Lament for a Maker

he rose from humble origins to being educated at ‘St Anthony’s College’, Oxford, prior to joining the police as an ordinary constable.

Having decided to take early retirement just after World War II, he nonetheless continued his police career at a later stage and is subsequently appointed an Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard, where his crime solving talents are put to good use, despite the lofty administrative position. Final retirement from the police force (as Commissioner and Sir John Appleby) does not, however, diminish Appleby’s taste for solving crime and he continues to be active, Appleby and the Ospreys marking his final appearance in the late 1980’s.

In Appleby’s End he meets Judith Raven, whom he marries and who has an involvement in many subsequent cases, as does their son Bobby and other members of his family.

Copyright & Information

Lament For A Maker

First published in 1938

© Michael Innes Literary Management Ltd.; House of Stratus 1938-2009

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The right of Michael Innes to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.

This edition published in 2009 by House of Stratus, an imprint of

Stratus Books Ltd., Lisandra House, Fore Street, Looe,

Cornwall, PL13 1AD, UK.

Typeset by House of Stratus.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library and the Library of Congress.

ISBN: 0755121007 EAN: 9780755121007

This is a fictional work and all characters are drawn from the author’s imagination.

Any resemblance or similarities to persons either living or dead are entirely coincidental.

Note for Readers

Reader preferences vary, as do eReaders.

This eBook is designed to be read by any eReading device or software that is capable of reading ePub files. Readers may decide to adjust the text within the capability of their eReader. However, style, paragraph indentation, line spacing etc. is optimised to produce a near equivalent reflowable version of the printed edition of the title when read with Adobe® Digital Editions. Other eReaders may vary from this standard and be subject to the nuances of design and implementation. Further, not all simulators on computers and tablets behave exactly as their equivalent eReader. Wherever possible it is recommended the following eReader settings, or their equivalent (if available), be used:

Clear Local Data – off; Local Styling – off; Text Alignment – Publisher Default.

Appleby Titles in order of first publication

These titles can be read as a series, or randomly as standalone novels

1.   Death at the President’s Lodging  Also as: Seven Suspects  1936 2.   Hamlet! Revenge      1937 3.   Lament for a Maker      1938 4.   Stop Press  Also as: The Spider Strikes  1939 5.   The Secret Vanguard      1940 6.   Their Came Both Mist and Snow  Also as: A Comedy of Terrors  1940 7.   Appleby on Ararat      1941 8.   The Daffodil Affair      1942 9.   The Weight of the Evidence      1943 10.   Appleby’s End      1945 11.   A Night of Errors      1947 12.   Operation Pax  Also as: The Paper Thunderbolt  1951 13.   A Private View  Also as: One Man Show and Murder is an Art  1952 14.   Appleby Talking  Also as: Dead Man’s Shoes  1954 15.   Appleby Talks Again      1956 16.   Appleby Plays Chicken  Also as: Death on a Quiet Day  1957 17.   The Long Farewell      1958 18.   Hare Sitting Up      1959 19.   Silence Observed      1961 20.   A Connoisseur’s Case  Also as: The Crabtree Affair  1962 21.   The Bloody Wood      1966 22.   Appleby at Allington  Also as: Death by Water  1968 23.   A Family Affair   Also as: Picture of Guilt   1969 24.   Death at the Chase      1970 25.   An Awkward Lie      1971 26.   The Open House      1972 27.   Appleby’s Answer      1973 28.   Appleby’s Other Story      1974 29.   The Appleby File      1975 30.   The Gay Phoenix      1976 31.   The Ampersand Papers      1978 32.   Shieks and Adders      1982 33.   Appleby and Honeybath      1983 34.   Carson’s Conspiracy      1984 35.   Appleby and the Ospreys      1986

Honeybath Titles in order of first publication

These titles can be read as a series, or randomly as standalone novels

1. The Mysterious Commission  1974 2. Honeybath’s Haven  1977 3. Lord Mullion’s Secret  1981 4. Appleby and Honeybath  1983

Synopses (Both Series & ‘Stand-alone’ Titles)

Published by House of Stratus

The Ampersand Papers

While Appleby is strolling along a Cornish beach, he narrowly escapes being struck by a body falling down a cliff. The body is that of Dr Sutch, an archivist, and he has fallen from the North Tower of Treskinnick Castle, home of Lord Ampersand. Two possible motivations present themselves to Appleby – the Ampersand gold, treasure from an Armada galleon; and the Ampersand papers, valuable family documents that have associations with Wordsworth and Shelley.

Appleby and Honeybath

Every English mansion has a locked room, and Grinton Hall is no exception – the library has hidden doors and passages…and a corpse. But when the corpse goes missing, Sir John Appleby and Charles Honeybath have an even more perplexing case on their hands – just how did it disappear when the doors and windows were securely locked? A bevy of helpful houseguests offer endless assistance, but the two detectives suspect that they are concealing vital information. Could the treasures on the library shelves be so valuable that someone would murder for them?