Books by Edmund Crispin

Bodies from the Library 2: Forgotten Stories of Mystery and Suspense by the Queens of Crime and Other Masters of Golden Age Detection

by Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, Edmund Crispin, John Rhode

This anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together 15 tales from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first time in book form, including a newly discovered Gervase Fen novella by Edmund Crispin that has never previously been published.

With the Golden Age of detective fiction shining ever more brightly thanks to the recent reappearance of many forgotten crime novels, Bodies from the Library offers a rare opportunity to read lost stories from the first half of the twentieth century by some of the genre's most accomplished writers.

This second volume is a showcase for popular figures of the Golden Age, in stories that even their most ardent fans will not be aware of. It includes uncollected and unpublished stories by acclaimed queens and kings of crime fiction, from Helen Simpson, Ethel Lina White, E.C.R. Lorac, Christianna Brand, Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, to S.S. Van Dine, Jonathan Latimer, Clayton Rawson, Cyril Alington and Antony and Peter Shaffer (writing as Peter Antony).

This book also features two highly readable radio scripts by Margery Allingham (involving Jack the Ripper) and John Rhode, plus two full-length novellas - one from a rare magazine by Q Patrick, the other an unpublished Gervase Fen mystery by Edmund Crispin, written at the height of his career. It concludes with another remarkable discovery: 'The Locked Room' by Dorothy L. Sayers, a never-before-published case for Lord Peter Wimsey!

Selected and introduced by Tony Medawar, who also provides fascinating pen portraits of each author, Bodies from the Library 2 is an indispensable collection for any bookshelf.

The Glimpses of the Moon (The Gervase Fen Mysteries)

by Edmund Crispin

Death and decapitation seem to go hand in hand in the Devon village of Aller. When the first victim's head is sent floating down the river, the village's rural calm is shattered. Soon the corpses are multiplying, and the entire community is involved in the hunt for the murderer. Whilst many chase false trails, it is left to Gervase Fen, Oxford don and amateur criminologist, to uncover the sordid truth.

Equal parts compelling, witty and ingenuous, this novel is a classic example of great British detective fiction.

First published in 1977, Glimpses of the Moon was Edmund Crispin's ninth and final novel.

Frequent Hearses

by Edmund Crispin

Stars, starlets, floozies, and factotums to the film world--Gervase Fen suspects them all . . .

A young actress, Gloria Scott, drowns after throwing herself off Waterloo Bridge. The news sends shock-waves around her film studio where Gervase Fen, Oxford Don and amateur criminologist, just so happens to be working. With help from friend the Inspector Humbleby, the tragic loss of young life leads them to many more dark places. Young Ms. Scott's apartment has been searched, and all signs of her real identity have been removed, and what's more, minutes before Humbleby interrogates her co-workers, one of them, a lecherous cameraman, is poisoned.

Equal parts compelling, witty, and ingenuous, this novel is a classic example of great British detective fiction.

First published in 1950, Frequent Hearses was Edmund Crispin's seventh novel.

The Case of the Gilded Fly (The Gervase Fen Mysteries)

by Edmund Crispin

Oxford don and amateur sleuth Gervase Fen investigates the murder of a femme fatale in this classic British detective novel.

It is October 1940 and at Oxford, the Full Term has just begun. Robert Warner, up and coming playwright known for his experimental approach, has chosen an Oxford repertory theater for the premiere of his latest play, Metromania. Together with his cast he comes to Oxford to rehearse a week before the opening, but Warner's troupe is a motley group of actors among whom is the beautiful but promiscuously dangerous Yseut Haskell. She causes quite a stir with her plots, intrigues and love triangles. When she is found shot dead in the college room of a young man who is infatuated with her, everyone is puzzled and worried; most of the actors have had a reason to get rid of the femme fatale and few have alibis.

The police are at loss for answers and are ready to proclaim the incident as suicide, but Gervase Fen, an Oxford don and professor of literature, who thrives off solving mysteries, is ready to help.

The Case of the Gilded Fly, first published in 1944, is Edmund Crispin's debut novel and the first Gervase Fen Mystery.

The Moving Toyshop

by Edmund Crispin

Oxford don and amateur sleuth Gervase Fen is drawn into a mystery solving adventure in this classic British detective novel.

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. Little does he know 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 realize 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 it, 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, the toyshop has 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.