Edward Coulson

Edmund Crispin was one of the last and best of the classical English detective story writers. I began reading his books while in college and graduate school, and I continue to re-read them today. The hero-detective was, from that young undergraduate's point of view, the ideal academic: enthusiastic, energetic, witty, and learned, perhaps a role model for my future self. The books on first reading can be read as energetic romps, though through the years one comes to see the underlying seriousness. The Moving Toyshop is his most famous work, and the one which seems to be most continuously in print.