Too many writers of humorous mystery novels seem to feel that there's no reason why the plot should hang together if the writing's funny enough. Edmund Crispin, like Carter Dickson, knows better. After a few chaotic early attempts, he's learned by now how to juggle Wodehousian farce, social satire and a strictly constructed detective plot, keeping all three balls glinting through the air so adoitly that they form one delightful pattern. In "Buried for Pleasure" the satire is devoted to a parliamentary by-election with Oxford Professor Gervase Fen as an independent candidate for Parliament; the detective plot concerns nothing less than the murder of a Scotland Yard Inspector—and for good measure a pleasantly old-fashioned romance, and a genuine authenticated poltergeist are added. Result: absolute and unalloyed delight.

Anthony Boucher, "Criminals at Large: 'Buried for Pleasure'," in The New York Times Book Review (© 1949 by The New York Times...