MICHAEL INNES – The Case of Sonia Wayward. Dodd Mead, hardcover, 1960. Published in the UK as The New Sonia Wayward by Victor Gollancz, hardcover, 1960. Paperback reprints include: Collier AS450V, US, 1962; Penguin, US, 1989.

   One of the best mysteries of Michael Innes’s middle period, The Case of Sonia Wayward, has recently been reprinted by Penguin in paperback. (Innes has been writing so long that his “middle” period was thirty years ago.)

   It starts as the titular Sonia, a best-selling author of romances, dies at sea of natural causes. Her husband, Colonel Petticate, tries to keep her death a secret so he can continue to write under her name, without having to establish his own reputation.

   The complications of his ruse are many, and Innes provides many twists and surprises, with fewer literary allusions to slow things down than usual.