I read this book for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge hosted over
at My
Reader’s Block from January 1 – December 31, 2017. The challenge is to read
books that you already own.
Money from Holme
– Michael Innes
Up and coming painter Sebastian Holme was killed in an
African revolution. So says the catalogue for the exhibition and sale of his
paintings on behalf of the widow, Hedda Holme. The art dealer is Hildebert
Braunkopf, whose “injured innocence” act is a hoot. Readers of One Man Show (an Appleby mystery) will
be pleased by more examples of the scamp Braunkopf’s malaprops: “Aha, with this
authentink criminous fraud, you have met your Paddington, my friend.”
Holme, however, turns up at the sale disguised in a beard.
Mervyn Cheel spots him and forces him into a conspiracy. Cheel, as failed painter of abstract pointillist
pictures, has taken to writing art criticism for provincial papers. Cheel is
cunning and devious besides being an entitled Tory and bottom pincher. He
totally gets what he deserves by the end at the hands of hustlers about as bad
as himself.
This 1964 novel is not really a mystery but rather a crime
novel. It’s slim, good reading for a plane, a hotel room, or waiting room. The
vocabulary is erudite, the allusions right up the alley of an English major. If a
reader liked the Michael Innes novels listed below, she’ll like this one.
Click on the title to go to the review.
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