Reviews

Love Lies Bleeding by Edmund Crispin

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rosieclaverton's review

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4.0

Another great installment. I think Crispin's style, murders, and characters improve greatly as the series goes on.

cfw100's review

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4.0

When two staff members turn up dead, the headmaster of Castrevenford asks Gervase Fen to investigate. A fun romp but with a quite lengthy and convoluted reveal.

sandin954's review

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3.0

I always enjoy this classic series. Gervase Fen is a unique, if somewhat exasperating, character and the public school setting in this entry was quite interesting.

cariadreads's review

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mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

angstybooks's review

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

After reading The Hollow Man by Jon Dickson Carr, my love for good murder mysteries just upsurged.
I had to pick up a book which wont let me down. The title of this book intrigued me and the "dedication" page said "To the Carr Club". And that's my motivation for starting off with the brilliant Dr Gervase Fen. Somehow, this name sounded very close to Dr Gideon Fell (Carr's luminous detective).

The mystery occurs at a Castrevenford School, where two professors ( Okay! They are called masters in the book) end up dead, a student goes missing and a lost Shakespearean Manuscript, Love's Labour's Won is accidentally found. Dr Gervase Fen, arrives at the school as the guest of honour for speech day and is pledged to solve the case as soon as possible.

The book is definitely worth reading for its language, detailing and narrative and of course, the mystery part of it will definitely leave the reader content.

vsbedford's review

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3.0

Another crisp Gervase Fen mystery, set over a Speech Day weekend, that gets down to business with a swiftness and spares us no corpses. Per usual, Fen is a prig and a know-it-all, so the reader really has to like him or let that go in order to enjoy this one (but that's really all of this series); there's a lot of nonsense here and Mr. Crispin should have left off trying to write dialogue for teenage girls, because, woof, but it's an enjoyable read nonetheless. A solid recommend.

I received an ecopy from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.