THE APPLEBY FILE.

London: Gollancz, 1975. 207 pp, 8vo (8" H). "(A) brilliant collection of Michael Innes short stories about the varied adventures of his great detective, Sir John Appleby, Commissioner of Metropolitan Police (and, later, retired). Appleby has to cope with many diabolically ingenious modes of crime: a faked poltergeist; an exploding antique; a balloon to remove a weapon; an arrow to obliterate a trail. Many of the clues that lead to solutions are equally remarkable: a shubunkin in a pocket; the overpainting of a portrait; photocopies that have stuck together; a broken wine-glass; a coat worn inside-out; a London taxi-cab on the Simplon Pass. And the plots involve elaborate double bluffs: suicides designed to look like murders; X disguised as Y disguised as X; and in 'The Memorial Service' the tangle of impersonation develops into a triple - or is it a quadruple? - bluff." Contents: The Appleby File: The Ascham; Poltergeist; The Fishermen; The Conversation Piece; Death By Water; A Question of Confidence; The Memorial Service. Appleby's Holidays: Two on a Tower; Beggar With Skull; The Exploding Battleship; The Body in the Glen; Death in the Sun; Cold Blood; The Coy Mistress; The Thirteenth Priest Hole. Minor wrinkling at bottom of spine, tiny bump at top corner of boards, a few tiny foxing marks on edges of text block very small faint mark on free front endpaper. Dust jacket has two faint line indentations and tiny dint on front panel, light wrinkling at top of flap-folds.. Not Signed. First British Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good.