One Man Show

One Man Show - Michael Innes

This 1952 mystery is also titled Murder is an Art and the UK title is A Private View. 

Series hero Sir John Appleby, head of CID at Scotland Yard, is pressured by his wife Judith, who is a sculptor, to attend a gallery showing the work of a recently deceased young artist.  Innes makes Sir John suffer from art-babble along the lines of “A determined effort to disintegrate reality in the interest of the syncretic principle.” Plus, his paragraph describing the faces of snobbish attendees while they try to look engrossed and knowledgeable provides laughs at the expense of in-crowdism.

However, from under Sir John’s nose, the artist’s masterpiece is stolen. As the chase gets started, readers will remember the Duke of Horton from Innes’ classic Hamlet, Revenge of 1937. Another attraction is that Judith Appleby gets on the trail of the crooks. Funny are the perfect Cherman-like accent of art dealer Brown, born Braunkopf – “a pig broblem to unnerstan” – and the fight scene in a junk shop run by the Krook-like Mr. Steptoe. Braunkopf pops up in Money from Holme, too, another delightful entertainment.

Like many of Innes’ stories, the time span is very short – in this case little more than 12 hours. Highly recommended.

Other Reviews of Michael Innes’ Mysteries

Lament for a Maker (1938)

Appleby on Ararat (1941)

From London Far a.k.a. The Unsuspected Chasm (1946)

One Man Show (1952)

Silence Observed (1961)

A Connoisseur’s Case (1962)

Money from Holme (1964)

A Change of Heir (1966)

Death by Water aka Appleby at Allington (1968)

Death at the Chase (1970)

Appleby’s Answer (1973)

The Mysterious Commission (1974)

The Ampersand Papers (1978)

Lord Mullion’s Secret (1981)

Sheiks and Adders (1982)