It took me a little while to adjust to the dialect of one of the narrators but once I did this was a rewarding read. The setting in a remote Scottish hamlet and castle was very atmospheric and there was an intriguing variety of characters despite the claustrophobic setting. Definitely worth reading if you’re in the mood for a challenging yet entertaining mystery.

I found the Scottish dialect quite slow going at first. I'd have liked more inspector Appleby as he doesn't come into the book until about three quarters of the way through. The ending was good. Not my favourite Inspector Appleby book but it's worth a read.

To be honest this book wasn't for me. It was well written but I found I couldn't get invested in the story. I'm really sorry.

The preamble for this book had caught my eye so I was looking forward to the read. Unfortunately I struggled with the dialect used and didnt make it through to the end. I started out using Dictionary for explanations until that became a bit of a chore and too much of a distraction..
I am not one of the readers this was suited to and cannot provide a proper review. Apologies to Netgalley and the publisher. Note: I selected one star so my comments would send.

If you can shoulder your way past the Scots dialect (I spent a lot of the time reading aloud in order to understand the dialogue) you'll be rewarded with a just OK Inspector Appleby mystery - this one leans in hard on the melodrama but the multiple viewpoints approach is engaging so I'd say give this one a shot.

A Scottish castle,an isolated village,quirky villagers and an eccentric Lord. All the right ingredients for a classic mystery. The story is made up of different parts told by different characters. And it works were it not for the first character who writes as he speaks with plenty of Scottish words and expressions. Not always evident...Still the storyline is good and the outcome of the mystery is not obvious.
3,5 stars

I was unable to finish this book, the dialect was hard to follow so I moved on to something else.

Lament for a Maker is a novel that will not appeal to a wide audience.  The first half is written in the local Scottish dialect.  This gives flavor and helps build the setting, but it also is hard going for readers.  As in the other novels that I’ve read by Michael Innes, Lament for a Maker takes its sweet time to reach the heart of the plot.  I fear that many readers will be driven away by the difficult to read passages or worse - by boredom.  Once you reach the heart of the mystery, things quickly liven up and become far more twisted and interesting.  It’s obvious that Michael Innes revels in his cleverness, but his attempts at making things more real tend to be more offputting than immersive.
Inspector Appleby doesn’t enter until readers enter the latter half of the book.  Unlike the majority of British Police Procedurals, the Inspector plays only a small role in the novel.  Personally I prefer more traditionally styled procedurals.  
Is Lament for a Maker cleverly plotted and put together, yes.  Is it entertaining - that’s a far more difficult question to answer.  For some, maybe.  I can’t honestly answer yes.

3 / 5

I received a copy of Lament for a Maker from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

--Crittermom

This book was difficult for me at first. It just wouldn't click for me and then it did. Turned out to be a very good book and I am glad I read it.

Having read the previous book in the Inspector Appleby series (Hamlet, Revenge!) I thought I knew what to expect from this one, but I was wrong – this book has a very different feel and structure and despite being published in 1938, it’s not a typical Golden Age mystery novel at all.

The title is taken from a 16th century Scottish poem by William Dunbar (the word maker, also spelled makar, means a poet or court poet). The Latin refrain Timor mortis conturbat me – fear of death disturbs me – is repeated throughout the poem and sets the tone for Innes’ novel. Ranald Guthrie, the miserly laird of Erchany Castle has been killed falling from the ramparts of his own tower on a cold winter night, but was he pushed, was it an accident or could it have been a suicide attempt? If it was murder, then there is one very obvious culprit. There is much more to the situation than meets the eye, however, and as the story unfolds more suspects and possible scenarios begin to emerge.

The novel is written from the perspectives of several different characters who each take it in turns to narrate their part of the story. My favourite was the first, Ewan Bell, a shoemaker who lives in Kinkeig in Scotland. It is Ewan who sets the scene, introduces us to the other main characters in the novel and describes the events leading up to Guthrie’s death – all in his own distinctive voice, complete with plenty of Scots dialect! Lots of authors have written books with multiple narrators but I haven’t come across many (apart from Wilkie Collins) who actually succeed in giving each narrator a unique voice of their own. This is one of the best attempts I’ve read for a while. It’s not just the style and structure which make this such an enjoyable novel, though; the mystery itself is also a good one, with twist following upon twist as the end of the book approaches.

As for Inspector Appleby himself, he doesn’t appear until two thirds of the way through the book when the mystery is already half solved and theories have been suggested. Although the novel is clearly set in the 1930s, there are times when both the story and the book itself feel as though they belong to a much earlier period (it reminded me very strongly of The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson and it seems I’m not the only one to make that connection). This makes me wonder whether Innes may really have wanted to write a historical mystery but couldn’t as he needed to make it part of the Appleby series. That would explain why Appleby makes such a late appearance, almost as an afterthought. Anyway, Appleby or no Appleby, I loved this one and am looking forward to working through the rest of Michael Innes' novels.

I was drawn by the description of this book but unfortunately I had to put it away after just a couple of pages. It is too confusing for me. Although I like reading (very) old books (I’m a big fan of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins), this book was either too old for me or it’s just not for me.
I grade it three stars because it is not the authors’ fault I made the mistake to request this book.

Ranald Guthrie, the laird of Erchany, is widely considered to be mad by those who live on his lands. He is a miser who lives in seclusion and his behavior seems to be increasingly erratic.

Late one night he is observed falling from the highest tower of his run-down castle and is found dead in the snow below. Did his madness drive him to commit suicide or was his death an act of murder?

If that seems like a very general summary of the novel it reflects how difficult it is to write about it without spoiling it heavily. The book is an oddity, being constructed of several sections written from the perspectives of different characters that often overlap in the events they depict, casting them in different lights as we learn more information.

