A Private View by Michael Innes

Unfortunately Amazon doesn’t have an image of the classic Penguin edition. My copy is an original which I was lucky enough to buy very cheaply along with a whole load of others in Edinburgh.

This book was first published in 1952 and I would say that it does have plenty of period atmosphere about it, which is always a pleasure to me. It’s liberally sprinkled with Humbers and Austin Sevens cars and mentions a florin in the very first page. Ah, the nostalgia of it all. If you aren’t that old you might not know that a florin was the name of a 2 shilling coin in the pre decimal days. I well remember getting a couple of them for my pocket-money in the 1960s. It is 10p in new money.

Anyway, back to the book. I really enjoyed this one. Appleby has been elevated to the dizzy heights of Assistant Commissioner of Police and has been given a knighthood.

Sir John and his wife Lady Appleby (who is an artist) visit a private view of the memorial exhibition of Gavin Limbert, a young artist who has recently been found dead in his flat, from a gunshot wound. Whilst at the exhibition one of the paintings is stolen and so begins the mystery involving more murders and lots of intrigue which I’m not going to elaborate here.

Lady Appleby, otherwise known as Judith does a fair bit of sleuthing in this story and there is also quite a lot of humour in it, always welcome, I think!

The night club in the story is called the Thomas Carlyle, a nod from one Scottish author to another. I can just hear Carlyle ‘birling’ in his grave.

Another character in the book is Moe Steptoe, a second-hand/junk dealer who even has a yard with double doors as in Steptoe and Son. This character was written at least 10 years before Ray Galton and Alan Simpson came up with Albert Steptoe. I can’t help thinking that one of them must have read A Private View and then forgotten about it and used the character and situation.

If you’re into vintage crime then you’ll probably enjoy this one and it’s also a very quick read at just 199 pages.

I do have a soft spot for vintage Penguin books. I know that the covers are very plain, but to me they are understated and classy!

2 thoughts on “A Private View by Michael Innes

    • I think I read The Ampersand Papers years ago but it must have been a library book as I don’t seem to have it. I think that if you enjoy vintage crime he’s definitely worth reading. I’m hoping to get through them all eventually.

      I remember that I enjoyed the books which he wrote under the name of J.I.M. Stewart too. He was obviously a very busy chap!

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