What: In this mid-century mystery, Gervase Fen --- the amateur detective who wouldn't seem out of place in a P.G. Wodehouse novel --- gets tangled up in a series of mysterious goings-on at a boarding school. It starts with the theft of some poisonous acids and escalates to a brutal double murder. Sounds funny, right? It actually is, rather.
Comparable to: Among other Golden Age detectives, Edmund Crispin's Gervase Fen is most similar to Margery Allingham's Albert Campion. But I've mentioned that before.
Opening lines: "The headmaster sighed. It was, he recognized, a plaintive and unmanly noise, but for the moment he was quite unable to suppress it. He apologized."
You might not like it if: Perhaps you (unaccountably) don't care for Mr. Merrythought, the blackmailing hound/scene stealer.
How to get it: Buy it or borrow it --- it's in print, but not (yet) Kindle-able.
Connections to previous Wreckage: I featured a scene from this book in First Sign of Murder #11. A more rompish mystery featuring Gervase Fen is The Moving Toyshop (Rec #60), which is now back in print.
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