From a British mystery author known as "the master of the whodunnit," an amateur detective delights in solving murders at an English boys' school. <p/> Prof. Gervase Fen of Oxford University is honored to award the prizes at the Speech Day ceremonies at Castrevenford High School. As it turns out, the headmaster's selection of the part-time sleuth as a presenter is most fortuitous indeed. For the night before the big event, two of the school's staff members are murdered . . . <p/> Of course, Fen is happy to do some investigating, if only to get more fodder for the crime novel he's writing. Between the kidnapping, the student romances, and the accidental discovery of a long-lost Shakespearian manuscript, the eccentric Oxford don certainly gets some food for thought. But that's all in a day's work for an amateur detective with a penchant for literary allusions and an uncanny knack for solving the unsolvable. <p/>Praise for the mysteries of Edmund Crispin <p/> "A marvellous comic sense." --P. D. James, New York Times-bestselling author of the Inspector Adam Dalgliesh series <p/> "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 <p/> "An absolute must for devotees of cultivated crime fiction." --Kirkus Reviews <p/> "One of the most literate mystery writers of the twentieth century." --The Boston Globe <p/> "Beneath a formidable exterior he had unsuspected depths of frivolity." --Philip Larkin, poet and author of A Girl in Winter <p/> "One of the last exponents of the classical English detective story." --The Times (London)
