Under his real name, Bruce Montgomery (1921-1978) wrote concert music and the scores for almost 50 feature films, including some of the most enduring British comedies of the twentieth century. In this first biography of Montgomery, David Whittle draws on interviews with people who knew the writer and composer. These interviews, together with in-depth research, provide great insight into the development of Montgomery as a crime fiction writer and as a composer in the ever-demanding world of films.
When a poet, Richard Cadogan, receives an unexpected £50 advance from his publisher for his new poetry book, he decides to go to Oxford for a well deserved holiday. The change of scenery and peace of mind is what he needs to recover his inspiration for writing, but little he suspects that what he envisioned as a leisurely time spent on long walks and visiting friends will turn into a mystery solving adventure full of unexpected and dangerous twists. After an eventful train journey, Cadogan arrives in Oxford late at night only to realise that he has forgotten the exact address of his stay. Relying on a distant memory of the place he boarded in years ago he accidentally enters a toyshop where, to his surprise and fright, he finds the dead body of a women. Before he knows he is knocked out and spends his first night of the holidays locked in the backroom of the shop. When he finally recovers from the concussion the body is gone and the toyshop turned mysteriously into a grocery store, and Cadogan himself is accused of trespassing and stealing food. Luckily for the puzzled poet his old university friend, the professor of literature, Gervase Fen is there ready to plunge into the midst of this mystery. The Moving Toyshop, first published in 1946, is Edmund Crispin's most famous novel featuring eccentric amateur detective, Gervase Fen.
From a British mystery author known as “the master of the whodunnit,” an amateur sleuth searches for a source of poison-pen letters in an English village (The New York Times Book Review). The small town of Cotten Abbas is losing some of its quirky charm now that wealthy Londoners are moving there in droves. Needless to say, the locals are none too happy. But who among them is angry enough to send a series of anonymous letters, revealing unsavory details about the lives of some of the town’s residents? Traveling incognito to the rural village, Gervase Fen is eager to find the culprit. Especially when those exposed secrets lead to a shocking suicide, followed by an unsettling murder. Whoever the letter writer is, they have enough dirty laundry on the citizens of the quaint village to make the once-bucolic spot a scary place to set foot. Unless, of course, you are an eccentric Oxford professor like Gervase Fen, with a penchant for literary allusions and an uncanny knack for solving the unsolvable. Praise for the mysteries of Edmund Crispin “A marvellous comic sense.” —P. D. James, New York Times–bestselling author of the Inspector Adam Dalgliesh series “Master of fast-paced, tongue-in-cheek mystery novels, a blend of John Dickson Carr, Michael Innes, M.R. James, and the Marx Brothers.” —Anthony Boucher, author of the Fergus O’Breen series “An absolute must for devotees of cultivated crime fiction.” —Kirkus Reviews “One of the most literate mystery writers of the twentieth century.” —The Boston Globe “Beneath a formidable exterior he had unsuspected depths of frivolity.” —Philip Larkin, author of A Girl in Winter “One of the last exponents of the classical English detective story.” —The Times (London)
From a British mystery author known as “the master of the whodunnit,” an amateur detective delights in solving murders at an English boys’ school. Prof. Gervase Fen of Oxford University is honored to award the prizes at the Speech Day ceremonies at Castrevenford High School. As it turns out, the headmaster’s selection of the part-time sleuth as a presenter is most fortuitous indeed. For the night before the big event, two of the school’s staff members are murdered . . . Of course, Fen is happy to do some investigating, if only to get more fodder for the crime novel he’s writing. Between the kidnapping, the student romances, and the accidental discovery of a long-lost Shakespearian manuscript, the eccentric Oxford don certainly gets some food for thought. But that’s all in a day’s work for an amateur detective with a penchant for literary allusions and an uncanny knack for solving the unsolvable. Praise for the mysteries of Edmund Crispin “A marvellous comic sense.” —P. D. James, New York Times–bestselling author of the Inspector Adam Dalgliesh series “Master of fast-paced, tongue-in-cheek mystery novels, a blend of John Dickson Carr, Michael Innes, M.R. James, and the Marx Brothers.” —Anthony Boucher, author of the Fergus O’Breen series “An absolute must for devotees of cultivated crime fiction.” —Kirkus Reviews “One of the most literate mystery writers of the twentieth century.” —The Boston Globe “Beneath a formidable exterior he had unsuspected depths of frivolity.” —Philip Larkin, poet and author of A Girl in Winter “One of the last exponents of the classical English detective story.” —The Times (London)
Dandelions, hearing aids, a blood-stained cat, a Leonardo drawing and a corpse with an alibi... Just some of the unusual clues that Professor Gervase Fen and his friend Inspector Humbleby are confronted with in this sparkling collection of short mystery stories. Employing a skilful balance of ingenuity and humour, Crispin lays out all the clues. Can you solve the case before Professor Fen? First-published posthumously in 1979, Fen Country is Edmund Crispin's second collection of short stories.
How acute are your powers of perception? Do they begin to match those of Gervase Fen, Oxford don and sleuth supreme? First published in 1953, Beware of the Trains is a collection of sixteen short mysteries. Fen must link a missing train conductor to the murder of a thief, decipher cryptograms to solve the death of a cipher expert and puzzle out a locked-room mystery on Boxing Day. Erudite and complex, these Gervase Fen cases are classic crime at its finest: plot, atmosphere and anecdote, bound together by Edmund Crispin's inimitable wit and charm.
Stars, Starlets, Floozies and factotums to the film world-Gervase, Fen suspects them all... Gervase Fen is more at home in his ivory tower than in a London film studio, but Murder can take place anywhere, and aspiring actress Gloria Scott's suicide definitely looks like murder. Oxford don Gervase Fen is at the film studios to advise about a film biography of Alexander Pope. Gloria Scott appears to have had little reason for wanting to kill herself by jumping off Waterloo bridge, but someone has taken great pains to hide Gloria's real identity, and Gervase Fen's detective nose begins to twitch. When a lecherous cameraman is poisonded before his very eyes, Fen finds himself 'consulting' on a far more familiar matter: murder.
A VINTAGE MURDER MYSTERY As inventive as Agatha Christie, as hilarious as P.G. Wodehouse – discover the delightful detective stories of Edmund Crispin. Crime fiction at its quirkiest and best. Holy Disorders takes Oxford don and part time detective Gervase Fen to the town of Tolnbridge, where he is happily bounding around with a butterfly net until the cathedral organist is murdered, giving Fen the chance to play sleuth. The man didn't have an enemy in the world, and even his music was inoffensive: could he have fallen foul of a nest of German spies or of the local coven of witches, ominously rumored to have been practicing since the 17th century? Tracking down the answer pleases Fen immensely - only the reader will have a better time. Erudite, eccentric and entirely delightful – Before Morse, Oxford’s murders were solved by Gervase Fen, the most unpredictable detective in classic crime fiction.
Theater companies are notorious hotbeds of intrigue, and few are more intriguing than the company currently in residence at Oxford University. Center-stage is the beautiful, malicious Yseut--a mediocre actress with a stellar talent for destroying men. Rounding out the cast are more than a few of her past and present conquests, and the women who love them. And watching from the wings is Professor Gervase Fen--scholar, wit, and fop extraordinaire--who would rather solve crimes than expound on English literature. When Yseut is murdered, Fen finally gets his wish. Gilded Fly, originally published in 1944, was both Fen's first outing and the debut of the pseudonymous Crispin (in reality, composer Bruce Montgomery), whom the New York Times once called the heir to John Dickson Car
