Buried for Pleasure: #6 Gervase Fen (Gervase Fen Mysteries) [Paperback]

Edmund Crispin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 16, 2009 | Series: Gervase Fen Mysteries (Book 6)

It's a naughty world, a tiresome world, a world notably lacking in witty epigrams. In short, it's a world that is crying out for Gervase Fen, and so he has declared himself a candidate for Parliament, ready to serve the good people of?where was it again? Fen's political ambitions, though, get just a little sidetracked by the murdered policeman who crops up on the campaign trail, not to mention the escaped (and naked) lunatic who's convinced he's Woodrow Wilson. And then there's the peculiar clergyman and the love-struck pig.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Felony & Mayhem (March 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193460920X
• ISBN-13: 978-1934609200
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #415,252 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gervase Fen runs for Parliament, January 23, 2010

By 

E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Buried for Pleasure: #6 Gervase Fen (Gervase Fen Mysteries) (Paperback)

The title of this Gervase Fen mystery is dredged from English folklore: "Buried on Monday, buried for health, /Buried on Tuesday, buried for wealth; /Buried on Wednesday, buried at leisure, /Buried on Thursday, buried for pleasure; /Buried on Friday, buried for fun, /Buried on Saturday, buried at one; /Buried on Sunday after eleven, /You get the priest and you go to heaven."

A more macabre folk jingle than, say "Monday's child is fair of face..." but appropriate for a murder mystery that our detective-don solves while standing for Parliament in rural England.

Along with the eccentric detective Gervase Fen, Professor of English Language and Literature in the University of Oxford, Edmund Crispin also features one of his eccentric animals in "Buried for Pleasure." This time it is a `non-doing' pig that falls in love with the village's pub manager.

The plot also works in that most obvious of red herrings: an escaped lunatic who believes himself to be President Woodrow Wilson. His normal mode of dress is a pince nez, and he must be the only lunatic in literature who declares, as he is captured and led away, "I warn you that if my Fourteen Points are not adopted, Western Europe will be at war again within a decade." Since "Buried for Pleasure" takes place in 1949, his prophecy was correct, although tardy.

We never do find out exactly why Fen is standing for Parliament. One of the other characters challenges him to explain his motives:

"'Well, what on earth...I mean, why are you standing for Parliament? What put the idea into your head?'

"Even to himself Fen's actions were sometimes unaccountable, and he could think of no very convincing reply.

"'It is my wish,' he said sanctimoniously, `to serve the community.'

"The girl eyed him dubiously.

"'Or at least," he amended, `that is one of my motives. Besides, I felt I was getting far too restricted in my interests. Have you ever produced a definitive edition of Langland?'

"'Of course not,' she said crossly.

"'I have. I've just finished producing one. It has queer psychological effects. You begin to wonder if you're mad. And the only remedy for that is a complete change of occupation.'"

Read this book not so much for the mystery, but for Fen's final campaign speech when he decides that he doesn't want to get elected after all.

As for the mystery, Crispin ties all of his loose ends together in a climactic automobile chase that involves the lunatic who thinks he's President Wilson, the Cockney pub manager and her non-doing pig, the murderer, a candidate for Parliament, and the rector who is plagued by a poltergeist.

And the poltergeist.

"Buried for Pleasure" is vintage Crispin.

5.0 out of 5 stars The best Fen yet, July 31, 2011

By 

Austenparker "Life is too short to read bad b... (Well, where are YOU?) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Buried for Pleasure: #6 Gervase Fen (Gervase Fen Mysteries) (Paperback)

If you enjoy the zany erudition of Wodehouse, then you will thoroughly relish this installment of Edmund Crispin's Gervase Fen series. I won't bother to give a synopsis of the storyline, which has been very well covered by fellow reviewers. I will, however, go on record as admitting to being completely delighted with this novel. There is mystery, there's romance, there's a brief philosophical digression on just what is wrong with political zealotism - there is, pretty much, something for everyone. The parts which deal with the sideline romance read like a musical comedy from Hollywood's Golden Age, reminiscent of P.G. Wodehouse. The style is unvaryingly light, with more than its fair share of eccentric characters peppering the story of the rather sobering mysteries supporting the edifice of the novel. Although it must be noted that there are parts where Fen qua Fen does not ring true (given that he is the cavalier driver of the Lily Christine II [lamentably absent in this episode], one would imagine he'd be more tolerant of the hapless evelknievelism of a fellow motorist.) What another reviewer has called "filler" is just the slow dance of character-driven mystery which readers of Fen & the earlier works of Elizabeth George enjoy. People who enjoy these types of mystery savor the gradual unfolding of characterization as much as the resolution of a good whodunit.

2.0 out of 5 stars Too much filler, too little charm, a weak mystery, October 7, 2010

By 

Atheen M. Wilson "Atheen" (Mpls, MN United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Buried for Pleasure: #6 Gervase Fen (Gervase Fen Mysteries) (Paperback)

I'm finding these a little hard to get through. I was captivated by the title. "Buried for Pleasure" is a first rate lead in; unfortunately the story itself doesn't live up to the title's impact. I was completely enjoying the book until the middle where it just seemed to stall out. Here again there is so much more filler than murder mystery. Fen's run for Parliament and the poltergeist story seem to serve no other purpose than to fill up pages. There is some attempt to make the latter a functional part of the story by bringing the poltergeist into the dénouement, but it could be easily excised, leaving the mystery unchanged to any appreciable degree. Admittedly there is an attempt at levity by the introduction of these stories, but while the latter succeeds to some extent, the former leaves me bored and tempted to skip pages. Perhaps the author's original audience understood some of the political complaints the author expresses and even agreed with them. So far as I was concerned it was tired poltical repartee. Letterman does it better and with far fewer words.

I did enjoy the characters of the community, though. The crazy man who was either naked except for gloves or dressed without gloves was an interesting character. I kept expecting him to do something quite amazing, and he did. I loved the non-doing pig and felt sorry for him in a way. The Inn manager was also a delight. She seemed the most practical and sane of them all. Dianna and Lord Sanford and Mr. Judd and Jacquiline were also lovely. I certainly sympathized with the inn owner and all his remodelling efforts, the end of which came as no surprise but was still quite funny.

Although I realize that the clues were there, somehow I couldn't help feel just a little cheated at the end. It just didn't run as smoothly into the "Ahha" moment as it should have--especially as I'd paid the price of reading all the filler until I arrived at it. I was tempted to believe that the author's intention was to bore me to death so that I wouldn't be alert enough to the clues to spot them!!

It's not that there weren't some very funny remarks and moments. I found the one about getting dizzy working in a circulating library both witty and funny. There were other gems tucked in here and there throughout the story,too, but I'm not sure they were worth the labor of digging them out. At first I thought I was just having a bad day, so to speak. However, when I took up another book and became engaged enough to finish it from beginning to end, I realized it really is the writer's style that I don't care for here.

My father once told me that the first 50 pages of the several hundred that constitute the weighty novel "War and Peace" were known as "Tolstoy's Price;" I'd say the whole book was "Crispin's Price." I can't see myself reading another.