A Book Review
“Death at the President’s Lodging” by Michael Innes
Closed room murder mystery set in a posh college makes for an interesting afternoon read
British murder mystery novels are my go-to comfort reads. There is something very refined about them. There is no gore or loud action or twists and turns. The plot peels off in onion-y layers; there is suspense, but it’s never scary. As a reader, you can sip a cup of tea and breeze through a novel and engage your mind pleasantly for a few hours.
Michael Innes’s Death at the President’s Lodging is the quintessential ‘closed house, limited suspects’ mystery novel. A very popular type in that genre. If you have wondered why this genre is popular in England, and what is behind the fascination with cold-blooded murders in closed country houses, then you should read The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale.
Summerscale explains how the 19th-century murder at the Road Hill House caught the nation’s fancy and inspired an entire generation of literature. It laid the foundation for the Golden Age of the detective fiction and some first detectives in England.
But back to Michael Innes’ Death at the President’s Lodging.
