palace of Art | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Mark Lambert's Supper | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Man Who Won The Pools | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Guardians | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Avery's Mission | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of J.I.M. Stewart Short Story Collections
The Bridge at Arta | (1982) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
My Aunt Christina | (1983) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Parlour Four | (1986) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Cucumber Sandwiches | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Short Story Collections
Cucumber Sandwiches, And Other Stories | (1969) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Our England is a garden and other stories | (1979) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Bridge At Arta And Other Stories | (1981) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Bridge at Arta | (1982) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
My Aunt Christina | (1983) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Parlour Four | (1986) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Cucumber Sandwiches | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Man Who Wrote Detective Stories | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
James Joyce | (1957) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Thomas Love Peacock | (1963) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Eight Modern Writers | (1963) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Character and Motive in Shakespeare | (1965) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Rudyard Kipling | (1966) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Joseph Conrad | (1968) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Shakespeare's Lofty Scene | (1971) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Thomas Hardy: A Critical Biography | (1971) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Myself and Michael Innes: A Memoir | (1988) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Educating the emotions | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Murderous Christmas Stories Books
Murder under the Christmas Tree: Ten Classic Crime Stories for the Festive Season | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Murder on Christmas Eve | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Very Murderous Christmas: Ten Classic Crime Stories for the Festive Season | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Anthology series. |
Publication Order of Anthologies
Verdict of Thirteen | (1979) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
English Country House Murders | (1988) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Murder On The Railways | (2003) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Blood on the Tracks | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Murder in Midsummer: Classic Mysteries for the Holidays | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Unholy Night | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Edinburgh Mystery: And Other Tales of Scottish Crime | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Michael Innes was a Scottish novelist, born John Innes Mackintosh Stewart on September 30, 1906. He passed away in 1994, at age 88.
Innes was educated at Edinburgh Academy and then Oriel College, Oxford. He did his B.A. Honours in English in 1928 and spent the next two years in Austria and Germany to study Freudian psychoanalysis. After his first book, an edition of Florio’s translation of Montaigne, he was offered a lecture chair at University of Leeds.
In 1932, he married Margaret Hardwick, who was a doctor. They eventually had five children, one of whom was also a novelist (Angus).
In 1936, while Professor of English at University of Adelaide, he wrote his first Inspector Appleby mystery, Death at the President’s Lodging. His second in the series, Hamlet, Revenge!, established his reputation as an entertaining and talented writer.
After World War II, he returned to the UK and spent two years at Queen’s University, Belfast, where in 1949 he wrote The Case of the Journeying Boy, notable for highly effective comedic use of an Irish setting. Following that, he was a Reader in English Literature at Christ Church, Oxford, and retired from there in 1973.
The contribution of Michael Innes is significant in the world of English Literature as one of the greatest classic crime fiction writers. Between 1936 and 1986, he published close to fifty crime novels and short story collections.
His most well-known detective is Sir John Appleby, first introduced in Death at the President’s Lodging as a Detective Inspector at Scotland Yard. Appleby is tasked with solving the murder of Professor Umpleby, president of St. Antony’s College, shot in his lodgings. It soon becomes evident that the only people with motive to murder him are the only people who had opportunity, because the lodgings are locked at night and only Fellows of the College have keys.
Detective Inspector Appleby features in many novels and short stories, eventually becoming Metropolitan Police Commissioner. Other novels feature portrait artist and Royal Academician, Charles Honeybath, a sleuth who is an amateur but very effective. These two detectives meet in Appleby and Honeybath. Later stories feature Appleby’s son, Bobby, as a detective.
Sheiks and Adders is another book in the Inspector Appleby series. The story begins with a charity masquerade at Drool Court, where half of the guests have turned up dressed as sheikhs, but only one is the real thing. Sir John Appleby believes that is more than just a coincidence, which puts him in danger. Then one of the fake sheikhs turns up dead and Appleby finds himself in the middle of an international political imbroglio.
Going It Alone is a standalone novel from Michael Innes. The book follows Gilbert Averell, who relieves his tax burden by spending part of each year in France. It’s a good plan, but he finds himself unhappy when he is away from his home country. Gilbert has a friend named Georges who looks very similar to himself and the two decide to swap passports for a bit. Gilbert jumps at the opportunity to spend more time at home; however, a number of incidents take place that leave Gilbert questioning his decision. It appears that Georges might have made his offer for reasons other than friendship.
The character of Charles Honeybath gets his own story in The Mysterious Commission. Honeybath is a portrait painter who is visited by the mysterious Mr. Peach, who wants him to paint an anonymous man known as Mr. X, claimed by his relatives to be insane. Honeybath is taken to the man’s house at night and asked to stay while he completes the work. When he returns to his studio, Honeybath finds that the bank next door to him has been robbed and that he is the prime suspect.
The Gaudy (A Staircase in Surrey) is the first volume in the Staircase in Surrey series. The series is written by Innes under the pen name of J.I.M. Stewart. The story begins in Oxford at a dinner held for past members of the Fellows. There are many distinguished guests, including a former Prime Minister. Duncan Pattullo is one of the attendees and he meets many of his old friends and enemies. As the night goes on, Duncan finds himself enmeshed in many of the difficulties and problems of the other guests. As the story unfolds, he acquires a few new problems of his own, which will force him to take stock of his own past and future.
The Staircase in Surrey series continues with book two of the quintet (chronologically, book one), Young Pattullo. Duncan arrives in Oxford, and on the staircase in Surrey, meets those who will become his new friends and compadres . All of the usual student escapades develop, and a punting accident leads to the girl who is in love with Duncan suffering. His cousin is involved in affair that has left her pregnant, but refuses to name the father.
Michael Innes was a talented writer of crime fiction who won the hearts of his fans with ambiance, characters, his tongue-in-cheek penchant, and the creative plot twists of his stories. His work is still highly regarded.
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