The Case of the Gilded Fly

Blurb

The Case of the Gilded Fly is a detective novel by Edmund Crispin first published in 1944. Crispin's debut novel, it contains the first appearance of eccentric amateur sleuth Gervase Fen, who is Professor of English Language and Literature in the University of Oxford. The book abounds in literary allusions ranging from classical antiquity to the mid-20th century.
In the United States, the novel was released under the title, Obsequies at Oxford. Crispin's University acquaintance Philip Larkin described how Bruce Montgomery wrote it during his last year as an Oxford undergraduate: "During the vacation that Easter [1943] he had spent ten days writing, with his J nib and silver pen-holder, a detective story".