Edmund Crispin (in real life Bruce Montgomery) is one of the few writers of traditional mysteries who has remained consistently in print since his first novels appeared in the early 1940s. Quite an achievement, and certainly a testament to the entertainment value of his fiction. Recently, HarperCollins have reprinted his novels in new paperback editions so attractive that I've even looked on The Glimpses of the Moon, his last novel, much more benignly than I had done previously. Now, as the icing on the cake comes the publication of his collected short fiction.
This handsome book takes its title from my favourite Crispin short story, 'We Know You're Busy Writing,' which I included in the British Library anthology Murder by the Book a year or two back. Among my other favourites is 'Who Killed Baker?', which Crispin co-wrote with his pal and fellow musician Geoffrey Bush.
Two Crispin collections, Beware of the Trains and Fen Country, have been available for many years, but here the stories about Gervase Fen are helpfully separated from the 'stand-alone' stories. What's more, this volume also includes four stories not in those two books, which have in recent years been brought to our attention by Tony Medawar in his collections of little-known traditional mysteries. Of these, 'The Hours of Darkness' is especially compelling.
I was delighted to see a very good set of sources at the back of the book, most useful for researchers. All in all, this is a terrific book. If you haven't read Crispin before, and in particular if you're a fan of short stories, you're in for a treat.
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