Heteronym
New Member
The poet Richard Cadogan returns to Oxford, where he studied, in pursuit of adventure and excitement. Arriving late at night he is drawn to a toyshop whose door stands ajar. Inside he finds a dead woman. He runs for the police, but when they return the toyshop has disappeared and in its place there is only a baker’s shop. The police think he’s insane but Cadogan sees a mystery here, so he enlists the help of Gervase Fen, amateur sleuth and teacher of Literature and Language.
What follows is a light-hearted, humorous detective story full of literary allusions. Taxi drivers discuss D. H. Lawrence and criticize Coleridge’s poetry; the chief of police only wants to discuss Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure; drunken students become upset when Jane Austen is insulted; and Cadogan and Fen pass the time listing unreadable books and bad characters.
It’s the perfect detective novel for book lovers. As far as mysteries go, I think Crispin loses the plot once in a while. For instance, I never fully understood the point of turning the toyshop into a baker’s shop. Things are not as clear as in an Agatha Christie novel. I think he just sets up situations that allow playful characterization and whimsy sentences, and from which he can get the strange and the absurd. Hardcore detective novel readers may not enjoy it a lot, but for people who like the extravagant detective stories of G. K. Chesterton or Douglas Adams’ ‘Dirk Gently’ series, this is a treasure waiting to be discovered.
What follows is a light-hearted, humorous detective story full of literary allusions. Taxi drivers discuss D. H. Lawrence and criticize Coleridge’s poetry; the chief of police only wants to discuss Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure; drunken students become upset when Jane Austen is insulted; and Cadogan and Fen pass the time listing unreadable books and bad characters.
It’s the perfect detective novel for book lovers. As far as mysteries go, I think Crispin loses the plot once in a while. For instance, I never fully understood the point of turning the toyshop into a baker’s shop. Things are not as clear as in an Agatha Christie novel. I think he just sets up situations that allow playful characterization and whimsy sentences, and from which he can get the strange and the absurd. Hardcore detective novel readers may not enjoy it a lot, but for people who like the extravagant detective stories of G. K. Chesterton or Douglas Adams’ ‘Dirk Gently’ series, this is a treasure waiting to be discovered.