by Edmund Crispin, 1946
Delightful English mystery set in the town of Oxford in 1938, involving Gervase Fen (pronounced Jer-voz) and his poet friend, Richard Cadogan. Richard is bored and in need of a holiday in order to be inspired to write poetry again. He decides to go to Oxford and arrives late at night and stumbles into an unlocked toy store, only to find the body of an elderly woman, apparently strangled to death. He gets hit on the head and wakes up in a closet with a window open. He crawls out the window, goes to the police, who return to the shop only to find it is now a grocers, not a toy shop. And no body exists and they don’t believe him. Richard goes to his English professor friend, Gervase Fen, and tells him the whole story. Gervase believes him and together they begin a whirl-wind adventure trying to discover who was murdered, why, and by whom. Loved this story! Lots and lots of drinking, of course, and odd characters, and fantastic descriptions of Oxford and surrounding areas. I get confused by all the characters and can’t remember who is who, but no matter – it’s a delightful romp through the English town and countryside, and I love it! There were also so many different words I didn’t know the meaning of so here they all are:
Page 50, Prognathous – Being or having an upper or lower jaw that projects abnormally forward. “He was a small, sallow man, with a tremendous prognathous jaw, a tall forehead, a bald crown, horn-rimmed spectacles, and trousers which were a little too short for him.”
Page 68, Gallimaufry – A confused jumble or medley of things. “A few small bequests–to servants, I imagine–but the bulk of it goes to ‘my niece, Emilia Tardy,’ with a lot of queer provisions about advertising for her only in English papers, not communicating direct, and Lord knows what gallimaufry of rubbish.”
Page 94, Exigencies – the need, demand, or requirement intrinsic to a circumstance, condition, etc. “Owing to the exigencies of space in the lorry’s cabin, he was obliged to have Wilkes on his knee, and he had left no one in doubt as to his feelings about this arrangement.”
Page 97, Halcyon – denoting a period of time in the past that was idyllically happy and peaceful. “Nor, for that matter, in the way of riotous enjoyment and halcyon days; working at Lennox’s, the draper’s, was scarcely an ennobling or creative occupation.”
Page 101, Rodomontade – boastful or inflated talk or behavior. “Gervase Fen, the heair sticking up like porcupine quills from the crown of his head, was examining the picture of Susannah and the Elders with attention; Richard Cadogan was watching her anxiously with his bandage askew, so that he looked like a Roman emperor after a prolonged and vehement debauch; Wilkes stood in the background, pouring whisky into a glass and drinking it himself; and the lorry-driver, breathing heavily was engaged in a general rodomontade.”
Page 125, Mercurial – changing suddenly and often. “His temperament was inclined to be mercurial.”
Page 129, Cachinnation – An act of laughing: cackle, guffaw, laugh, laughter. “Mr. Rosseter chuckled suddenly–a homely cachinnation of genuine pleasure, without a trace of sinister overtones.”
Page 137-138, Debouched – emerge from a narrow or confined space into a wide, open area. “The alley curved round behind the building and debouched at its further end in Market Street, which joined the Cornmarket more or less opposite Mr. Rosseter’s office.”
Page 138, Sophistries – subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation. “He tired abruptly of these sophistries.”
Page 139, Senescence – the condition or process of deterioration with age. “I suppose senescence is clouding my brain.”
Page 140, Disapprobation – strong disapproval, typically on moral grounds. “She gazed down on them with manifest disapprobation.”
Page 140, Suilline – Of or relating to a pig or the pig family (Suidae). “Her face was fat, yellow-complexioned and moonlike, with a rudimentary black moustache, a pudgy nose, and small, suilline eyes–the face of a woman accustomed to exercising an egotistical authority.”
Page 159, Sententiously – given to moralizing in a pompous or affected manner.'”These are my companions,” Fen continued sententiously.’
Page 160, Perorate – speak at length. “We can’t hang about here all night while you perorate.”
Page 172, Panoplied – equipped with the complete arms and armor of a warrior. “Fen made no answer; his pale blue eyes were reflective and far away, scanning the banks, the willows with their branches panoplied over the water, the clumps of rushes with dead branches caught in them, the dull, evening reflection of light in the river.”
Page 172, Bowdlerised – remove material that is considered improper or offensive from (a text or account), especially with the result that it becomes weaker or less effective. “If the truth be told, he was becoming a little tired of the adventurous life; in his discourse to Mr. Spode the previous night he had not quite contemplated anything like this, or if he had, it had been veiled in the curtains of romance, suitable disguised, bowdlerised and expurgated.”
Page 172, Expurgated – remove matter thought to be objectionable or unsuitable from (a book or account). See sentence above.
Page 173, Parturition – the action of giving birth to young; childbirth. “I made my way into his consulting-room,” he pursued obliquely, “by a strategy connected with the perils of parturition, and the necessity in such circumstances of immediate gynaecological aid.”
Page 177, Sycophantic – praising people in authority in a way that is not sincere, usually in order to get some advantage from them. “Then one day, about a month before that bus knocked her down, she said: ‘Havering, you’re a sycophantic fool, but you’ve made some endeavour to keep me alive.”
Page ?, Saturnine – (of a person or their manner) slow and gloomy.
Page 210, Appositely – suitable and right for the occasion. “(” ‘Five miles meandering with a mazy motion,’ “ Cadogan quoted appositely), but the entrance was too narrow for them to penetrate.”
Page 211, Brilliantined – Brilliantine /ˈbrɪljənˌtiːn/ is a hair-grooming product intended to soften men’s hair, including beards and moustaches, and give it a glossy, well-groomed appearance. It was created at the turn of the 20th century by French perfumer Édouard Pinaud. “On their right was a shooting-range, at which a brilliantined youth was exhibiting his prowess to a girl; in front, octagonal stalls devoted to the rolling of pennies down on to numbered boards, sparsely patronised; on the left, darts booths, skittles, a cheiromancer.”
Page 211, Cheiromancer – Chiromancy is a form of fortune-telling, and chiromancers look closely at the different lines on your palm to make predictions about your career, love life, and happiness. See sentence above.
Page 217, Janeite – an enthusiastic admirer of Jane Austen’s writings. ‘ “Which,” he added more cheerfully, “will be one Janeite the less, anyway.” ‘