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David Whittle joins Tea, Tonic & Toxin to discuss The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin (Bruce Montgomery).

First published in 1946, The Moving Toyshop is one of the most celebrated and inventive mysteries of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. The novel follows poet Richard Cadogan, who stumbles upon the body of an elderly woman inside a toyshop late one night. By morning, however, both the body and the toyshop have vanished, leaving behind an ordinary grocery store and no evidence that the crime ever occurred.

Unable to convince the police of what he witnessed, Richard Cadogan turns to his friend Gervase Fen, the brilliant, eccentric Oxford professor and amateur detective. Together, the pair unravel a delightfully improbable puzzle filled with hidden identities, secret passageways, witty dialogue, literary references, and Crispin’s trademark blend of fair-play detection and irreverent humor.

Combining a classic locked-room mystery with sharp comedy and an affectionate parody of detective fiction conventions, The Moving Toyshop remains one of Edmund Crispin’s best-loved novels and a landmark of Golden Age crime writing.

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Watch clips from our conversations with guests!

David Whittle is a music scholar, educator, and author whose research has helped illuminate the remarkable life and legacy of Bruce Montgomery, better known to detective fiction readers as Edmund Crispin. He studied music at the University of Nottingham, where he completed his PhD on Montgomery, examining the intertwined careers of the acclaimed composer and Golden Age mystery writer.

David’s book, Bruce Montgomery/Edmund Crispin: A Life in Music and Books, is the definitive biography of Bruce Montgomery, drawing on extensive archival research and interviews with those who knew him. The biography explores Montgomery’s extraordinary dual career as the creator of the beloved Gervase Fen mysteries and as the composer of concert works and the scores for nearly fifty feature films, including the Doctor series and the first six Carry On films.

David has also contributed to numerous reference works, including The Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and Irish Musical Studies.

A classically trained musician, David served as Director of Music at Leicester Grammar School for 32 years while remaining active in folk and big band music. His lifelong passion for both music and detective fiction made him uniquely qualified to tell the story of Edmund Crispin, offering readers fresh insight into one of the Golden Age’s most gifted—and most fascinating—creative figures.

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