Glimpses of the Moon

lighthearted listen and a murder mystery

“There is humour which for the cheerful friends we got, and for the thinking parties there is a plot”

Taking some time in Devon, Fen meets up with the Vicar and the Major at a time when a few peculiar murders are done. A journalist joins the trio and together they, like everyone elce in town, talk about who might have 'done it'..
In amongst the Church Fete, Anti Hunting protests,. misbehaving power lines, a gift of a pigs head to make brawn and promiscuous people, the plot unfolds.
Scatterings of Donish quotes from often obscure authors and creative observations are here in plenty. ( 'as insubstantial as ectoplasm at a séance').

Tongue in cheek as usual, this is a delightful listen so well narrated by Phillip Bird.

The following is the order of writing/publishing (not all available yet from Audible)

The Case Of the Gilded Fly..(1944)
Holy Disorders
The Moving Toyshop
Swan Song
Love Lies Bleeding
Buried for Pleasure
Frequent Hearses
The Long Divorce
Beware of the Trains
The Glimpses of the Moon (1977)
Fen Country (posthumously)

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Excellent Narration of A Satirical British Mystery

This was my first run-in with Philip Bird, but I am really pleased with his work on this book. He manages to differentiate the characters very well-- which isn't easy when the speaking characters are mostly male. I thought this was as close to a five star performance as makes no difference.

As for the story. This is the last book published by Edmund Crispin (aka Robert Bruce Montgomery). His popular detective, Oxford Don Professor Gervase Fen, is house sitting for a couple of friends traveling in Canada while writing a book on the post WW II modern novel. About eight weeks before the beginning of the story, a murder had been perpetuated against a most deserving victim. However, it was the events that occurred after the murder that led to the arrest and incarceration in an insane asylum of Hagbert, a local eccentric with a mania for work.

As usual Crispin populates his story with a host of amusingly looney characters. There's also some jokes that don't quite come through in the narration. For instance one character is named Thouless who is composer of music for movies-- he is currently working on music for a horror movie title Unalive. Crispin under his real name, Bruce Montgomery, composed music for movies including the first six "Carry On" movies. There's also a tortoise named Ellis with an underbite who needs his pansy petals premasticated; an overly amorous tom cat named Stripey; the Major who despite his years of service in the Cavalry disliked horses, mainly because he had never been thrown; and assorted other local characters including Titty and Tatty (Titania and Tatiania) a pair of elderly sisters who had one deaf aid between them and a devotion to what they fondly imagined was a Botticelli painting of the Assumption of the Virgin.

So part of the time the book is a mystery and part of the time it is a farce. And I have to believe that the ridiculously drawn out denouement was intentional. There's also sly literary references everywhere.

Recommended highly for those who are willing to accept a satire of the mystery genre and delight in ferreting out Crispin's donnish humor (or humour, I guess I should say).

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One of my favorite books

I need/enjoy books that are interesting and intelligent, but not too suspenseful or exciting. (Real life has enough drama.) I thoroughly enjoy listening to the characters in this story go about their everyday lives while the murder is solved as one of several intertwined themes. The characters and their experiences are very engaging.
The humor is subtle. "I do irritate people, I talk too much for one thing. Now, as I was saying..."

Fantastic

The use of language is wonderful.There is a goog plot a d good character.I really like witty writing.

Sublime nonsense.

This is one of my favorite books. Full of good humor, gore, and adorable characters.

A winner.

If you're like me and enjoy learning new words, appreciate beautiful sentence structure, and like eccentric characters, you will enjoy Crispin's work. I had previously read the book and got much more of the humor through Bird's excellent delivery. This is a rare book that I will re-read and listen to again. Odd insight--I liked the speed better at 75%. Perhaps that made the British accent easier to understand.

Best Crispin on Audible

This is the funniest of the Edmund Crispin on Audible. Philip Bird does an excellent job of conveying the period feel and delivering Crispin's understated humour with subtle style.

A disappointment

Would you try another book from Edmund Crispin and/or Philip Bird?

no. It was hard to keep track of the characters and frankly they just weren't very interesting.

Has Glimpses of the Moon turned you off from other books in this genre?

no

How could the performance have been better?

I bought it to listen to on a long trip with my husband, he couldn't understand the British accent of the reader. We haven't had this problem before with British narrators. I wish I hadn't wasted my credit on this book.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

There wasn't any cursing.

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