The outrageous punning on Professor Pluckrose's death (The Weight of the Evidence, 1944), the flamboyant and likable professorial forger of The Long Farewell (1958), and the amusing escapades of the Patriarchs at Oxford (A Family Affair, 1969) testify to Innes's essential reverence for university tradition and innocence. He takes it for granted that his professors' learning is vast, their integrity almost unchallengeable, and their flaws not serious enough to discredit their calling.

A late Innes story seems to reveal a change of attitude. In An Awkward Lie (1971), Innes follows Bobby Appleby, son of the famous quotation-capping detective Sir John, back to his old prep school on the track of a murdered mathematics teacher…. Nostalgia takes over … as Bobby finds the carved desks, muddy football boots, and crumpled candy wrappings unchanged since his school days. When we discover that Overcombe houses a beautiful and good golden girl, an eccentric but sporting old...