This is a collection of 26 very short stories, all of the detective whodunit variety, many featuring Crispin's eccentric Oxford English professor, Gervase Fen.The stories are so short that there is no room for character development or the weird side trips that make full-length adventures with Ger...
Brilliant. Funny, erudite, and (forgive me) postmodern before meta was a meme. quotes to follow. I would have given it five stars but the plot devices were nowhere near seamless, though self-consciously presented and therefore, if not effective, then certainly endearing. Some of the more qu...
Originally published on my blog here in January 2000.Summoned by a telegram sent by his old friend Gervase Fen asking him to take over temporarily from the incapacitated organist at Tolnbridge Cathedral, Geoffrey Vintner finds himself involved in a strange plot: several attempts are made to preve...
