Michael Innes: Lament for a Maker (USA 2000)

From the Publisher:
When mad recluse, Ranald Guthrie, the laird of Erchany, falls from the ramparts of his castle on a wild winter night, Appleby discovers the doom that shrouded his life, and the grim legends of the bleak and nameless hamlets, in a tale that emanates sheer terror and suspense...

Michael Innes: Lament for a Maker An Inspector Appleby Mystery. House of Stratus, ISBN: 1842327410 (January, 2000), 286 p., $11.50.

Michael Innes: Lament for a Maker (USA 1990)

From the Publisher:
"Mr. Innes, already a ranking baffler, achieves the surprising stunt of outdoing himself in this one." - Books
Michael Innes, ranked "in a class by himself among writers of detective fiction" by the Times Literary Supplement (London), has produced what is generally accepted as his supreme achievement in Lament for a Maker, which is widely considered one of the most beautifully written detective novels of all time. Scotland is the setting for murder, and once again Sir John Appleby is the investigator.

"Mr. Innes gives us in this, his best book, a situation compounded of Aeschylus and Drury Lane melodrama... He tells the story through the mouths of five of his characters in turn... [You] will be delighted by the colour, pathos and humour of his narrative... by the consummate skill with which he offers several plausible solutions of the mystery, each one developing naturally out of the last." - Nicholas Blake, The Spectator

"Lament for a Maker is such an original piece of grisly fascination as we may seek, perhaps, only from an inventive scholarly, witty and poetic mind; Michael Innes... has that sort of mind; and he has done his most dramatic work here." - New York Times

"Magnificently written." - Times Literary Supplement (London)

Michael Innes: Lament for a Maker A Sir John Appleby Mystery. Harper & Row / Perennial Mystery Library, ISBN: 0060810416 (May, 1990), 286 p., $4.95.

Michael Innes: Lament for a Maker (UK 1964)

From the Publisher:
The strange tale of the mad laird of Erchany and the doom that wrapped itself around his life. A fall from the ramparts of his castle on a wild mid-winter night and the grim legends and fore-doomec love of the bleak and nameless hamlets create an atmosphere of mystery, terror and suspense.

"Here is the best news for many months for detective story lovers. Michael Innes, going on from good to better has put himself right among the masters." DAILY HERALD

"Remarkable for strong and clear characterisation and... those distinctive qualities of the detection suspense and mystery logically developed to a reasonable conclusion." THE GUARDIAN

"Michael Innes has the power to keep one's flesh on the creep and shudders running up and down one's spine." TRIBUNE

"This is the kind of book we want, to raise the level of the detective story. Strongly recommended." JOHN O'LONDON'S

Michael Innes: Lament for a Maker A Sir John Appleby Mystery. London: New English Library, 1964, Four Square Books 1195, 219 p., 3'6.