3½ stars. I may up this after it has marinated in my mind for a while... this is one of the strangest mysteries I have ever read!

To quote from the book itself:
    "'We're in a sort of hodgepodge of fantasy and harum-scarum adventure that isn't a proper detective story at all. We might be by Michael Innes.'
    'Innes? I've never heard of him.'"

On the surface, the book is about Inspector Appleby investigating a stolen cab horse but Innes uses this book to make (and IMO belabor) the point that reason and logic were losing the battle with gullibility (in 1942!). As the 'bad guy' puts it: "And it is thus that Science puts out the lamps of reason ... clearing the way for world-wide superstition." Many of the points he makes about this growing superstition could be still made today (perhaps with even more validity). However, Scotland Yard sending two experienced detectives to South America to look for two girls, a horse, and a house in the midst of World War 2 was stretching the limits of my credulity to the utmost and is one reason this doesn't get a higher rating.

( )

Sorry,this just didn't work for me,the story is just completely over the top,...There are eccentric ladies,disappearing young girls,mad scientist but frankly nothing makes sense.... ( )

Sorry,this just didn't work for me. Kidnapped girls,eccentric ladies,a plot that was all over the place and nothing that made any sense... ( )

This is the first book I have read by the prolific Michael Innes, the pseudonym for an Oxford professor who wrote many, more learned works under his own name. This will certainly not be the last Innes book I read.

Published in 1942, while the author appears to have been teaching in Australia, this is one of the most peculiar mysteries I have read--if, indeed, you want to call it a mystery at all. The three occurrences at the story's beginning are the theft of an apparently half-witted, worthless draught horse, the disappearance of an apparently (there is a pattern here) half-witted girl, and the disappearance of an entire house, noted for its history of hauntings, from a London Square.

Inspector Appleby is placed on the horse case to humor his superior's well-connected sister, Lady Caroline, whose favorite draught horse Daffodil (the horse's name) was. No sooner is Appleby on his way to the scene of the crime in Harrogate than a chance occurrence convinces him that the case is more complicated than it appears--and that a witch is involved! Meanwhile, Appleby's colleague Hudspith is on the trail of the missing girl. Of course, that ends up being connected, too, and before you know it they are on a boat for South America with a curious group of fellow passengers.

I won't describe more of the plot, which turns largely from mystery to suspense by the final section of the book. What I will touch upon is what makes this book so interesting and so much fun--at least for this reader--a survey of internet opinion turns up a wide variety of reactions. If you're looking for a straightforward mystery of that period, you're out of luck. This book stands alone. It is a tongue-in-cheek, farcical, occasionally laugh-out-loud, but also, in its way, very serious work of wartime thinking. Innes posits a post-war world increasingly ruled by a manipulative madman who uses magic and superstition to entrance his followers. The parallels to our current post-Trump, post-Truth world are uncanny.

One can assume, this being a series, that Appleby (and Hudspith) will win out. The fun is watching how they manage it. This includes receiving help from some unexpected sources, who are much deeper thinkers than you would expect, beginning with Appleby's Aunt, who also resides in Harrogate and is a good friend of Lady Caroline. In unravelling the motivations for the three events that initiate the story, Appleby immerses himself in various literature about hauntings and the supernatural, including some old documents, which the author quotes. These are actual cases you can look up for yourself if you wish. The way Innes weaves them into the story is very effective.

It is a fascinating, highly unusual, and very satisfying read. The ending is in keeping with the droll aspects that infuse the narrative. Just go into this with an open mind, no expectations, and--if you can--without reading any plot spoilers on the book's cover or in reviews. This is escape literature at its finest, because, at its heart, it makes a serious point. ( )

This is the first book I have read by the prolific Michael Innes, the pseudonym for an Oxford professor who wrote many, more learned works under his own name. This will certainly not be the last Innes book I read.

Published in 1942, while the author appears to have been teaching in Australia, this is one of the most peculiar mysteries I have read--if, indeed, you want to call it a mystery at all. The three occurrences at the story's beginning are the theft of an apparently half-witted, worthless draught horse, the disappearance of an apparently (there is a pattern here) half-witted girl, and the disappearance of an entire house, noted for its history of hauntings, from a London Square.

Inspector Appleby is placed on the horse case to humor his superior's well-connected sister, Lady Caroline, whose favorite draught horse Daffodil (the horse's name) was. No sooner is Appleby on his way to the scene of the crime in Harrogate than a chance occurrence convinces him that the case is more complicated than it appears--and that a witch is involved! Meanwhile, Appleby's colleague Hudspith is on the trail of the missing girl. Of course, that ends up being connected, too, and before you know it they are on a boat for South America with a curious group of fellow passengers.

I won't describe more of the plot, which turns largely from mystery to suspense by the final section of the book. What I will touch upon is what makes this book so interesting and so much fun--at least for this reader--a survey of internet opinion turns up a wide variety of reactions. If you're looking for a straightforward mystery of that period, you're out of luck. This book stands alone. It is a tongue-in-cheek, farcical, occasionally laugh-out-loud, but also, in its way, very serious work of wartime thinking. Innes posits a post-war world increasingly ruled by a manipulative madman who uses magic and superstition to entrance his followers. The parallels to our current post-Trump, post-Truth world are uncanny.

One can assume, this being a series, that Appleby (and Hudspith) will win out. The fun is watching how they manage it. This includes receiving help from some unexpected sources, who are much deeper thinkers than you would expect, beginning with Appleby's Aunt, who also resides in Harrogate and is a good friend of Lady Caroline. In unravelling the motivations for the three events that initiate the story, Appleby immerses himself in various literature about hauntings and the supernatural, including some old documents, which the author quotes. These are actual cases you can look up for yourself if you wish. The way Innes weaves them into the story is very effective.

It is a fascinating, highly unusual, and very satisfying read. The ending is in keeping with the droll aspects that infuse the narrative. Just go into this with an open mind, no expectations, and--if you can--without reading any plot spoilers on the book's cover or in reviews. This is escape literature at its finest, because, at its heart, it makes a serious point. ( )