DEATH AT THE CHASE

Michael Innes (J. I. M . Stewart)

ISBN 10: 0575003138 / ISBN 13: 9780575003132

Published by Victor Gollancz, London, 1970

About this Item

First impression of the true first edition. ***Near fine in red cloth-covered boards with gilt titles to spine. Pages clean. Spine tight. ***In a near fine yellow, black and magenta titled dustwrapper that has not been price-clipped, showing original publisher's price of 21/- net. Edges of dustwrapper slightly creased and rubbed. Dustwrapper bright. ***192mm x 130mm. 175 pages. ***'In his last book, A Family Affair, Michael Innes provided us with a splendid surprise: the arrival on the scene of Appleby's engaging undergraduate son, Bobby, who soon revealed that he has much of his father's flair as a detective. Here he is again - and playing a bigger role this time, though the great Sir John still holds the centre of the stage and provides the solution of a particular knotty case. ***The story opens with Michael Innes's characteristic extravagance and panache. Appleby is taking a country walk and, amiably trespassing, has a curious encounter with the lord of a neighbouring manor, the aged Martyn Ashmore. Ashmore is in a state of belligerent fear and accuses Appleby of having designs on his life. Appleby probes a little and learns that during the war Ashmore once cracked under Nazi interrogation and torture, which led to the massacre of many Resistance fighters, and that ever since on the anniversary of that day, an attempt is made on his life.' (Quote from inside front of dustwrapper blurb). ***Prof John Innes Mackintosh Stewart HFRSE DLitt (1906 - 1994) was a Scottish novelist and academic. Michael Innes is the pseudonym of J. I. M. Stewart, who was a lecturer at Queens College, Belfast and later was an Oxford University professor. Under his pseudonym, Michael Innes, he wrote nearly fifty crime thrillers between 1936 and 1986. His most famous character is Sir John Appleby, a Scotland Yard Detective Inspector. He is known for his works of literary criticism and literary novels published under his real name, and for his crime fiction books published under his pseudonym of Michael Innes. Readers knew of Michael Innes crime thrillers; other readers knew the literary novels and short stories and literary criticism under the name of J. I. M. Stewart, but not many people were aware this was the same author. However, his crime thrillers, although he considered these to be entertainments, make frequent literary allusions. ***First impression of the true first edition in is original dustwrapper, in nice collectable condition. ***Of interest to collectors of Michael Innes first edition titles and J. I. M. Stewart. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.

Seller Inventory # 6352

Bibliographic Details

• Title: DEATH AT THE CHASE
• Publisher: Victor Gollancz, London
• Publication Date: 1970
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0575003138
• ISBN 13: 9780575003132
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition
• Printing: First Impression
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Crime Fiction & True Crime
  • Literature
  • First Editions

About this title

Synopsis

Sir John Appleby, retired Chief Commissioner, thinks Martyn Ashmore is suffering from senile delusions. Ashmore has accused Sir John of wanting to kill him. However after a large stone block falls from a roof and the two men narrowly escape death, Sir John decides to investigate.

About the Author

Born in Edinburgh in 1906, the son of the city's Director of Education, John Innes Mackintosh Stewart wrote a highly successful series of mystery stories under the pseudonym Michael Innes. Innes was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, where he was presented with the Matthew Arnold Memorial Prize and named a Bishop Frazer's scholar. After graduation he went to Vienna, to study Freudian psychoanalysis for a year and following his first book, an edition of Florio's translation of Montaigne, was offered a lectureship at the University of Leeds. In 1932 he married Margaret Hardwick, a doctor, and they subsequently had five children including Angus, also a novelist. The year 1936 saw Innes as Professor of English at the University of Adelaide, during which tenure he wrote his first mystery story, 'Death at the President's Lodging'. With his second, 'Hamlet Revenge', Innes firmly established his reputation as a highly entertaining and cultivated writer. After the end of World War II, Innes returned to the UK and spent two years at Queen's University, Belfast where in 1949 he wrote the 'Journeying Boy', a novel notable for the richly comedic use of an Irish setting. He then settled down as a Reader in English Literature at Christ Church, Oxford, from which he retired in 1973. His most famous character is 'John Appleby', who inspired a penchant for donnish detective fiction that lasts to this day. Innes's other well-known character is 'Honeybath', the painter and rather reluctant detective, who first appeared in 1975 in 'The Mysterious Commission'. The last novel, 'Appleby and the Ospreys', was published in 1986, some eight years before his death in 1994. 'A master - he constructs a plot that twists and turns like an electric eel: it gives you shock upon shock and you cannot let go.' - Times Literary Supplement.