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

from jonfaith

The resonance of The Pickwick Papers remains in its transgressions of form and style; it is a comic novel punctuated with ghost stories and finding its finest footing in a debtor's prison. Edmund Crispin achieves a similar success; this is a droll portrait of theatre folk during wartime; one whic...

from MrsLee

A book written in the 1940s which takes place in Oxford, this is a fun look at life and lifestyles then. It centers around the players as they prepare to perform a new play which is opening in Oxford rather than the West End. As a mystery, it satisfies with some witty humour throughout. I did not...

from Dorritt

If you enjoy mid-century British murder mysteries, you should find this satisfying, for it contains all the prerequisite elements: a large cast of suspects (the cast & crew of an Oxford dramatic production); an unlikeable victim (a female actress/femme fatale); a "how could the murder possibly ha...

from quiBee

This is the first book in a series featuring Gervaise Fen, an Oxford professor back in the 1940's. A promiscuous actress dies with so many people that disliked her, it's hard to believe that she committed suicide, which is what the police are led to believe. Fen, of course, is the only one who re...

from thornton37814

This somewhat intellectual "locked room" mystery features a professor solving the murder of an actress with a bad reputation when it comes to men. The police believe it to be a case of suicide, but Gervase Fen makes a compelling case for why it is not. This tedious and boring book contains attemp...