From a British mystery author known as "the master of the whodunnit," an amateur detective delights in solving murders at an English boys' school. 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 . . .

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.

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, poet and author of A Girl in Winter

"One of the last exponents of the classical English detective story." --The Times (London)