“All his work had a high-spiritedness rare and welcome in the crime story” – Julian Symons

Edmund Crispin was the pseudonym of Bruce Montgomery.  Edmund Crispin had a dual career, as a full-time writer and successful concert pianist and composer.  His novels combine amusing situations with literary references and sharply observed characterisation.

His whodunit novels, featuring Gervase Fen, have complex plots and fantastic, somewhat unbelievable solutions, including examples of the locked room mystery. They are written in a humorous, literary and sometimes farcical style and they are also among the few mystery novels to break the fourth wall occasionally and speak directly to the audience.

Crispin is considered by many to be one of the last great exponents of the ‘classic’ crime mystery.