The Moving Toyshop

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This book should not be confused with Angela Carter's novel The Magic Toyshop.

The Moving Toyshop is a comic crime novel by Edmund Crispin, published in 1946. It remains in print after over sixty years later. P.D. James, naming it one of the five greatest crime novels of all time [1], writes, "Edmund Crispin is one of the few mystery writers able to combine situation comedy and high spirits with detection. The Moving Toyshop is set in Oxford—a popular city for mystery writers—and has as its detective an eccentric amateur, Gervase Fen, a professor of English at the university. A murder is discovered in a toyshop, but when the police arrive the shop itself has disappeared. Suspension of disbelief is occasionally needed, but this spirited frolic of a detective story retains its place as one of the most engaging and ingenious mysteries of its age."

[edit] References

• Crispin, Edmund (1946). The Moving Toyshop, 1st ed., London: Gollancz. NA. 
• The Moving Toyshop entry. FantasticFiction. Retrieved on 2007-11-01.
• The Moving Toyshop entry. ClassicCrimeFiction. Retrieved on 2007-11-01.
• James, P. D.. "Murder, They Wrote: The most riveting crime novels", The Five Best, The Wall Street Journal, 2006-06-03. Retrieved on 2007-11-05. 
• Anderson, Isaac. "The Moving Toy Shop (review)" (PDF, fee required), Criminals at Large, The New York Times, 1946-12-08, p. 196. Retrieved on 2007-11-05.  Original New York Times review.
• Hubin, Allen. "Criminals at Large (column)" (PDF, fee required), The New York Times Magazine, 1968-06-02, p. BR12. Retrieved on 2007-11-05.  The Times' mystery reviewer's comments on his list of all-time favourites.
• "Paperbacks: New and Noteworthy (column)" (PDF, fee required), The New York Times Book Review, 1977-0612, p. BR12. Retrieved on 2007-11-05.  Brief review on the occasion of the book's republication
• Keating, H. R. F. (November 1987). Crime and Mystery: The 100 Best Books. New York: Carroll & Graf, Inc.. ISBN 978-0881843453.