A whodunit or whodunnit is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction in which the puzzle regarding who committed the crime is the main focus. The reader or viewer is provided with the clues to the case, from which the identity of the perpetrator may be deduced before the story provides the revelation itself at its climax. The investigation is usually conducted by an eccentric, amateur, or semi-professional detective.
Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term used in the book-trade for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre, in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre.
Edmund Crispin was the pseudonym of Robert Bruce Montgomery, an English crime writer and composer known for his Gervase Fen novels and for his musical scores for the early films in the Carry On series.
William Anthony Parker White known by his pen-name Anthony Boucher, was an American author, critic, and editor, who wrote several classic mystery novels, short stories, science fiction, and radio dramas. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle. In addition to "Anthony Boucher", White also employed the pseudonym "H. H. Holmes", which was the pseudonym of a late-19th-century American serial killer; Boucher would also write light verse and sign it "Herman W. Mudgett".
The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was an era of classic murder mystery novels of similar patterns and styles, predominantly in the 1920s and 1930s.
The Moving Toyshop (1946) is a work of detective fiction by Edmund Crispin, featuring his recurrent sleuth, Gervase Fen, an Oxford professor of English Language and Literature.
Love Lies Bleeding is a detective novel by Edmund Crispin, first published in 1948. Set in the post-war period in and around a public school in the vicinity of Stratford-upon-Avon, it is about the accidental discovery of old manuscripts which contain Shakespeare's long-lost play, Love's Labour's Won, and the subsequent hunt for those manuscripts, in the course of which several people are murdered. Collaborating with the local police, Oxford don Gervase Fen, a Professor of English who happens to be the guest of honour at the school's Speech Day, can solve the case at the same weekend.
The Case of the Gilded Fly is a locked-room mystery by the English author Edmund Crispin, written while Crispin was an undergraduate at Oxford and first published in the UK in 1944. It was published in the US a year later under the title Obsequies at Oxford.
Gervase Fen is a fictional amateur detective and Oxford Professor of English Language and Literature created by Edmund Crispin. Fen appears in nine novels and two books of short stories published between 1944 and 1979. Fen is an unconventional detective who is often faced with a locked room mystery to solve.
Tom Brown's Body is a 1949 mystery detective novel by the British writer Gladys Mitchell. It is the twenty second in her long-running series featuring the psychoanalyst and amateur detective Mrs Bradley. The title refers to both the novel Tom Brown's School Days and the song John Brown's Body. Mitchell had previously used a school setting for her earlier work Death at the Opera.
A Question of Proof is a 1935 detective novel by Cecil Day-Lewis, written under the pen name of Nicholas Blake. It is the first in a series of novels featuring the private detective Nigel Strangeways. Day-Lewis chose to write under an assumed name as he feared writing in the popular detective genre would harm his growing reputation as a serious-minded poet. Consequently, the publishers Collins advertised the book as being written by a "well-known writer" using a pen name. It was a commercial success selling around 200,000 copies in Britain and launching Day-Lewis, who quickly did become widely identified as the author, as one of the leading writers of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.
Lynn Brock (1877-1943) was the pseudonym of the Irish writer Alister McAllister, who moved to England and wrote a series of mystery novels. Brock is best known for his series of Colonel Gore detective novels, which enjoyed popularity in the 1920s and 1930s during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. His novels employ a complexity of style and are generally set in rural locations. He also wrote several plays under the name Anthony Wharton.
Colonel Gore’s Second Case is a 1925 detective novel by the Irish writer Lynn Brock. It was the second in his series of seven novels featuring the character of Colonel Wyckham Gore. Gore enjoyed popularity during the early stages of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. After solving his first case Gore now establishes his own detective agency.
Something Nasty in the Woodshed is a 1942 mystery detective novel by Anthony Gilbert, the pen name of British writer Lucy Beatrice Malleson. It is the tenth in her long-running series featuring the unscrupulous London solicitor and detective Arthur Crook. In 1942 it was published in America under the alternative title Mystery in the Woodshed.
Murder at Lilac Cottage is a 1940 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the thirty third in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective. In the Times Literary Supplement reviewer Maurice Willson Disher noted "With both ingenuity and originality at command, he will keep puzzle-solvers guessing until it pleases Dr. Priestley to explain why clues are not what they seem." while Ralph Partridge gave it a broadly positive review in the New Statesman.
Death Invades the Meeting is a 1944 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the thirty ninth in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective. Reviewing the novel for the Times Literary Supplement Maurice Willson Disher noted "His ingenuity is becoming as delicate to handle as high explosive. His stories may become so difficult to review without saying too much that his triumph will come when they cannot, for discretion’s sake, be reviewed at all."
Holy Disorders is a 1945 detective novel by the British writer Edmund Crispin. It the second in his series featuring the Oxford professor and amateur detective Gervase Fen. The novel is set in 1940 during the early stages of the Second World War. The title is a reference to Chaucer.
Buried for Pleasure is a 1948 detective novel by the British writer Edmund Crispin, the sixth in his series featuring the Oxford professor and amateur detective Gervase Fen. As with the rest of the Fen novels, a complex Golden Age-style mystery is combined with elements of farce. Fen contests a by-election in rural constituency, but events are rapidly overtaken by a murder case. It features Detective Inspector Humbleby who also appeared in the next novel Frequent Hearses as well as most of the short stories in the series.
Beware of the Trains is a collection of detective short stories by the British writer Edmund Crispin published in 1953. It contains sixteen stories including Beware of the Trains which gave its title to the collection. They all feature Crispin's amateur detective and Oxford professor Gervase Fen, an eccentric with a genius for solving complex cases. A number also featured Detective Inspector Humbleby of Scotland Yard who also appears in two of the novels in the Fen series. Apart from one they had all previously appeared in the Evening Standard newspaper. It was the last work featuring Fen for many years, until Crispin returned to the character for the 1977 novel The Glimpses of the Moon.
The Glimpses of the Moon is a 1977 detective novel by the British writer Edmund Crispin. It was the ninth and last novel in his series featuring Gervase Fen, an Oxford professor and amateur detective. Written from the 1960s onwards on publication it was the first novel in the series to be released since The Long Divorce in 1951. The author died the following year and in 1979 a final work Fen Country, a collection of short stories featuring the detective, was publish posthumously.
