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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
Barely any
A murder — the body is discovered and the crime investigated; no graphic content
Language
Barely any
Witty, allusive prose; very mild language
Sexual Content
None
No sexual content
Substance Use
Barely any
Moderate drinking in a university setting
Emotional Intensity
Barely any
Very low — this is primarily a comedy of manners and wit
What this book is about
Poet Richard Cadogan arrives in Oxford late at night, breaks into a toyshop to sleep, and discovers a dead woman. In the morning: no toyshop. Oxford don and amateur detective Gervase Fen investigates with Cadogan in tow, pursuing clues through the university's eccentricities with wit, literary allusions, and gleeful absurdism. One of the great comic detective novels.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
A murder mystery treated with comic lightness
Reader Verification
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