Going It Alone (2001) by Michael Innes, reissued by the ever-game House of Stratus, arrives like a tweed-jacketed guest who’s far too clever for the party and knows it—but still brings a decent bottle. It’s Innes in his favourite register: urbane, wry, and just a touch absurd, the literary equivalent of raising one eyebrow so high it qualifies as a hat. Expect cultivated conversation, a puzzle set with the nonchalant neatness of a dons’ common room, and that delicious Innes habit of letting a throwaway line turn into a clue while you’re admiring the furniture.
This copy comes to you courtesy of Crappy Old Books—our name, not our standards—where we believe “Good” condition means precisely that: a book that’s actually been read (how radical), shows a little honest life (perhaps a whisper of shelf-rub or the faintest sun-kiss to the spine), and is entirely ready to be read again without the pages defecting one by one. If you’re after shrink-wrapped museum pieces, you may prefer a monastery; if you’re after something you can take to the café and annotate with morally upright pencil, you’ve found the right shelf.
House of Stratus gave these classic thrillers the sort of second wind that makes you wonder why they were ever allowed to nap. Innes’s prose still crackles: civilised mischief, sly asides, and a plot that strolls in, perfectly punctual, and leaves you later than planned because you insisted on “just one more chapter.” You’ll find cultured suspects, motives with better educations than most of us, and a sense that somewhere a butler is polishing an alibi.
The vital stats, for the collectors and the simply curious:
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Title: Going It Alone
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Author: Michael Innes
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Publisher: House of Stratus
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Year: 2001
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ISBN: 9781842327364
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Condition: Good (the respectable, readable kind)
Buy it for the mystery. Keep it for the sentences. Display it for the aura of sly intelligence it radiates across the room. And if anyone asks why you’re grinning at page 73, tell them you’re merely appreciating the engineering. At Crappy Old Books, we specialise in that sort of grin.
