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rosieclaverton's review
4.0
Another great installment.
I skipped the last due to too much psychiatry - thankfully, the mental health theorising was more limited in this book and mostly plausible
I skipped the last due to too much psychiatry - thankfully, the mental health theorising was more limited in this book and mostly plausible
mandya's review
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
3.0
Based on the intro I wanted to love this book, but I found it quite wordy and the mystery too wrapped up in a bow.
sandin954's review
3.0
Oxford Don and amateur detective Gervase Fen is lending his expertise on Alexander Pope to a film studio and gets involved in another case of murder. A fun look at post WW2 film studios in England though the actual plot was a bit contrived. Listened to the audio version which was very well narrated by Philip Bird.
slferg's review
4.0
I love Edmund Crispin's books. I was rather surprised when I learned a few years back that he was a composer - but that is all beside the point.
The title for this book comes from a poem of Pope's. Fen is a literary consultant for a movie being made about Pope and his supposed relationship with a young woman who committed suicide. As he is walking to the studio from the nearby town he is accosted by the Scotland Yard inspector for directions to the studio. The inspector doesn't recognize him at first because he has is reading a book by Henry James as he walks. The inspector has come because someone from the studio phoned him and told him they recognized the picture of a girl who had committed suicide. Fen helps him to find Judy at the studio to learn about the girl who went by Gloria Scott. When the police went to her apartment, they found everything with her name on it removed. Why did no one want them to know who the girl was?
The title for this book comes from a poem of Pope's. Fen is a literary consultant for a movie being made about Pope and his supposed relationship with a young woman who committed suicide. As he is walking to the studio from the nearby town he is accosted by the Scotland Yard inspector for directions to the studio. The inspector doesn't recognize him at first because he has is reading a book by Henry James as he walks. The inspector has come because someone from the studio phoned him and told him they recognized the picture of a girl who had committed suicide. Fen helps him to find Judy at the studio to learn about the girl who went by Gloria Scott. When the police went to her apartment, they found everything with her name on it removed. Why did no one want them to know who the girl was?
vsbedford's review against another edition
3.0
A Fen mystery that doesn't feature that much of Fen - and a mystery with a resolution that elicits a hearty "Wait... who now?". But for all that it's still very enjoyable, as most of Edmund Crispin's work is.
cmbohn's review against another edition
3.0
Not his best. Fen is asked to consult on a film about the poet Alexander Pope. He's on the scene when a young actress cast in a minor role is identified as a recent suicide victim. Just as the police begin to investigate, another actor on the film is murdered.
laurenla's review
3.0
While I enjoy vintage crime books and *loved* the madcap mystery The Moving Toyshop by Crispin, this book was not a great one. The film set minutiae entertains, but Crispin seems tired of his amateur sleuth Fen, and Fen has become a bit of a bore. The secondary characters carry more sympathy and more of the story. I found a few too many sexist sentences off-putting as well.
So, please do read Crispin's Fen stories, but start with an earlier one.
So, please do read Crispin's Fen stories, but start with an earlier one.
smcleish's review
4.0
Originally published on my blog here in July 1999.
Out of his habitual Oxford world, Crispin's famous academic Gervase Fen is acting as a literary consultant to a film about Alexander Pope when a young actress who was to take a part in the film suddenly commits suicide. When a man dies at a script conference for the same film, Fen suspects something more sinister than a sudden illness. Tests for poison confirm that his death was indeed a murder, but who committed it? And what connection does it have to Gloria Scott's suicide? The case hinges on the true identity of Gloria, who took that name when she began acting; but no one knows anything of her earlier than two years ago, and someone has taken pains to hide her identity, removing named articles from her flat after her death.
Frequent Hearses is an atmospheric crime novel, leading to a bizarre conclusion chasing a murderer through an ornamental hedge maze. The mystery is presented in a very opaque way, the plot being carefully structured so that the strange goings on mystify the reader until Fen explains them later on.
Out of his habitual Oxford world, Crispin's famous academic Gervase Fen is acting as a literary consultant to a film about Alexander Pope when a young actress who was to take a part in the film suddenly commits suicide. When a man dies at a script conference for the same film, Fen suspects something more sinister than a sudden illness. Tests for poison confirm that his death was indeed a murder, but who committed it? And what connection does it have to Gloria Scott's suicide? The case hinges on the true identity of Gloria, who took that name when she began acting; but no one knows anything of her earlier than two years ago, and someone has taken pains to hide her identity, removing named articles from her flat after her death.
Frequent Hearses is an atmospheric crime novel, leading to a bizarre conclusion chasing a murderer through an ornamental hedge maze. The mystery is presented in a very opaque way, the plot being carefully structured so that the strange goings on mystify the reader until Fen explains them later on.