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Barely Even Murder Micromonday
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More a passing remark than a post today, because I haven't read anything this week except The Ampersand Papers. It was fun in a mild way but kind of a wash as a mystery, and also kind of a wash as a story about finding valuable literary papers in some guy's attic, an interesting situation out of which practically nothing is made. There are quite a lot of stabs at humor and some of them work.
The detective for this story is called Sir John Appleby. He's retired from the police force. . . but murder never retires! That's about all we get of him as a character. He's attempting to take a vacation, so naturally a guy falls out of a tower right in front of him. Well, what do you expect? The Ampersands find his accent trustworthy; he's invited to ask a bunch of questions in a semi-official capacity; eventually a solution rolls down the conveyor belt and everyone sort of gapes at it and goes "oh no." The ending feels like Michael Innes reached his wordcount minimum and called it a day.
The Ampersand Papers is a late entry in a long series, so it's probably best to give Michael Innes another try at some point. There was a lot to like, but it didn't feel like a finished book.
More a passing remark than a post today, because I haven't read anything this week except The Ampersand Papers. It was fun in a mild way but kind of a wash as a mystery, and also kind of a wash as a story about finding valuable literary papers in some guy's attic, an interesting situation out of which practically nothing is made. There are quite a lot of stabs at humor and some of them work.
The detective for this story is called Sir John Appleby. He's retired from the police force. . . but murder never retires! That's about all we get of him as a character. He's attempting to take a vacation, so naturally a guy falls out of a tower right in front of him. Well, what do you expect? The Ampersands find his accent trustworthy; he's invited to ask a bunch of questions in a semi-official capacity; eventually a solution rolls down the conveyor belt and everyone sort of gapes at it and goes "oh no." The ending feels like Michael Innes reached his wordcount minimum and called it a day.
The Ampersand Papers is a late entry in a long series, so it's probably best to give Michael Innes another try at some point. There was a lot to like, but it didn't feel like a finished book.