This is an interesting approach in theory and its success will likely depend on how much you like the characterizations of the different narrators. I will certainly credit Innes for managing to create several distinctive voices and personalities for these narrators and I did appreciate that each takes on a slightly different style reflecting that character’s outlook.

Now, I should say at this point that I have never really cared for the idea of writing in dialect. I accept it when it happens and will certainly admit that it can convey a strong sense of place or character but it is also an unnecessary obstacle for the reader. In Lament for a Maker, the entire first third of the book is written in Scots dialect and although I lived for years in Glasgow and had a Scottish grandmother, I found deciphering the text to be a chore. It is not that it is impossible to decipher – Innes is good at situating dialect terms in a context where their meaning is generally quite clear – but it slows the pace down for anyone who is not familiar with the terms.

What makes this approach all the more frustrating is that while almost all of the characters involved in the story and narrating sections are Scottish, none of the other characters narrating do the same. It may have added mood and atmosphere but I think more selective use of Scots terms could have had the same effect and made the work more accessible.

Once we transition to the second narrator I found it much easier to engage with the work and to follow what was happening. The story’s structure mean it is constructed less like a traditional whodunit and more as a haunting, highly literate Gothic mystery told by a series of narrators who simply do not have the complete story. It is an interesting approach to take and I did find many of the answers provided to be quite surprising and satisfying.

Erchany is a compelling setting for a story and I did find the descriptions of its crumbling architecture and the infestation of rats to be extremely effective at setting the scenes and creating a haunting atmosphere. At times the narrative seems to skirt on the edge of the supernatural in some of the elements it employs though in the end the story is quite rational and driven by its characters’ psychology. I certainly would describe myself as being generally satisfied by the solution.

The book’s chief problem is that its stylistic and structural choices dominate the storytelling, creating a book that delivers plenty of atmosphere but which suffers from a lack of clear storytelling focus. I gather that this is not the typical sort of structure that Innes would create, so if you are curious to sample his work I would suggest that you may want to start with one of his other stories.

There is one other thing I should mention which is, again, an example of how this book is somewhat atypical. You may be puzzled how I managed to write over six hundred words without commenting on the story’s sleuth, Sir John Appleby, who would go on to appear in many other stories. The reason I haven’t commented on the character is that their role in this story is extremely minimal and, when he does appear, he hardly makes an impact.

The lack of a strong presence for a sleuth does not diminish the mystery or its solution. This is a clever tale and one that has a lot of personality. I am not sure, on reflection, whether I would have wanted this to be my first experience of Innes’ style if I had known how different it is from his other works. Still, it builds atmosphere masterfully and I did respect Innes’ skill at creating several distinct narrative voices. While I won’t be rushing to read any further works by Innes, I am sure I will return to him at some point.

This was the first book of Innes' I had actually read. It is the third book in the Appleby series.

I have to admit it was a bit slow going in the beginning- 4 narrators, 1 in heavy Scottish dialect, can make the readers head spin just a tad! Add in more narrators along the way and the book might be best read in spurts, so as not to confuse you too much, and to allow your brain to think on what has occurred and try to put all the pieces together easier.There are a few twists and turns to stymy the reader, and the final account might be a bit of a surprise. i'd call this the hardest of the mysteries today to read, but a good example of how the mystery series evolved!

I had a bit of trouble getting into this book, maybe it was the Scottish accent/writing, and I almost gave up. But I did continue and found it to be a very good, and in turn had trouble putting it down. Many surprised and red herring, told with many narratives to the final conclusion of the crime. Michael Innes never ceases to surprise and keep ones interest.

3 stars

Michael Innes was a fantastic author. But this book is not one of my favorites. The book was well written, as is Mr. Innes’ usual style. However, the story seemed to meander – at least for me. Some of the Scottish words I couldn’t grasp, although I usually enjoy books written in the local dialect.

The Laird of Erchany Ranald Guthrie mysteriously dies after falling from the castle wall in a snowstorm. Was he murdered? Suicide? Haunted by ghosts? He is little mourned, for the village people did not like him. He lived in an old run-down castle filled with vermin and all kinds of filth. Some believed him to be out of his mind. This was mostly due to his eccentric behavior.

Inspector Appleby is called in to investigate the mishap. He finds the old castle distasteful, but goes about his investigation efficiently.

This story is told from several points of view which is a little confusing. All in all not too bad a story, but not this author’s best.

I want to thank NetGalley and Ipso Books for forwarding to me a copy of this book to read and enjoy.

Lament for a Maker is another kettle of fish, though it shares something of the Scottish Castle locked-rooms mystery, with varieties of twists coming out of and into the stone work in a kind of Scottish Gothic. The book seems to have been written largely in order to celebrate William Dunbar’s long memorial celebration of his dead fellow-poets, ‘Lament for the Makaris’, with its ghoulish refrain, ‘Timor mortis conturbat me’. It is winter, it has been and continues to snow; lochs are freezing, and almost ten miles from the nearest village an elderly Laird is making himself as unloved and unlovable as possible, with a very few retainers, including the factor, who makes Lurch look civilised and his crazed spouse. Already one young woman has fled, and his niece (if she is his niece) is on the point of eloping with a handsome young man who belongs to a family—now sunk to the state of crofters--that belongs to a 500 hundred year old feud with the Laird. There are several narrators, including one who appeared previously in Hamlet, Revenge! The first narrator is a depiction of someone who takes Laland Scots for granted, and he is not the easiest writer to read. Like the cobbler, Hans Sachs, in Wagner’s Meistersinger, he has a great deal of wisdom, and even more canniness. In the shared memoir of Michael Innes and J.I.M. Stewart, there is a mention of the year after graduating from Oxford, without anything in the way of future plans, beyond spending a year in Austria. I would like to think it was because of Freud, but that is no doubt wishful.