This 12th entry in the Inspector Appleby series was more of a suspense thriller than a traditional mystery -- something I am beginning to expect with Innes. Appleby himself plays a minor role with more of the action being done by his youngest (and closest) sister Jane, an Oxford student whose fiancé is missing. However, even this situation is secondary to the sinister criminal conspiracy discovered by the petty con-man Routh. The two become entangled when Jane happens to accidentally knock Routh down with her bicycle...

I thought I had spotted the "Director" of the evil conspiracy early on and so the climax in the last chapter (when I discovered I was wrong) was a big surprise! I like that & Jane was a great protagonist. I hope she shows up again.

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A pulp adventure taking place at and near Innes' Oxford environs, told in academic prose. Bonkers and full of coincidences. Appleby appears for a few chapters to do a little detecting and rescuing, but the bulk of the book belongs to several other characters. There's Routh, a most unsympathetic vile con man, prone to physical violence, given to paranoia at getting caught in his little crimes, who gets caught up in a mysterious criminal operation out of James Bond. He is pretty much on the run for the first quarter of the book and all his paranoia is valid. Then Appleby and the Oxford Tigers -- youths in the Oxford area -- appear for a bit. The latter come and go but seem pretty irrelevant overall. Finally Jane Appleby, looking for her fiance, and Roger Remnant, a taxi driver clearly destined to be played by Bruce Willis, take over the latter half of the book as the invade the criminal lair and chase a Maguffin secret formula into the imagined bowel of the Bodlian Library.

Recommended, but not as a mystery. Silly but fun. ( )

A petty con man stumbles across a major criminal enterprise.

Not one of my favourites of Innes's. A thriller rather than a detective story. Too much Routh and Jane Appleby and not enough Sir John. ( )

Con-men, scientists, Oxford dons & students and a gang of small children. Innes is always a delight & the Appleby books are my favorites. Golden Age mystery with enough twists to keep them from being too dated. Not quite a cozy, but close - and worth the time. ( )

There's something about finally digging into the works of an author who's been long recommended to you but whose books just never quite seem to turn up when you want them. Several folks have suggested Michael Innes' Inspector Appleby novels to me over the years, so I was delighted to stumble across one in a used bookshop recently. It's one from the middle of the pack, and at first I wasn't sure whether to get it or to wait until I found a copy of the first in the series, but I figured I'd try it, and it doesn't seem as though that did me any harm at all. This one takes a little bit to get going, but there are some excellently-drawn characters, and the suspenseful build-up works excellently.

Highly recommended, and I shall be keeping a closer eye out in future for the others! ( )