The solution to Edmund Crispin's "The Long Divorce" … is far from water-tight and clings too closely to the anything-for-a-surprise, rabbit-out-of-the-hat school; but at least it does no violence to the excellent novel which has been established up to that point. Gervase Fen, rusticating under the attractive pseudonym of "Mr. Datchery," encounters a pretty problem in poison pen letters, an unusually well-characterized group of suspects, local police who are, amazingly, not cut out of cardboard, and a splendid half-witted cat who can see Martian invaders. The civilized wit and charm are all one has come to expect of Crispin; the people are a little stronger, the deduction a little weaker than in previous books.

Anthony Boucher, "Criminals at Large," in The New York Times Book Review (© 1951 by The New York Times Company; reprinted by permission), September 9, 1951, p. 31.∗