Swan Song (Crispin novel)

Swan Song is a 1947 detective novel by the British writer Edmund Crispin, the fourth in his series featuring the Oxford Don and amateur detective Gervase Fen.[1] It was the first in a new three-book contract the author has signed with his publishers. It received a mixed review from critics.[2]

Swan Song
First edition
AuthorEdmund Crispin
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
SeriesGervase Fen
GenreDetective
PublisherGollancz
Publication date
1947
Media typePrint
Preceded byThe Moving Toyshop 
Followed byLove Lies Bleeding 

Stage adaptation

In 1986 the novel was adapted into a play which was staged in New York City by Tony Tanner. It shifted the location from Oxford to Cambridge and changed the opera being performed to Rossini's The Barber of Seville.[3]

Synopsis

Fen becomes dragged into the complexities rivalries of an opera company who are to perform the Wagner's The Mastersingers of Nuremberg for the first time in Britain since the Second World War. When one of the singers, widely loathed by the rest of the company, is found hanging dead in his dressing room Fen becomes the driving force behind the investigation. A second murder threatens to derail the opening night, but Fen has at last cracked the case.

See also

References

  1. Reilly p.394
  2. Whittle p.121
  3. Lachman p.49

Bibliography

  • Hubin, Allen J. Crime Fiction, 1749-1980: A Comprehensive Bibliography. Garland Publishing, 1984.
  • Lachman, Marvin. The Villainous Stage: Crime Plays on Broadway and in the West End. McFarland, 2014.
  • Reilly, John M. Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers. Springer, 2015.
  • Whittle, David. Bruce Montgomery/Edmund Crispin: A Life in Music and Books. Routledge, 2017.
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