Holy Disorders

Holy Disorders is a 1945 mystery novel by the English writer Edmund Crispin, the second in his series featuring the Oxford professor and amateur detective Gervase Fen.

[2] After a violent attack on Denis Brooks, organist in the small cathedral city of Tolnbridge in Devon, Gervase Fen sends a telegram to his composer acquaintance, Geoffrey Vintner, urging him to hurry down to take over his duties.

Before he has even left London, Vintner is attacked by an unknown assailant in a department store and has another narrow escape while travelling down on the train from Paddington.

The gang is eventually revealed to include the young curate July Savernake and the landlord of the local pub, Harry James.

Her motives are not easy to understand, and Sir John Dallow speculates that it may have been in her blood: as a member of a very old local family, the evil of witchcraft may have been passed down to her through the centuries.