Death at the President's Lodging / Michael Innes

Michael Innes (pseudonym of John Innes Mackintosh Stewart) wrote a highly successful series of mystery stories. His most famous character is John Appleby, who inspired a penchant for donnish detective fiction that lasts to this day. His other well-known character is Honeybath, the painter and rather reluctant detective, who first appeared in The Mysterious Commission, in 1975. Stewart's last novel, Appleby and the Ospreys, appeared in 1986.