This one was published in 1981 and although it’s a fairly entertaining read I have to say that it’s completely different from the usual books published under the name of Michael Innes. There’s no murderer or real mystery to be detected.

It’s a Charles Honeybath mystery and Honeybath is a well-known portrait painter so when Lord Mullion invites Honeybath to his stately home so that he can paint Lady Mullion’s portrait we’re taken straight into that favourite environment of the mystery writer. It feels very like a vintage crime book for that reason and the only modern thing in the book is the television set which is carefully hidden behind panneling, away from the eyes of the paying public who tour Mullion Castle.

It’s more a romance than a mystery, although there is a wee bit of family mystery along the way. It’s very light-hearted and quite amusing at times, a comfort sort of read.

Charles Honeybath and Lord Mullion had been at boarding school together, in fact as Lord Mullion is younger he had been Honeybath’s ‘servant’. I suppose we all know that in those situations the younger lad is called a fag, but I hadn’t realised before that the older boy is called the fagmaster! Honestly, you have to laugh at the upper-class twittiness which probably still goes on at places like Eton. I wonder who was David Cameron’s fag!