CLASSIC CRIME
BARRY TURNER
THE CASE OF THE GILDED FLY by Edmund Crispin
(Collins Crime Club £9.99) LONG before Morse, the dreaming spires of Oxford were a favourite backdrop for murder.
The sheer improbability of violence in such a rarefied setting must appeal to crime writers. That and cerebral dons eager to show police how to do their job.
Edward Crispin gives us Gervase Fen, a literary egghead who relishes a ‘really complicated crime’ to exercise his brain cells. He gets his wish with the death of a young actress, part of a theatre company on a pre-London tryout of a new play. The police assume suicide; Fen sets out to prove murder.
This is vintage stuff from the Forties, with Crispin displaying a close knowledge of college life and the ways of the theatre.
An added attraction is Crispin’s light touch with character asides that suggest it is all a game, played for our delight.
THE MINISTRY OF FEAR by Graham Greene
(Macmillan Collector’s Library £9.99) WE MEET Arthur Rowe at a charity fete in wartime London. A drifter, having done time for the mercy killing of his sick wife, Rowe is seeking distraction.
He finds it in a fortune teller’s booth, where he is told the answer to a ‘ guess the weight’ contest. But his prize, a plum cake, is not his to keep. Instead, he is pitched into a world of espionage and treachery, where no one is quite what they seem.
It is no surprise that a year after its 1943 publication, the book was made into a film. It’s a succession of set pieces that recreate the terror of the bombing raids on London, while the characters, vividly defined, offer roles any actor would die for.
THE ENEMY WITHIN by Edward Marston
(Allison & Busby £7.99) OBSESSED by a Lothario who caused his daughter to take her own life, a long-term prisoner breaks out of jail to seek revenge. This gives Inspector Marmion an unenviable challenge. The detective responsible for putting him behind bars, he must now recapture the escapee, while protecting his intended victim.
Trouble is, both are masters at covering their tracks.
Against the backdrop of the Great War, Marmion’s investigation is hamstrung by national security and hidden identities. Mystery builds on mystery. Avoiding long, descriptive passages, Marston relies on dialogue to create distinctive characters.
This is the sixth in the Home Front Detective series. That there is more to come is evidenced by the disappearance of Marmion’s psychologically damaged son, a victim of trench warfare. The home front is moving to Marmion’s doorstep.