I had forgotten how much fun this book is!

With the exception of Hamlet, Revenge!, I often forget how much fun Michael Innes’ books can be. I sift through my shelves, searching for something to read, and flip them aside, no, no, no. But when I do finally brace myself and actually read them, I enjoy them. I say “often” because there are a few that are just exhausting and maybe that’s why I have to brace myself to read them.

This is one of the fun ones.

It starts with Assistant Chief of Scotland Yard, Sir John Appleby, and his wife, Judith, dining out. Once he’s softened up by a lovely meal, she suggests that they extend his lunch break by dropping in at a show – a one-man art show, in memory of an emerging artist who was recently murdered while the Applebys were out of the country on vacation. Appleby, nicely mellow by this point, relents, although he knows it will probably cost him a painting or two.

At the gallery, Appleby is barely able to register the artist’s piece de resistance, when it is stolen right out from under his nose. Odd, since the artist is nothing to write home about. Back at Scotland Yard, Appleby catches up on the crime he missed while he was on vacation, with his assistant, Cadover (an interesting enough character that Innes awards him a few books of his own). After running quickly through everything else (“oh yes, and the Duke of Horton wanted you to help him look for his aquarium and goldfish and silverfish”), finishing up with the case of the artist’s death. Cadover and Appleby visit the artist’s loft to walk through the case which has some interesting aspects: the apartment was violently searched but not for artwork, for something small enough to be tucked into a book; the lady who lives upstairs from the apartment has been missing since the night of the murder; and the night of the murder, the police were raiding the nightclub across the street, and the street and rooftops were filled with coppers.

Appleby notices one other odd thing: on the wall of the apartment, a small painting of two horses and a carriage, which he is pretty sure was painted in the 1750s by George Stubbs, which means it’s valuable enough that the scene of crime gang should have gathered it up and placed it in the evidence locker. It’s the end of a long day but Cadover has to go on to yet another crime scene; so Appleby takes the Stubbs home with him for the night. Walking in, he discovers that the Duke of Horton is dining (on Appleby’s dinner) with Judith. The Duke of Horton is delighted to catch him and even more delighted that Appleby has already found his favorite painting of his great-great-grandfather’s horses, Goldfish and Silverfish. The penny drops… and that means that the Aquarium that the Duke was inquiring about is the painting… Vermeer’s Aquarium? It is.

The book takes a wild turn after that, with both Appleby and Judith having wild adventures – Appleby on purpose; Judith accidentally, at first – ending with a wild chase across England, a gunfight, spies, amnesia.

And it all makes perfect sense when the pieces are put together!

Delightful, delightful!