Cult classics since their first publication in the UK in the 1970s, the Mortdecai novels, with their “rare wit and imaginative unpleasantness,” (Julian Barnes) are a series of dark-humored and atmospheric crime thrillers featuring the Honorable Charlie Mortdecai: degenerate aristocrat, amoral art dealer, seasoned epicurean, unwilling assassin, and experienced self-avowed coward. In the final novel of the series, Charlie (and his intrepid moustache) is invited to Oxford to investigate the cruel and most definitely unusual death of a don who collided with a bus. Though her death appears accidental, one or two things don’t add up—such as two pairs of thugs who’d been following her just before her death. With more spies than you could shoehorn into a stretch limo and the solving of the odd murder along the way, THE GREAT MORTDECAI MOUSTACHE MYSTERY is a criminally comic delight. Chapter XX © Craig Brown, 1999