The Long Divorce (also known in the US as a A Noose for Her) is another of the novels by Edmund Crispin that have recently been reissued by HarperCollins in attractive new editions. And it's a story that I'd rate as one of Gervase Fen's most enjoyable cases, right up there with The Moving Toyshop. It's such a pity that after its appearance in 1951, at a point where Crispin had been producing books at a rate of about one novel a year, Fen vanished for more than a quarter of a century before reappearing in The Glimpses of the Moon.
In this story, Fen visits the picturesque village of Cotton Abbas under an alias, Datchery. Anyone who has read The Mystery of Edwin Drood will recognise the source of the name, but the links with Drood end there. We are dealing with a classic village mystery here - there has been a plague of poison pen letters in the village, which Fen wants to investigate.
The little community is also being torn apart by the hostility between the owner of a newish saw-mill and the locals who don't want their way of life disturbed - there's something eternal about this kind of issue, as a glance at many a community Facebook group's posts today will confirm.
The story brims with Crispin's characteristic wit and the plot is stronger than those of some of his other books. The Golden Age might have ended by the time this novel appeared, but Crispin - who was a pillar of the Detection Club - seems to me to have belonged in spirit to the Thirties. Anyone interested in learning more about this gifted writer and composer is recommended to seek out David Whittle's excellent biography.
Hello Martin
ReplyDeleteAlways really enjoyed the Gervase Fen books - just checked and realised I've got all eight novels and the two short story collections. (I've said 'eight' novels, because I refuse to acknowledge Glimpses of the Moon, which I absolutely detested - a terribly sour book, if I remember, and one of the very few volumes I've disliked so much I've thrown it out of my library!)
With the desperately sad death of Christopher Fowler earlier this year, I suppose we've now lost the nearest we had to an heir to Crispin - obviously so in The Victoria Vanishes being a sort of homage to The Moving Toyshop, but more so in the general tone and atmosphere generated, even though they are such very different writers writing very different types of book.
best wishes, Mike
Yes, Chris was a great fan of Crispin. As regards Glimpses, I didn't rate it when I first read it but after a gap of 30 plus years, I'm going to try it again to see if I react differently this time!
ReplyDeleteEasy enough to find David Whittle's biography, Martin ... but (wow!) it costs £44 even to buy it on a Kindle! I'm sure there must be a good reason for it being so expensive, but I am struggling to imagine what the reason is! Martyn
ReplyDeleteHello Martyn, yes it is very expensive. Not David's fault, of course, it's down to the publishers. A lot of books of an 'academic' nature are absurdly pricey and it's a great shame that some good stuff therefore doesn't find a wide readership.
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