In this 1941 mystery, series hero John Appleby is
returning to London from The Sunburnt Country (i.e. Australia) by ocean liner
with a zany bunch of passengers. After the liner is torpedoed, the plucky band
washes up on a deserted island in the South Pacific which turns out to be not
so deserted. One of the passengers is murdered, making the island into a
classic locked room. With a few silly elements, the story is more adventure a
la John Buchan than a restful whodunit.
Another attraction is among the cast is an
archetypal Australian woman, the
intrepid and fearless prototype and paragon, that Innes used in other novels
like The Man from the Sea. Innes
taught EngLit in the U of Adelaide, in the 1930s and 1940s.
This one is fun. It isn’t too wordy or frighteningly
erudite so it does not feel too long, as ones set in country houses (Death by Water) and colleges (Seven Suspects) sometimes do.
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