''Lament for a Maker'' is a 1938

detective novel Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as s ...

by the British writer Michael Innes. It is the third in his series featuring John Appleby, a young

Detective Inspector Inspector, also police inspector or inspector of police, is a police rank. The rank or position varies in seniority depending on the organization that uses it. Australia In Australian police forces, the rank of inspector is generally the ne ...

in the Metropolitan Police. It was published during the

Golden Age of Detective Fiction The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was an era of classic murder mystery novels of similar patterns and styles, predominantly in the 1920s and 1930s. The Golden Age proper is, in practice, usually taken to refer to a type of fiction which was pre ...

. The title refers to the ''

Lament for the Makaris "I that in Heill wes and Gladnes", also known as "The Lament for the Makaris", is a poem in the form of a danse macabre by the Scottish poet William Dunbar. Every fourth line repeats the Latin refrain '' timor mortis conturbat me'' (fear of deat ...

'' by the Scottish poet

William Dunbar William Dunbar (born 1459 or 1460 – died by 1530) was a Scottish makar, or court poet, active in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. He was closely associated with the court of King James IV and produced a large body of work i ...

, which is constantly recited by one of the characters.Scheper p.46 The novel features a string of first person narratives of the events that takes place, which each character drawing a conclusion that builds on and also corrects the previous writer.

Synopsis

In the

Highlands of Scotland The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...

around the ancient but lonely Erchany Castle, strange happenings have occurred which alarm the local inhabitants culminating in the death by falling off the tower by the castle's miserly, reclusive owner. Suspicion for his murder seems to fall on a local man, whose family have a long-standing feud with the dead man, and who was about to elope with his daughter. The arrival of an

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

lawyer and a Scotland Yard man both throw doubt on this easy solution, as the case seems to have it roots in events that took place in Australia forty years before involving the dead man's brother. Yet it proves so complex that even they take wrong turning before the truth is eventually reached.

References

Bibliography

* Hubin, Allen J. ''Crime Fiction, 1749–1980: A Comprehensive Bibliography''. Garland Publishing, 1984. * Reilly, John M. ''Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers''. Springer, 2015. * Scheper, George L. ''Michael Innes''. Ungar, 1986. 1938 British novels British mystery novels British crime novels Novels by Michael Innes Novels set in Scotland Novels set in Liverpool British detective novels Victor Gollancz Ltd books {{1930s-crime-novel-stub