When a poet, Richard Cadogan, receives an unexpected £50 advance from
his publisher for his new poetry book, he decides to go to Oxford for a
well deserved holiday. The change of scenery and peace of mind is what
he needs to recover his inspiration for writing. Little does he know
that what he envisioned as a leisurely time spent on long walks and
visiting friends will turn into a mystery solving adventure full of
unexpected and dangerous twists.
After an eventful train journey, Cadogan arrives in Oxford late at night
only to realize that he has forgotten the exact address of his stay.
Relying on a distant memory of the place he boarded in years ago he
accidentally enters a toyshop where, to his surprise and fright, he
finds the dead body of a women. Before he knows it, he is knocked out
and spends his first night of the holidays locked in the backroom of the
shop. When he finally recovers from the concussion, the body is gone,
the toyshop has turned mysteriously into a grocery store, and Cadogan
himself is accused of trespassing and stealing food.
Luckily for the puzzled poet his old university friend, the professor of
literature, Gervase Fen is there ready to plunge into the midst of this
mystery.
The Moving Toyshop, first published in 1946, is Edmund Crispin's most
famous novel featuring eccentric amateur detective, Gervase Fen.
