Reviews

The Secret Vanguard by Michael Innes

melissa_who_reads's review against another edition

4.0

This was not a murder mystery by any means: written at the beginning of World War II, it is most definitely a spy thriller, action-packed and definitely much more fast-paced than any of the Appleby novels before this one. It starts out slowly, but the slow description of the life of Ploss comes to an end fairly quickly and then the action starts. Appleby becomes a bit of an action hero in this one rather than a detective, and once again for much of the story he is not the point of view character. The story follows the adventures of Sheila Grant, and is mostly told from her perspective. There is an "uncertain" ending - which I particularly liked, given the wartime uncertainty of the book. It worked.

igru23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

cimorene1558's review against another edition

4.0

Strange and wildly adventurous, and hardly an Appleby mystery at all. More a spy novel of the period with Appleby popping in here and there. Fun.

mbondlamberty's review against another edition

3.0

This didn't take me that long to read, but rather the beginning took me that long to get into so I put it at the bottom of my currently reading stack.
This is a product of its time (1941) with some things from the past (memorized poetry) aging okay but others not as well.
Still it was an entertaining romp that moved quite faster than it had started.

b00knerd's review against another edition

3.0

This was a good mystery novel but definitely not for everyone. I would say that it gives you a complex feel for the story and makes you feel like your actually in the book but some might find all that confusing. I did enjoy this one even though i had to stop a few times and re-read parts to actually get what was going on.

AGAIN NOT FOR EVERYONE. Thanks NetGalley and everyone involved!!

majkia's review against another edition

3.0

Not the best of the series. Here Appleby is in search of a girl who's gone missing. And discovers a nest of spies.

vsbedford's review against another edition

2.0

An Appleby mystery that contains but a wisp of Appleby and focuses, instead, on a 39 Steps/Rogue Male redux with a heartily annoying young woman whose knowledge of poetry and general toffee-nosed-ness gets her involved with some genuine nonsense in Scotland. Look, one of the positives of a Michael Innes novel is that it eschews that formulaic but here he rather over steers into the skid. As such, we end up on on the other side with almost a parody of this type of novel rather than a work itself. I recommend approaching this one as source material for an early Hitchcock and it gets better, if not by much.

I recevied an ecopy from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

annarella's review against another edition

3.0

This is not a bad mystery but unfortunately it didn't age well and it shows the influx of the time when it was written.
It is more interesting as a documentation of a specific historical time than as a mystery.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Ipso Books

annarella's review

3.0

This is not a bad mystery but unfortunately it didn't age well and it shows the influx of the time when it was written.
It is more interesting as a documentation of a specific historical time than as a mystery.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Ipso Books

melissadeemcdaniel's review

4.0

I had forgotten what rousingly good mysteries the “Appleby” books are! Appleby himself takes second stage to the main characters, amateurs Stella Grant and Dick Evans, who get caught up in a nest of spies and with relatively minor help from the authorities (including Appleby himself), manage to bring down the baddies and rescue the valuable boffin.