Death on a Quiet Day by Michael Innes is a welcome reissue of an Inspector Appleby book and one that I throughly enjoyed.

The story starts off with a game of dare or chicken that then moves into a chase across Dartmoor before its excellent conclusion

As with other Appleby books that I have read the writing and storytelling are brilliant and engaging and Death on a Quiet Day is definitely recommended

Death on a Quiet Day was originally published as Appleby Plays Chicken in 1956. In one respect it is not a typical Appleby novel. Appleby doesn’t appear until over a third of the way through the book. Yet, in another respect, it IS typical. We get lots of quotations from Shakespeare and other poets.

David Henchman is a student forming part of a reading party, i.e. a bunch of students and their tutor are staying on Dartmoor, reading and exchanging views. David is a bit of a loner and goes for a long walk. He finds a corpse in the middle of the moor with a bullet hole in its forehead. David then finds that a chap appearing a few minutes later really doesn’t want David to publicise this and David must flee for his life. We are then treated to a highly exciting well-written chase sequence that is six chapters long.

Appleby is staying in the area with relations of his wife, Judith. However, when David leaps upon a riderless horse at a Point to Point in his efforts to evade pursuit, Appleby’s interest is piqued. When he sees the stray bullet embedded in David’s shoe, that interest deepens significantly.

Whilst, as I say, Appleby appears after the chase sequence, this is still a most enjoyable book. The chase is highly suspenseful with David’s safe escape always in doubt. The students provide light relief and act as a useful source of helpful assistants when Appleby needs them. There is perhaps a lot more tense action in this novel than in many, more cerebral, Appleby books – and the novel only covers 24 hours, so the action is highly compressed.

I consider this a faultless Appleby novel and strongly recommend it.

#DeathOnAquietDay #NetGalley

Wonderful fun led by a literate, intelligent and cultured inspector, John Appleby. Such good writing and such an unexpected villain. Spies, brave university boys, blackmail, and impersonation. More, please.

While this isn't a typical Appleby mystery - after all, about 60% is a chase over the moors - it does display all of Innes' wonderful qualities: his smooth and literate prose, his love of whimsy and absurdity, There's a bit of a feel that things wind up rather perfunctorily but fans of this eccentric series know what the expect. So not a good place to start if you're new to Appleby (best to begin with one of the classic murder cases) but another ridiculously fun read which is intelligent and characterful.