INNES, MICHAEL (JOHN INNES MACKINTOSH STEWART ) — An Awkward Lie

New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1971. 1st American Edition; 1st Printing. Hardcover. This book is in Near Fine condition and has a Very Good+ dust jacket. The book and its contents are in clean, bright condition. The spine ends and corners of the book covers have some beginning bumping. The text pages are clean and bright. The book covers have some beginning rubbing and edge wear to the spine ends and there is a thin strip of rubbing to the top rear spine joint. "Between 1936 and 1986, Stewart, writing under the pseudonym of Michael Innes, published nearly fifty crime novels and short story collections, which he later described as "entertainments". These abound in literary allusions and in what critics have variously described as "mischievous wit", "exuberant fancy" and a "tongue-in-cheek propensity" for intriguing turns of phrase. Julian Symons identified Innes as one of the "farceurs"—crime writers for whom the detective story was "an over-civilized joke with a frivolity which makes it a literary conversation piece with detection taking place on the side"—and described Innes's writing as being "rather in the manner of Peacock strained through or distorted by Aldous Huxley". His mysteries have also been described as combining "the elliptical introspection ... [of] a Jamesian character's speech, the intellectual precision of a Conradian description, and the amazing coincidences that mark any one of Hardy's plots"." (from Wikipedia). Near Fine in Very Good+ dust jacket .