From the Edward Gorey House website: "Maybe as much as he loved cats, or ballet, or rocks, or elephants, or India ink, Edward Gorey loved a good mystery and it proved to be a very formative genre for him. As an illustrator/author, so many of Gorey's visual devices and narrative styles are drawn directly from the murder mystery handbook: distinctly British, vaguely interwar, genteel, understated, and savage (in a genteel, understated way). However, unlike Christie and the whole murderous brood of English crime writers, Gorey is also very funny. "