“The Moving Toyshop” is a charmingly funny book about the adventure of Richard Cadogan, a prominent poet, in Oxford in 1938. On his arrival he finds a body of an elderly woman in a toyshop, but gets a strong hit on the top of the head. Once he recovers to fetch the police, he can’t find either the body or the toyshop itself. There is a grocery there instead, and the interior is quite different from what he remembers. No wonder the police think he imagined it all as the result of the concussion.
But his old friend Gervase Fen, an excentric Professor and an owner of a car called Lily Christine, fast but inobedient, is not quite so ready to dismiss Cadogan’s story as a dream. He knows it was real – and he knows there’s something very foul going on. Together, they start to investigate.
The police don’t help – instead, they chase the two friends because of a few groceries accidentally stolen by Cadogan while visiting the scene of the crime. Two unknown, but sinister men chase them too, and they, in turn, chase a charming girl with a dog. They find themselves in awkward, but funny, situations more than once, get physically abused, rescue the lovely girl from the two sinister men, have a narrow escape from being shot just as one of the suspects gets ready to tell them everything, but dies before he can do it – and all the time they make me laugh. One by one they discover the participants of the night’s drama in the mysterious vanishing toyshop, and even the place where the toys have been shifted to – but they still don’t know the name of the murderer. And when they find out, there’s still the question of “how” – but before it’s answered, there’s an exciting description of yet another chase involving bicycles, a car, a lot of feet and a roundabout.
Then, finally, everything is well, the murders are explained (though a few less important facts are not – for example, I still don’t understand how a completely drunk man could… but I’ll say no more;) ). Two nice people inherit a fortune (but not the real heroes, Fen and Cadogan – these two receive nothing, not even a proper acknowledgement of their achievement). All naughty people get arrested. All good people – except the original victim, Miss Tardy – emerge from the adventure unharmed, so, even if they haven’t inherited a fortune, they should consider themselves lucky. They get together and quote from poetry…
When I finished the book, it left an impression of something grotesque, even phantasmagoric. It feels like a parody, even if that is not intended. The writing style makes me suspect that the author considered it indecent to write a single serious sentence; a giggle is hiding behind every word. According to Kate Fox, it defines Englishness, so I guess “The Moving Toyshop” can be called an English book to the core. Also because many English books are mentioned there, about which I have never heard anything. Well, I should probably avoid those mentioned during the “Unreadable books” game Fen and Cadogan play while being locked in a cupboard with their arms and legs securely tied. I hate unreadable books.
As a detective story, however, it could be better. The mystery was good enough, but the explanation a bit too simple and, consequently, a bit disappointing. This could be explained by the fact that Fen rather prefers chasing various unpleasant personalities to the pure thinking process or at least collecting evidence: various cigarette ashes and such things. But the book did cheer me up.
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"The Moving Toyshop" by Edmund Crispin
