"The Moving Toyshop"

Oxford don Gervase Fen, the creation of Edmund Crispin, has long been one of my favorite classic sleuths. And Fen - and Crispin - are at their best in "The Moving Toyshop," the book reviewed this week on our Classic Mysteries podcast. You can listen to the full review here.

The situation is decidedly odd: you have a young poet, setting out on vacation, who arrives on foot in Oxford in the middle of the night. He wanders past a toyshop, notices the door is unlocked, and walks in to discover a dead body. But when he goes to the police and brings them back, the toyshop - and the body - are gone. Fortunately, he has a friend in Gervase Fen, who joins in the investigation of what proves to be a particularly nasty murder case - complete with an "impossible" crime.

Much to my annoyance, "The Moving Toyshop" is currently out of print in the United States, although Felony & Mayhem Press have published many other Crispin novels. However, Amazon has links to many used copies. Or, if you prefer, the book is in print in England, and you can get it through Amazon's UK affiliate. It is high-spirited and a great deal of fun, with some thriller elements thrown in along with classic mystery clues.