Death at the Chase (1970)
Blurb:
My review:
On the fourth page, Ambrose Chase is described as “horripilant like the porpentine against its foes,” a description that should alert the reader to the fact that this Innes at his most verbose and obscure. Obviously he has confused himself with Donne, for every paragraph is as much a conceit as the author’s state in writing the novel. A few passages of wit in the middle sections are let down by the presence of three egregiously jejune and callow youths. Since the murder is committed three-quarters of the way through, and to the accompaniment of excessive coincidence and too many cardboard mad villains, there is little room for any interest in the crime, so the solution is as anticlimactic as it is unconvincing.