Dead Man's Shoes

John Innes Mackintosh Stewart (1906-1994) was a Scottish author mostly known by his pseudonym Michael Innes. His contribution to the Golden Age of Detective Fiction is immense considering the longevity of his title character, Detective Inspector Sir John Appleby. The character first appeared in the 1936 novel Death at the President's Lodging, aka Seven Suspects. My discovery of the character was in a recent book acquisition titled Best Detective Stories, edited by Edmund Crispin, and published in 1959 by Faber and Faber. The 60-page story is “Dead Man's Shoes”, which also appears in the 1954 short-story collection of the same name, also known as Appleby Talking. 

The story begins with a London attorney boarding an early morning departure by train. A woman in dire need of help struggles to breathe as she explains she just experienced a strange confrontation with another man. In her account, she states she boarded the train earlier and there was a man sitting across from her wearing two different shoes – one brown and one black. The man seemed suspicious and became quite alarmed when he noticed she had spotted his mismatched footwear. As the train came to a stop she was certain he was going to attack her. 

The attorney questions her account and prompts her to consider the event in the past and no harm occurred. Later, the attorney reads in the newspaper that a man with mismatched shoes was found dead upon the rocks near a seawall. He reports the woman's account to the police and Appleby becomes involved in the case.

This was a captivating narrative with a smooth prose that possesses the sterile-dry British flavor, but also an enjoyable charming quality that nods to Sherlock Holmes (even mentioning Watson by name). Appleby is easy to like – a by-the-books detective that knows the killer from any 'ole trivial clue (lipstick on cigarettes for example). The investigation into the man's past, his strange bodyguard, and the two train passengers consume the pages in breezy dialogue.

If the Appleby novels are as good as this story then I need to bump them up a few stacks. I enjoyed this story and look forward to more of this character.

Get the Appleby books HERE.