The Oxford Murders (novel)

infobox Book |
name = The Oxford Murders
title_orig = Crímenes imperceptibles
translator =


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author = Guillermo Martínez
illustrator =
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country = Argentina
language = Spanish
series =
genre = Thriller, Crime fiction
publisher =
release_date = 2003
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages =
isbn =
preceded_by =
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"The Oxford Murders" ( _es. Crímenes imperceptibles; "Imperceptible Crimes") is a novel by the Argentine author Guillermo Martínez, first published in 2003. The story tells about a professor of logic, who, along with a graduate student, investigates a series of bizarre, mathematically-based murders in Oxford, England. The book has been translated into several languages including English, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Polish, Dutch, Serbian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Greek, Danish, Catalan and Hebrew with different translation for the title (Argentina, Japan, Serbia: "Crímenes imperceptibles", Spain, Romania: "Oxford Crimes", Bulgaria, Greece: "The Oxford Sequence", Sweden: "Murders in Oxford", Italy, Poland, Croatia:"Oxford Series", France: "Mathematics of a crime", Germany: "The Pitagoras Murder", etc.)

Plot introduction

In this thriller, mathematical symbols are the key to a mysterious sequence of murders. Each new death that occurs is accompanied by a different mathematical shape, starting with a circle. This pure mathematical form heralds the death of Mrs Eagleton, the landlady of a young Argentinian mathematician who narrates the story. It appears that the serial killer can be stopped only if somebody can decode the next symbol in the sequence. The mathematics graduate is joined by the leading Oxford logician Arthur Seldom on the quest to solve the cryptic clues.

Selected editions

* Abacus (2005). ISBN 0-349-11721-7. Paperback, English.
* MacAdam/Cage Publishing (2005). ISBN 1-59692-150-1. Hardback, English.

See also

* "The Oxford Murders", a 2007 film directed by Álex de la Iglesia, starring Elijah Wood and John Hurt.
* The Mathematical Institute
* Merton College, Oxford
* Cryptography

External links

* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/crime/0,,1406036,00.html Murder by numbers] reviewed by Marcus du Sautoy, "The Guardian", 5 February 2005
* [http://plus.maths.org/issue34/reviews/book2/ 'The Oxford Murders'] reviewed by Andrew Stickland
* [http://math.cofc.edu/kasman/MATHFICT/mfview.php?callnumber=mf469 MathFiction information]