I like my mysteries like I like my men: clever, funny, charming and up for chase scenes. Richard Cadogan, eminent poet, goes on holiday to Oxford, but finds himself without accommodations, so he enters an unlocked toyshop in the middle of the night, nearly trips over a dead body, gets a cosh on the head. Upon waking and aching he goes to the police to report a murder, but the corpse and the toyshop are seemingly gone.

Gervase Fen, friend of Cadogan, amateur detective, and Oxford Professor of English Language and Literature, takes on this seemingly impossible murder case while the police busy themselves with petty concerns and themes of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. Benny Hill-style chases, fourth wall breaks, English Lit games and references keep Cadogan and Fen active inbetween witness interrogations and life-threatening situations.