If you recall all the epithets that have been used to describe Michael Innes' books in the past and repeat them [about Appleby and Honeybath], you will be pretty near the mark. A country house weekend, a body in a library, a most knowing butler and a houseful of rather eccentric guests would seem to be a recipe for a cliché-heavy whodunnit in the classic mould. Michael Innes does not exactly break the mould but he stands the clichés on their head with a flick of his whisk turns stodge into soufflé. As in Sheiks and Adders we can only marvel at what a long way a little style will make the old ingredients go…. Literature and art combine in the solution as they do in the book's composition. It is a slim volume but not one to gallop through, for its many pleasures of phrase...