Gervase Fen is the main character in a number of books written by Edmund Crispin. The Case of the Gilded Fly is the first of these and was written in the 1940s. Fen is a Professor of English at Oxford University and a keen amateur detective who enjoys a complicated puzzle. This is a reprinted copy of the original text which has often been out of print.
This is a “locked room mystery” in that the murder took place in a room which no one could have accessed without being seen by others. Of course this is impossible, so Fen’s task is to work out how the impossible was possible and the murder committed. The victim is a young actress who has had a number of affaires and who is killed in the Oxford college where Fen works while she is searching the rooms of a young man who is infatuated by her. Also present in the college at the time are lots of potential suspects who all have motives to want to dispose of the young actress.
Fen is an annoying character. He seems shallow and uncaring and only interested in the puzzle. He also likes quoting from authors who were unknown to me. In fact, I found all the characters shallow and superficial, and often indistinguishable. This book is really about the puzzle, which is cleverly resolved.
This is a quick and easy read and it is cleverly written but the lack of characterisation and the emphasis on the puzzle rather than people meant that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I have other books written in the same period. I think that the author intended much of the book to be funny but it didn’t engage me that way.
Anne Is Reading 