This is a wonderful collection of Inspector Appleby stories, with all of the eloquence and intricate puzzles you'd expect to find in the novels.

A collection of 18 short tales of mystery and suspense featuring Sir John Appleby. A real mixed bag of tales covering several themes. However, all from the pen of the talented Michael Innes and all well written, quirky and often very witty indeed. Classic crime to be consumed in one gulp or else sipped at leisure. Very enjoyable.

I haven't read a lot of the Appleby books but I hear about Innes' work on the Classic Mysteries podcast quite often. That made me very excited to see this book on NetGalley and even more delighted to get the ARC. The stories are interesting but very short which makes it hard for a plot to really develop. They were interesting, to be sure but I also felt the lack of character development. I really suspect it would be different had I read more Appleby stories.

Three stars
This book came out November 19
ARC kindly provided by publisher and NetGalley

Appleby Talks Again is a re-release of the 15th book in the Inspector Appleby series. Written by Michael Innes and originally published in 1954, this collection of 16 stories, one novella, and a chapter excerpt, is now reformatted and available to a new generation of classic mystery readers.

The Appleby books are humorous light reading. Most of them are pastiches having the format of Sir John at a party or other social occasion, retelling what happened previously concerning a case. Many of these included stories are very cleverly constructed and the short format means that the plotting is very spare and fast paced. I was interested to see that the ersatz art dealer Mr. Braunkopf makes cameo appearances in several of these stories. He (Braunkopf a.k.a Hildebert Brown) first appeared in the very first Appleby mystery, 1952's A Private View ( One Man Show in the USA).

The included stories in this collection are a mixed lot, but I would put the majority in the 3.5 - 4.5 star range. They are humorous, light, comical, and quintessentially British. There is nothing objectionable or graphic.

I enjoyed them all.

Four stars, comfort reading.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

These 18 Appleby mysteries are in an old-school, genteel style, reminiscent of early Agatha Christie. The stories vary in length. A couple are substantial, but some are so short as to seem like Encyclopedia Brown puzzles for adults--the difference being that the reader sometimes lacks information necessary to solve the crime. The solution often hinges on some observation made by Appleby that isn't disclosed to the reader until the detective reveals it to his mystified audience in the book. This makes the mysteries more of a spectator sport than a solve-it-yourself participatory game. The way to enjoy these is to accept that and just enjoy the ride for what it is-- a quaint, pleasant throwback to an earlier style of mystery fiction.

A quick and enjoyable read - even though a few of these mysteries were confounding to me. I particularly like the stories in which Appleby regales a dinner party in these collections, as the party-goers usually interject with the same frustrations or questions that I have. Perfect while tucked up in bed with a cup of tea (or brandy). Recommended!

I thought this batch of almost twenty short stories, all about Sir John Appleby, is superior to the previous collection, Appleby Talks. They seem tighter and the reader’s attention is grabbed sooner. After all, wouldn’t you want to know why “Grey’s ghost was black” or to read about Mr Enigma Jones? The stories vary in length a lot: the first, A Matter of Goblins, takes approximately a quarter of the book. Some of the remaining stories are only a few pages long (and that is not a criticism – they are still excellent, well-written pieces; they are just short).

I confess I have a weak spot for tales that feature Hildebert Braunkopf, the art dealer whose English is somewhat idiosyncratic, e.g. “What losses, Sir John, what dogostrophes for the world of art.” I’m delighted that he reappears in this book.

My only criticism is that, in some stories, Appleby states that the mystery was easily solved and, indeed, suggests that the solution is obvious. All I can say is, “Not to me it wasn’t, old sport!”

#ApplebyTalksAgain #NetGalley

A very enjoyable collection of short stories in the Appleby series. I think these work best if read as part of the series as it can be difficult to get to know the character from this book alone.

I enjoyed these short stories featuring Sir John Appleby, assistant commissioner of New Scotland Yard. Author Michael Innes, as always, fills these short stories with sly humor, subtle wit, some over the top characters and lots of references to art and literature. The short story format isn’t really conducive to much character development, (probably the reason for some of those exaggerated characters), but they do showcase Appleby’s formidable intelligence and crime solving ability.

I think that these short stories will be most enjoyable to those who have already gotten to know Appleby in a novel or two.

Illusion and deception, these are the themes linking the seventeen stories of varied length presented here. The most successful are “A Matter of Goblins”, “Grey’s Ghost”, and “The Four Seasons”, the latter having shades of M.R. James. Some of the shorter entries are little more than sketches which may have been ideas for novels never written.

Many demonstrate the author’s love of language, literature and visual art. Overall, this was a less satisfying collection than the earlier “Appleby Talks”, but I may simply have read them too close together.

It might be better to treat this as a book to be dipped into, rather than read at one sitting - small chocolate eclairs, however delicious, ought not to be consumed in quantity, all at once.

Thank you to NetGalley and Agora Books for the digital review copy.