Beware of the Trains

A collection of 16 short stories from Edmund Crispin featuring his beloved amateur detective, Gervase Fen. Crime fiction at its quirkiest and best.

Who burglarised the train heading for Victoria Station, and whatever became of its conductor?
Did the village idiot or Mrs Foley murder the mean-spirited Edgar Foley, or could the constable be responsible for the devious deed?
Who on Earth will be able to untangle the affair of the disappearing car, the black necktie, and the abortive theft?

Enter Gervase Fen, Oxford professor and sometime super-sleuth, an expert at solving cases that baffle even the most astute policemen. These sixteen short classics by a master of the modern detective story will test your crime solving abilities as well; Edmund Crispin has provided all the clues you need to detect the solution, using logic and common sense. Can you meet the challenge?

Reviews

‘Both the mature and the discerning young choose to pick up one of Crispin's beautifully turned crime novels’ The Times

‘Crispin isn't in it for the mystery, but for the enigmas’ Guardian

‘His books are full of high spirits and excellent jokes, with constant literary allusions and an atmosphere of bibulous good humour. But at times the mood turns darker, and Crispin is capable of passages of both genuine suspense and ingenius deduction’ Daily Telegraph

‘Crispin is noted for an ability to embellish clever story lines with Marx Brothers touches’ New York Times

‘Rightly elevated to classic status’ New York Sun

About the author

Robert Bruce Montgomery was born in Buckinghamshire in 1921, and was a golden age crime writer as well as a successful concert pianist and composer. Under the pseudonym Edmund Crispin, he wrote 9 detective novels and 42 short stories. In addition to his reputation as a leader of the mystery genre, he contributed to many periodicals and newspapers and edited sci–fi anthologies. After the golden years of the 1950s he retired from the limelight to Devonshire until his death in 1978.