I managed to read another book by a Golden Age Mystery author I’ve not read before! Honestly, I’m amazed that I didn’t look into this time period earlier, given that I was such a fan of Agatha Christie when I was younger. I’m not sure why I thought she was the only mystery writer worth reading at that time.

The Moving Toyshop is supposed to be the most popular mystery Edmund Crispin (the pseudonym of Robert Bruce Montgomery), so I had pretty high expectations for this. It is a pretty fantastical romp through the streets of Oxford, and it all starts when the poet Richard Cadogan decides to go on holiday.

Shortly after arriving in Oxford, Cadogan finds a woman dead in a toyshop. When he regains consciousness, he realises that the body and the toyshop have disappeared. Understandably, the police think that he’s speaking nonsense due to a concussion, and the only person who is eager to investigate is Gervase Fen, his former classmate.

The chapter titles here are delightful, although I’m saying that mainly because there’s a chapter titled “The Episode of the Indignant Janeite”. The characters are all pretty delightful, and I thought that Gervase was well written – he’s a funny, eccentric character that manages not to be annoying.

The mystery, on the other hand, got a bit confusing. It is really just a series of fantastical events, and although it wrapped up pretty well (thinking about it now, the motive and method of murder makes sense), I was sometimes disoriented while reading this book. I think I was pretty much feeling how Cadogan felt throughout the book, and the only one who seemed to have a good grasp of events was Gervase.

As for the humour aspect, what I can say is that humour is subjective. This is a lighthearted and pretty delightful book, but I never felt it was funny the same way I felt Trial by Error was funny. The characters do quite casually break the fourth wall, and I can see this being a comedic mystery movie, but I didn’t think it rose to the level of Wodehouse hilarity that the blurb promised.

Overall, this is a decent introduction to Edmund Crispin. Given that it took me some time to warm up to Peter Wimsey, I’d be open to reading more of the Gervase Fen mysteries to see if the same happens.