Book Description

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)