Beware of the Trains
by Edmund Crispin (Gollancz, 1953)
audiobook read by Paul Panting (Collins Crime Club, 2023)
Gervase Fen proves more palatable in the shorter form, though still exhibits little personality beyond brusque impatience and a Sherlock-like propensity for the conjurer’s reveal. Crispin’s mysteries—generally of the impossible type—are intellectual studies as much as sops to reader enjoyment.