I loved this so much that I have been avidly collecting any of Innes' books that I have come across, so much so that I have a nice little collection. Though I don't have a physical copy of this one, I will be investing in the entire series for my own personal collection of classic crime novels.

The combination of Hamlet and a murder mystery worked well, with Innes weaving the two threads together very skilfully. The theatrical element brought something new to the traditional country house setting, and worked well as a means of bringing a wide range of characters together.

An Inspector Appleby mystery from the very talented pen of Michael Innes. The action takes place during an amateur production of Hamlet, with more twists and turns than I could mention. The writing is clever and wryly witty. The plot is a complex one, the character list a long one. Not a relaxing detective read by any stretch (keep your wits about you!) but certainly a cleverly written, intelligent period piece of fiction which makes for an engrossing read.

Literate and well researched, Hamlet, Revenge is both entertaining and intellectually stimulating. The large cast of characters is well developed, as is necessary for a character driven mystery. It isn’t your average manor house mystery by any means.

At the vast Seamnum Court, an amateur performance of Hamlet with a cast of scholars, politicians, aristocrats, bohemians and one singular actor is being staged. Anyone who is anyone plans to attend. But a glittering performance is marred, first by odd threats quoting Shakespeare, then by the murder of the Duke of Horton. Inspector Appleby is tasked with the investigation, not only because the Duke was so esteemed but also because in his care was a document which foreign spies would desperately like to get their hands on. Was the murder for personal reasons, or was he killed for the document? The question is a troubling one, especially when matters are complicated by another murder. The suspects are numerous.

Hamlet, Revenge is a bit slow going at times, but it is exceedingly well crafted. Originally published before 1940, it stands the test of time quite well.

4 / 5

I received a copy of Hamlet, Revenge from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

--Crittermom

An interesting example of the country house/house party murder; it's an embarrassment of riches for potential killers (be prepared to do some heavy lifting in the first few chapters to get all your players clear) down to a manor home for a clear purpose with plenty of intricate relations between the main characters . There's a lot of cardboard British mystery-ness here so don't expect a lament for the dead or much emotional revelation, which is cool with me but may not go down so well for more contemporary mystery fans. And, perhaps, Mr. Innes goes one side road too many with regard to Shakespeare, Hamlet, and academia in general? A strong recommend.

This book is considered to be one of the classic "locked room" mystery novels. If that's the case, this typeof mystery is best left to short stories and novellas. The padding in this book makes it tedious and uninteresting to read.

During an amateur production of Hamlet in the reconstructed Elizabethan banquet hall at a large country house, a player is murdered. The locked room is the banquet hall. Scotland Yard is sent to investigate.

Yes, there are eccentric characters. Yes there are other murders. Yes the red herrings are ankle-high on the ground. All this is window-dressing to a plot that would have made a great novella but flounders here in a sea of exposition and recapitulation of what is known.

If you want a taste of this classic mystery writer, start with another book.

Published in 1937, this is the second in Michael Innes' series of detective novels featuring Inspector John Appleby. However, Appleby doesn’t appear until the second section of the novel – the first part is devoted to setting the scene and introducing the very large cast of characters. As with many Golden Age mysteries, the action takes place in an English country house – in this case, Scamnum Court, which has been home to the Dukes of Horton for centuries. The novel opens with friends and acquaintances of the family beginning to arrive at Scamnum to take part in an amateur production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. When one of the guests is murdered during the performance, Appleby is called in to investigate.

This is a wonderfully complex mystery, even more so because Appleby doesn’t know exactly what type of crime has been committed. The murdered man was an important statesman whose death could have serious implications for the government, giving rise to fears that spies are operating at Scamnum Court. On the other hand, a series of revenge-themed messages received by the victim and several other guests indicate that this could be a crime of a more personal nature. With a long list of potential suspects – we are told that there are more than thirty people involved in the play in some way – Appleby is kept busy trying to establish alibis and uncover motives, while avoiding the red herrings that are thrown in his way.

After a slightly overwhelming start (due to the number of characters and the detailed background information on Scamnum Court), once Appleby arrives on the scene and begins his inquiries the pace picks up and the story becomes quite gripping. It’s the sort of mystery I love: one with plenty of clues and several possible solutions – although of course only one is correct, and we have to wait until the end of the novel before everything is revealed. It’s also a very erudite and literary mystery; as well as lots of discussion and analysis of Hamlet, there are also a number of other literary allusions and references. If you know your Shakespeare you will probably get more out of the novel, but if not, don’t worry as it isn’t completely essential.

Although this is described as an Appleby novel, much of the story is actually written from the perspective of one of the other characters, Giles Gott, an academic who also writes crime novels under a pseudonym. As Michael Innes himself is a pseudonym (he also wrote using his real name of J.I.M. Stewart), I wondered whether Gott was a way for Innes to project some of his own personality into the story. There seems to be a previous friendship between the characters of Appleby and Gott, whom I have found out also appears in the first book in the series which I haven’t read yet; I don’t know whether he is in any of the others.

I really enjoyed Hamlet, Revenge! and am looking forward to reading more by Michael Innes.

I have read Hamlet, Revenge! A number of times over the years and I still get a lot of pleasure from it. It was first published in 1937, which shows very plainly in the language, the assumptions about the reader's literary knowledge and the attitudes. It's a period piece, in other words, and a very good one.

The plot hinges on a murder committed during a production of Hamlet in a large country house. The redoubtable Inspector Appleby investigates as possibilities of pre-war espionage and the inevitable personal motives emerge. It is, like all Innes's plots, dense and intricate, and depends upon minutiae of sightlines in a 16th-Century theatre, a pretty detailed knowledge of Hamlet and so on. I rather like this, and Innes's enjoyable prose and dry wit add to the pleasure – including one wonderfully amusing and memorable, if wholly absurd, escape from pursuit in a formal garden.

This isn't a light read and does require more intellectual engagement than many Golden Age detective novels, but it's still very rewarding and is regarded by many as a classic of the genre. Recommended.

(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)

I'm sorry, but I couldn't finish this book. The language and dialect mad either difficult to decipher, and ultimately, it wasn't interesting enough to keep trying.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Ipso Books for a review copy of Hamlet, Revenge!, a country house police procedural originally published in 1937.

The Duchess of Horton is putting on an Elizabethan Hamlet in the great hall. The majority of the actors are friends and family so when Polonius, aka Lord Auldearn, the Lord Chancellor, is shot during the performance the list of suspects is under 30. To complicate matters the Prime Minister suspects spies as Lord Aulderdean had some secret documents with him and various members of the Dast have been receiving strange messages. Inspector Appleby has his hands full.

There is no doubt that Hamlet, Revenge! is a clever novel. It is chock full of literary quotations and allusions, intellectual characters, a convoluted plot and takes a few mocking swipes at detective fiction which seems to be regarded as a bit lowbrow and embarrassing. Well, I don't mind being regarded as lowbrow as I found the novel to be pretentious twaddle.

I didn't realise what I was in for when I picked this novel to read as I was expecting a Golden Age police procedural so I found the detached style of writing extremely difficult to connect with and quite boring - it takes 25% of the novel to set the scene leading up to the murder and even then the investigation is full of discussion about the psychology of the crime (yawn). The quotations and literary allusions went right over my head and I didn't care enough to investigate. I admit that some of the psychology is good and apt, not as old fashioned as it might have been and I found the casual racism in the novel interesting as a reflection of the era although it made me shudder.

Hamlet, Revenge! is an interesting read in its curiosity value but its style did not appeal to me.