Edmund Crispin was the pseudonym of Robert Bruce Montgomery, an English crime writer and composer. Under this pen name (taken from a character in Michael Innes's Hamlet, Revenge!), Montgomery wrote nine detective novels and two collections of short stories. The stories feature Oxford don Gervase Fen, who is a Professor of English at the University and a fellow of St Christopher's College, a fictional institution that Crispin locates next to St John's College.
The whodunit novels have complex plots and fantastic, somewhat unbelievable solutions, including strong examples of the locked room mystery. They are written in a humorous, literary and sometimes farcical style and they are among the few mystery novels to break the fourth wall and occasionally speak directly to the audience.
Crispin is considered by many to be one of the last great exponents of the 'classic' crime mystery. He counted amongst his friends Philip Larkin, Kingsley Amis and Agatha Christie. Crispin was also a composer, writing musical scores for about fifty feature films.
