Charles Honeybath Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| The Mysterious Commission |
1974 |
Buy |
| Honeybath’s Haven |
1978 |
Buy |
| Lord Mullion’s Secret |
1981 |
Buy |
| Appleby and Honeybath |
1983 |
Buy |
Inspector Appleby Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Death at the President’s Lodging / Seven Suspects |
1936 |
Buy |
| Hamlet, Revenge! |
1937 |
Buy |
| Lament for a Maker |
1938 |
Buy |
| Stop Press / The Spider Strikes |
1939 |
Buy |
| The Secret Vanguard |
1940 |
Buy |
| There Came Both Mist and Snow / A Comedy of Terrors |
1940 |
Buy |
| Appleby on Ararat |
1941 |
Buy |
| The Daffodil Affair |
1942 |
Buy |
| The Weight of the Evidence |
1943 |
Buy |
| Appleby’s End |
1945 |
Buy |
| A Night of Errors |
1948 |
Buy |
| Operation Pax / The Paper Thunderbolt |
1951 |
Buy |
| A Private View / One-Man Show / Murder Is an Art |
1952 |
Buy |
| Appleby Plays Chicken / Death On a Quiet Day |
1957 |
Buy |
| The Long Farewell |
1958 |
Buy |
| Hare Sitting Up |
1959 |
Buy |
| Silence Observed |
1961 |
Buy |
| A Connoisseur’s Case / The Crabtree Affair |
1962 |
Buy |
| The Bloody Wood |
1966 |
Buy |
| Appleby At Allington / Death By Water |
1968 |
Buy |
| A Family Affair / Picture of Guilt |
1969 |
Buy |
| Death at the Chase |
1970 |
Buy |
| An Awkward Lie |
1971 |
Buy |
| The Open House |
1972 |
Buy |
| Appleby’s Answer |
1973 |
Buy |
| Appleby’s Other Story |
1974 |
Buy |
| The Gay Phoenix |
1976 |
Buy |
| The Ampersand Papers |
1978 |
Buy |
| Sheiks and Adders |
1982 |
Buy |
| Appleby and Honeybath |
1983 |
Buy |
| Carson’s Conspiracy |
1984 |
Buy |
| Appleby and the Ospreys |
1986 |
Buy |
Inspector Appleby Collections Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Appleby Talking |
1954 |
Buy |
| Appleby Talks |
1954 |
Buy |
| Appleby Talks Again |
1956 |
Buy |
| Appleby Intervenes |
1965 |
Buy |
| The Appleby File |
1975 |
Buy |
| Appleby Talks About Crime |
2010 |
Buy |
J.I.M. Stewart Short Story Collections Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Cucumber Sandwiches, And Other Stories |
1969 |
Buy |
| The Bridge at Arta |
1982 |
Buy |
| My Aunt Christina |
1983 |
Buy |
| Parlour Four |
1986 |
Buy |
| Cucumber Sandwiches |
2011 |
Buy |
Murderous Christmas Stories Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Murder under the Christmas Tree: Ten Classic Crime Stories for the Festive Season |
2016 |
Buy |
| Murder on Christmas Eve |
2017 |
Buy |
| A Very Murderous Christmas: Ten Classic Crime Stories for the Festive Season |
2018 |
Buy |
Staircase In Surrey Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| The Gaudy |
1975 |
Buy |
| Young Pattullo |
1975 |
Buy |
| Memorial Service |
1976 |
Buy |
| The Madonna of The Astrolabe |
1977 |
Buy |
| Full Term |
1979 |
Buy |
Michael Innes was the pseudonym of J.I.M. Stewart (1906-1994), a Scottish novelist and Oxford academic. Between 1936 and 1986, he published nearly fifty crime novels and short story collections while maintaining a parallel career as a literary scholar and professor at Christ Church, Oxford.
His Inspector Appleby series, beginning with Death at the President’s Lodging (1936), defined “donnish detective fiction.” Appleby rises from Detective Inspector to Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police over the course of the series, and continues investigating crimes after retirement. The books are known for their literary allusions and wit.
Stewart also wrote fiction and criticism under his own name, including the Staircase in Surrey series and scholarly works on Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, and Joseph Conrad.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Michael Innes?
Michael Innes was the pen name of John Innes Mackintosh Stewart (1906-1994), a Scottish academic who was a professor at Oxford. He wrote crime fiction as Michael Innes and literary fiction and criticism under his real name.
Who is Inspector Appleby?
Sir John Appleby is Innes’s most famous detective, introduced in Death at the President’s Lodging (1936). He starts as a Detective Inspector at Scotland Yard and rises to Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police over the course of the series.
What is Innes's writing style like?
Innes’s mysteries are known for literary allusions, witty wordplay, and what critics called a ’tongue-in-cheek’ approach. Julian Symons classified him as a ‘farceur’ whose detective stories were literary conversation pieces with detection on the side.