The Long Divorce is naturally of steel (Henry VIII, Act II, Scene I), and the title is typical of the flippant approach of highly cultivated authors to detection. Pick out an impressive quotation from English Literature and build a plot round it as best you can. If the material runs short, fill in the gaps with ludicrous persiflage. Edmund Crispin is one of the most talented practitioners of the system; but on this occasion he finds himself so skimped of relevant facts that to complete his structure to specification, he is forced to introduce large slabs of sentimental love. His ingenuity, however, is never at fault; and as a feat of detective jerry-building The Long Divorce must be warmly commended.

Ralph Partridge, "Detection: 'The Long Divorce'," in The New Statesman & Nation (© 1951 The Statesman & Nation Publishing Co. Ltd.), Vol. XLII, No. 1071, September 15, 1951, p. 291.