Edmund Crispin is the pseudonym under which English composer Robert Bruce Montgomery (1921–1978) wrote detective stories. He created only nine novels and two collections of short stories, but they brought him worldwide fame as a classic of detective literature, and some of them were included in the legendary list of “The 100 Best Detectives of the 20th Century” according to The Times. The creators of the series Doctor Who based their title character on the character of his novels, Gervase Fehn.

The first post-war production of Wagner's Die Meistersinger. The Opera House in Oxford has assembled the best troupe. But shortly before the premiere, Edwin Shorthouse, who performed the main role, was found hanged in his own dressing room. The police consider it a suicide because the room was locked from the inside. However, Gervase Fen, who arrived at the scene of the crime, is sure that Shorthouse, whose talent was combined with an incredibly absurd character, was killed... In a respectable private school for boys, a double murder was committed: someone shot the young teacher Somers and Love, who protected him. The police are at a loss, especially when it turns out that the next day the elderly widow Mrs. Bligh was killed in a neighboring village. Professor Fen, who is helping the police investigate, suspects that all three of these murders are closely related, moreover, the reasons for what happened should be sought in the old papers that Mrs. Bly found in her house during renovation...