The Moving Toyshop

ISBN: 978-0099506225

Published By Vintage

The Moving Toyshop is one of the books I bought at my Book Spa. I was rather poorly over the Christmas period with a stinking cold, so this was a nice comforting read.

Set in the late 1930s, Richard Cadogan is a poet, seeking inspiration for his new book, and bored of his home in the London suburbs, he decides to go to Oxford for some excitement. Arriving late at night he stumbles across a strangled woman in a toyshop and is promptly knocked unconscious, presumably by the murderer. Waking in the morning, locked in a store cupboard he escapes and goes straight to the police. They don’t believe a word as when he takes them to the toyshop, it has gone.  Totally confused, and certain what he saw was real, he goes to his friend Gervase Fen, Oxford professor and amateur detective, for help. Between them they uncover a dastardly plot involving an eccentric old lady, a strange will and a lot of money.

Becky at Mr B’s described this as Wodehouse meets Christie, and I would agree, although I would say there is much more Wodehouse in it than Christie. It is full of barking mad characters and has that slightly potty feel that Wodehouse stories have, but you know everything will be OK in the end. There is a wonderful chase scene involving casts of thousands and a baddie on a bike. It’s classic English eccentricity at its best. I loved it!