Fen Country is an excellent collection which makes us regret that Crispin will write no more stories. There are many gems in the book. Even some of the short-shorts, like the delightful "Merry-Go-Round," are filled with the wit and tight plotting of Crispin's novels. The relatively long "The Mischief Done" has interesting lore about diamonds, good detection, some suspense, and a nice twist at the end. I don't often like straight crime stories, but Fen Country includes two marvelous tales of murder which even I enjoyed. "The Pencil" is an ingenious "Biter Bit" story. The extraordinarily titled "We Know You're Busy Writing, But We Thought You Wouldn't Mind If We Just Dropped In For a Minute" describes the murder of two people who have broken no laws; yet Crispin manages to make the homicide not only justifiable but amusing.

Perhaps, however, the simple statement that twenty of the...