The Weight of the Evidence is part of Michael Innes’ Inspector Appleby mystery series.

Nesfield University has awoken to a bizarre discovery: Professor Pluckrose is dead, apparently struck down by a falling meteorite. Inspector Appleby is called and it soon becomes clear that the meteorite didn’t fall from the sky, but from the tower looming above a courtyard in which the Professor routinely took his breaks.

Was Pluckrose’s death an unfortunate accident? Or is there a murderer lurking in Nesfield’s hallowed halls?

Navigating the competing accounts of rival academics, each with their own motivations, agendas and egos, Appleby struggles to join the dots. And when every conversation unveils a new suspect Appleby feels the truth slipping further and further from his grasp.

Drawn in to the suffocating world of university jealousies and obsessions, will Appleby reveal the truth… or has he finally met his intellectual match?

The Weight of the Evidence was first published in 1944.

PRAISE FOR MICHAEL INNES AND THE WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE

‘Excellent! Engaging, atmospheric, and hugely enjoyable.’ — Reader Review

‘Always a challenge for the armchair detective.’ — Reader Review

‘Highbrow exercise, this, in super-literate whodunit’ — Kirkus

‘Mr Innes is in a class by himself among detective story writers.’ — Times Literary Supplement

‘Wickedly witty.’ — The Daily Mail

‘As farfetched and literary as Sayers’ — Cambridge Companion on Crime Fiction

If you loved this mystery by Michael Innes, check out our Crime Classics community here.