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.
austen_to_zafon's review against another edition
2.0
This is my first Crispin book. With all the mysteries I've read from the first half of the 20th century, I don't now how I missed him! I wanted any of a nummber of other titles, but this was the only one at the used bookstore I frequent. I must say I wasn't very impressed. I've read that some of his other titles are better and I might try one more. His main character is taken out of his milieu of university life and into the movie business in London. I think I'd like him better at the university. It was hard to care about movie business characters. I enjoy his prose though. In the first 10 pages, there were already several words I had to look up. I can't tell if he is parodying earlier wordy writers or if this is really his style, but it's fun.
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.
lucyb's review
3.0
Not the cleverest of Crispin's mysteries, but it contains some of his most delightful prose.
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