Hamlet, Revenge!

I've never read a novel quite like this. I definitely enjoyed it, but I think I'll have to reread it to fully appreciate it.

I have read Hamlet, Revenge! A number of times over the years and I still get a lot of pleasure from it. It was first published in 1937, which shows very plainly in the language, the assumptions about the reader's literary knowledge and the attitudes. It's a period piece, in other words, and a very good one.

The plot hinges on a murder committed during a production of Hamlet in a large country house. The redoubtable Inspector Appleby investigates as possibilities of pre-war espionage and the inevitable personal motives emerge. It is, like all Innes's plots, dense and intricate, and depends upon minutiae of sightlines in a 16th-Century theatre, a pretty detailed knowledge of Hamlet and so on. I rather like this, and Innes's enjoyable prose and dry wit add to the pleasure – including one wonderfully amusing and memorable, if wholly absurd, escape from pursuit in a formal garden.

This isn't a light read and does require more intellectual engagement than many Golden Age detective novels, but it's still very rewarding and is regarded by many as a classic of the genre. Recommended.

(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)

Published in 1937, this is the second in Michael Innes' series of detective novels featuring Inspector John Appleby. However, Appleby doesn’t appear until the second section of the novel – the first part is devoted to setting the scene and introducing the very large cast of characters. As with many Golden Age mysteries, the action takes place in an English country house – in this case, Scamnum Court, which has been home to the Dukes of Horton for centuries. The novel opens with friends and acquaintances of the family beginning to arrive at Scamnum to take part in an amateur production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. When one of the guests is murdered during the performance, Appleby is called in to investigate.

This is a wonderfully complex mystery, even more so because Appleby doesn’t know exactly what type of crime has been committed. The murdered man was an important statesman whose death could have serious implications for the government, giving rise to fears that spies are operating at Scamnum Court. On the other hand, a series of revenge-themed messages received by the victim and several other guests indicate that this could be a crime of a more personal nature. With a long list of potential suspects – we are told that there are more than thirty people involved in the play in some way – Appleby is kept busy trying to establish alibis and uncover motives, while avoiding the red herrings that are thrown in his way.

After a slightly overwhelming start (due to the number of characters and the detailed background information on Scamnum Court), once Appleby arrives on the scene and begins his inquiries the pace picks up and the story becomes quite gripping. It’s the sort of mystery I love: one with plenty of clues and several possible solutions – although of course only one is correct, and we have to wait until the end of the novel before everything is revealed. It’s also a very erudite and literary mystery; as well as lots of discussion and analysis of Hamlet, there are also a number of other literary allusions and references. If you know your Shakespeare you will probably get more out of the novel, but if not, don’t worry as it isn’t completely essential.

Although this is described as an Appleby novel, much of the story is actually written from the perspective of one of the other characters, Giles Gott, an academic who also writes crime novels under a pseudonym. As Michael Innes himself is a pseudonym (he also wrote using his real name of J.I.M. Stewart), I wondered whether Gott was a way for Innes to project some of his own personality into the story. There seems to be a previous friendship between the characters of Appleby and Gott, whom I have found out also appears in the first book in the series which I haven’t read yet; I don’t know whether he is in any of the others.

I really enjoyed Hamlet, Revenge! and am looking forward to reading more by Michael Innes.