Michael Innes, as experienced mystery readers know by now, is an Oxford don, and his suspense novels give us the kind of pleasures peculiar to Oxford dons. There is so much bel canto in them that the mystery assumes a secondary place, like the libretto of an opera. Yet, it could be maintained in his defense that wit, learning, civility and British eccentricity are all, in a sense, more mysterious than violence or crime.

In "Appleby and Honeybath," there are "lurking miscreants" who "pernoctate," or remain in residence day and night, and detectives who ponder "velleities," which means impulses at the lowest level of volition. When Appleby, who has retired from his position of commissioner of metropolitan police, is drawn into a mystery during a weekend visit to a country house, his approach is naturally "teleological," or directed to the study of ultimate ends.

"Appleby and Honeybath" has...