[A] veteran writer who sees people clearly and with compassion is Michael Innes, and he brings Sir John Appleby back once again in "The Ampersand Papers."… Any Innes performance is sure to be urbane and amusing, and his latest book follows the pattern. There is plenty of background before Sir John appears (he is witness to the fatal accident), and the background includes a look at decaying British nobility. Mr. Innes has a lot of fun with the mental incapacities of a stuffy old lord, who in a way comes right out of P. G. Wodehouse.

There is also something about literary remains, a subject about which Mr. Innes knows a great deal…. But Michael Innes wears his learning lightly, and "The Ampersand Papers," one of the lighter and less consequential in the Appleby series, is an utter delight.

Newgate Callendar, in a review of "The Ampersand Papers...