Michael Innes has long been among my favorite authors. But then, I do enjoy mysteries with a definite quirk in them, obviously requiring from both author and reader a certain willingness to allow the plot to make rather surrealistic side terms. Surely, A Night of Errors is among his quirkiest. First published in 1948, it stars John Appleby, newly retired from his job as a Scotland Yard inspector (and before his later promotion to Commissioner - well, I said "surrealistic," didn't I?), and may require a passing familiarity with Shakespeare's early comedy, A Comedy of Errors, and a suspension of disbelief that surpasses what, in another author, would be simply unacceptable. But this is Michael Innes, tongue firmly planted in cheek, enjoying himself - and taking us along for the ride. Here's the text of my original review on the Classic Mysteries podcast several years ago - slightly tweaked, as always:
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“My experience in crime is considerable. But never have I faced so complicated a case, or one so bewilderingly huddled up both in space and time.”
The speaker is Sir John Appleby, who is speaking out of considerable frustration, as he tries to make sense out of a hopelessly muddled case involving a couple of murders and some old – and rather confused – families. It all adds up to A Night of Errors, the title of the book by Michael Innes.
Let me start by saying that A Night of Errors owes quite a lot – deliberately – to one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, A Comedy of Errors. And let me say that the parallels between this book and Shakespeare’s plays may provide an extra level of enjoyment for some readers. But you don’t have to be a Shakespearean scholar to savor the very odd events in our mystery – and I intend to focus on the book as a modern mystery, rather than on its Shakespearean roots.
So A Night of Errors begins with the Dromio family – and the murder of what appears to be the last surviving son of that family, who is found dead in the family home, having been bashed on the head – and the body dragged into a fireplace and set ablaze.
Gruesome? To be sure – but that is only the beginning of the complications of this plot. For the dead man was one of identical triplets – and the only survivor, as a baby forty years earlier, of a fire that apparently killed his brothers and may have been set by his father, who later died insane.
With me so far? Good, it’s going to get a lot more complicated.
At this point, with the newly-discovered body in place, the local police inspector, named Hyland, calls on his neighbor, John Appleby, to join the investigation. Appleby, recently having taken early retirement from Scotland Yard, is intrigued by the details of the crime. And as he and Inspector Hyland begin their investigation, the events continue to pile melodrama upon melodrama. The Dromio brothers – who may have survived that fire forty years earlier – get involved. So does another neighboring family, where the relationships turn out to be equally complicated. There are more than enough suspects – and a host of compelling motives.
And through it all, there is fire – the nursery fire forty years earlier, the fire in which the latest victim was found, and a later massive fire in the house, and more. And the cast is made up of wonderful and memorable characters. Surely one of the best of those is the Dromio family butler, an inarticulate, elderly man named Swindle who lords it over the family and the staff – and whose ultimate fate in the book is one of Michael Innes’s finest pieces of surrealism.
There is much that defies realism and logic here, although Appleby does eventually manage to explain and reveal the very complicated plot. For there is a rational explanation for all the odd events – and it is worth noting that all the events in the book take place within less than 24-hours, making all the mistaken identities and confusion and fires part of a brilliant, sometimes quite funny, occasionally horrifying and nearly successful criminal plot. It would, in fact, quite probably have succeeded except for Appleby.
I think it is only fair to warn the reader that the book, with its literary and cultural references (and parallels to Shakespeare’s play) can be more than a little confusing. If you have never read a Michael Innes novel, and enjoyed its quirky humor, this is probably not the place to begin. But if you are familiar with some of Michael Innes’s Appleby books, with classics such as Hamlet, Revenge, or Lament for a Maker or Appleby’s End, you will most probably take the eccentricities, the surreal events, and the sheer good humor of A Night of Errors in stride.
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I should note that A Night of Errors is available in several formats, including paper, ebook and audio mp3, all at the above link.
You can listen to the complete version of the original audio review by clicking here.
Next: Charlie Chan Carries On, by Earl Derr Biggers
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