‘Hamlet, Revenge!’ A Classic Shakespeare-Inspired Detective Novel

Will the bestsellerdom of the Hamlet-influenced The Story of Edgar Sawtelle lead to more fiction that nods to Shakespeare? Hard to say, in part David Wroblewski’s first novel is so long, it may leave you feeling that you’ve had your fill of the Bard for a while. But if you’d like to find more fiction inspired by the Shakespeare, you might track down the classic mystery Hamlet, Revenge!, which made the cut for Richard Shephard and Nick Rennison’s 100 Must-Read Crime Novels (A&C Black, 2006).

“For 50 years, the Oxford don J.I.M. Stewart used the pseudonym Michael Innes to publish a series of self-consciously erudite, whimsical crime stories, crammed with literary allusions and featuring the urbane and intelligent police inspector, John Appleby,” the authors say. “The best of the series, Hamlet, Revenge!, is set, like so many novels from the Golden Age of English detective fiction, against the backdrop of a country house party. During the party, an amateur production of Hamlet is staged and, at the moment Polonius is due to be stabbed behind the arras, the actor playing him, a political high flyer named Lord Auldearn, is shot dead. Inspector Appleby finds himself pursuing the murderer down the corridors of power and looking for suspects among the great and good of the land.”

Shephard and Rennison note that Innes belongs to what the novelist and critic Julian Symons once called the “farceur” school of English detective fiction, a group of books that often have improbable characters and over-the-top plots.

“No one should pick up a Michael Innes novel expecting social realism or mean streets,” the authors add, “but in books like Hamlet, Revenge! And Appleby’s End, he did create his own unmistakable word in which to unfold his fantastic and often farcical plots.”

Question of the Day: Another Hamlet-influenced novel is Iris Murdoch’s literary thriller The Black Prince. What are some of the others — good or bad — inspired by the play?

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