Michael Innes: The Long Farewell (USA 2024)

From the Publisher:
The head of Scotland Yard probes the suspicious death of a Shakespearean scholar with a collection of secrets in this classic British mystery.

Lewis Packford, an Elizabethan scholar, is found shot in his library. It was rumored Packford recently acquired a book annotated by the Bard, but the book is nowhere to be seen. What is beside him, however, is a note that -- as Packford was wont to do -- quotes William Shakespeare: "Farewell, a long farewell."

Police believe Packford died from suicide, but Sir John Appleby, head of Scotland Yard and Packford's friend, disagrees. When Appleby arrives at the scholar's country house in Dorset, he meets an array of academics and bibliophiles who were all present the night of the murder. Suspects include Packford's brother, who stands to inherit the house, and Packford's two secret wives, who recently learned of each other's existence. As the secrets pile up, the erudite Appleby must get to the bottom of things before the killer forces anyone else to say goodbye for good.

"A model of the deft, classic detective story, told in the most wittily diverting prose." -- The New York Times

Michael Innes: The Long Farewell. An Inspector Appleby Mystery. Open Road Integrated Media, ISBN: 9781504092272 (July, 2024), 206 p., $18.99.

Michael Innes: The Long Farewell (USA 2023)

From the Publisher:
The head of Scotland Yard probes the suspicious death of a Shakespearean scholar with a collection of secrets in this classic British mystery.

Lewis Packford, an Elizabethan scholar, is found shot in his library. It was rumored Packford recently acquired a book annotated by the Bard, but the book is nowhere to be seen. What is beside him, however, is a note that -- as Packford was wont to do -- quotes William Shakespeare: "Farewell, a long farewell."

Police believe Packford died from suicide, but Sir John Appleby, head of Scotland Yard and Packford's friend, disagrees. When Appleby arrives at the scholar's country house in Dorset, he meets an array of academics and bibliophiles who were all present the night of the murder. Suspects include Packford's brother, who stands to inherit the house, and Packford's two secret wives, who recently learned of each other's existence. As the secrets pile up, the erudite Appleby must get to the bottom of things before the killer forces anyone else to say goodbye for good.

"A model of the deft, classic detective story, told in the most wittily diverting prose." -- The New York Times

Michael Innes: The Long Farewell. An Inspector Appleby Mystery. Open Road Integrated Media, ISBN: 9781504088251 (June, 2023), eBook, 2 MB (ca. 208 p.), $14.99.

Michael Innes: The Long Farewell (2001)

From the Publisher:
Lewis Packford, the great Shakespearean scholar, was thought to have discovered a book annotated by the Bard - but there is no trace of this valuable object when Packford apparently commits suicide. Sir John Appleby finds a mixed bag of suspects at the dead man's house, who might all have a good motive for murder. The scholars and bibliophiles who were present might have been tempted by the precious document in Packford's possession. And Appleby discovers that Packford had two secret marriages, and that both of these women were at the house at the time of his death.

Michael Innes: The Long Farewell. House of Stratus, ISBN: 1842327429 (January, 2001), 190 p., £6.99, $9.95.

Michael Innes: The Long Farewell (USA 1991)

From the Publisher:
Sir John Appleby is suspicious of the suicide of Lewis Packford. Appleby had been entertained in Italy by the well-to-do scholar, had discussed with him his researches in the hinterland of Elizabethan literature, and together they had even playfully plotted a Shakespearean forgery.

And now Packford is dead, a suicide at his English residence, leaving a note on a card reading "A Long Farewell." A rare volume is missing from his collection, as Appleby discovers. It was purchased by the old scholar from an Italian nobleman and was rumored to be the actual book on which Shakespeare based his story of Othello and to contain, in the margins, the Playwright's notes in his own handwriting. Might the disappearance of this volume be connected with Packford's death? He had been surrounded by rival professors, bitterly contending rare book dealers, and even, as Appleby is astounded to discover, two wives.

Michael Innes: The Long Farewell. HarperPerennial, ISBN: 0060805757 (January, 1991), 216 p., $5.95.

Michael Innes: The Long Farewell (USA 1982)

From the Publisher:
Sir John Appleby was suspicious of the suicide of Lewis Packford. Packford has left a note on a card reading "A Long Farewell." And Appleby discovered that this rare volume was missing from Packford's library. Might the disappearance of this volume, Appleby wondered, be involved with the old scholar's death, surrounded as he had been by rival professors, bitterly contending rare book dealers, and even, as Appleby is astounded to discover, two wives?

Michael Innes: The Long Farewell. New York: Harper & Row, 1982, HarperPerennial P575, ISBN: 0060805757, 216 p., $2.50.

Michael Innes: The Long Farewell (UK 1975)

From the Publisher:
The Long Farewell was first published in 1958.
Lewis Packford, the Shakespeare scholar, is not, Sir John Appleby decides, staying in Italy for the good of his health; no doubt he was on to some new Shakespeare discovery. But whatever new school it is that Packford has stumbled upon, he is unable to bequeath it to the world at large for he is shortly found dead. A curious suicide note leads Sir John to discoveries stranger and more dramatic than anything contained in Shakespeare. Such are the bare bones of The Long Farewell.

Michael Innes: The Long Farewell. His famous detective novel. Gollancz, ISBN: 0575015373 (September, 1975), 206 p., £6.95.

Michael Innes: The Long Farewell (UK 1964)

From the Publisher:
Was it murder or suicide which caused the death of a scholar with a secret worth a fortune?
Lewis Packford was a great Shakespearean scholar who was thought to have discovered a book annotated by the Bard, a precious object of which there was no trace when he apparently committed suicide.

The suicide may, in fact, have been faked to cover murder, and Sir John Appleby of Scotland Yard, on investigating, finds a varied bag of suspects at the dead man's house. Each might have had a good motive for murder.

It was discovered, for example; that Packford had made not one, but two secret marriages, and both the women were in the house at the time of his death. The several scholars and bibliophiles who were also present might have considered committing murder for the unique and extremely valuable document supposed to have been in Packford's possession.

Michael Innes: The Long Farewell. London: New English Library, 1964, Four Square Books. no. 1054., 192 p., 3'6.

Michael Innes: The Long Farewell (USA 1963)

From the Publisher:
THE LIVELY DECEASED
Urbane Sir John Appleby, Assistant Commissioner of Police at Scotland Yard, had known Lewis Packford, the eminent and wealthy authority on Elizabethan literature, rather well. Well enough, certainly, to be surprised when the zestful scholar committed suicide. And when Packford's dry and proper solicitor expresses his own doubts about the act, Sir John feels compelled to investigate. At Urchins, the Packford family seat, Appleby finds a baffling assortment of people (including the supposed bachelor's two widows!) and eventually, the true explanation of Packford's suicide note -- that note which read, "Farewell, a long farewell."

Michael Innes: The Long Farewell. An Inspector Appleby Mystery. New York: Berkley Publishing Corporation, 1963, Berkley Medallion Book F821, 216 p., 50¢.