Tag: British Library Crime Classics

Review – Metropolitan Mysteries

Posted May 20, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Metropolitan Mysteries

Metropolitan Mysteries: A Casebook of London's Detectives

by Martin Edwards (editor)

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Short Stories
Pages: 316
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Lord Peter Wimsey reads murder in the minutiae of a Bloomsbury kitchen. Dr. Gideon Fell unravels a locked-room mystery from a flat in Chelsea. Superintendent Aldgate cracks the case of the body atop Nelson’s Column.

The streets of London have been home to many great detectives since the days of Sherlock Holmes and Watson, with some of the best authors in the genre taking to the short story form to pit their sleuths against crimes ranging from murders on the Tube to heists from the capital’s finest jewellers.

Featuring a roster of Scotland Yard’s meticulous best, a cohort of daring doctors and a cadre of characterful private investigators, this new selection by Martin Edwards includes eighteen vintage mystery stories from a period between 1908 and 1963 to showcase the city’s most compelling classic cases.

With contributions by Margery Allingham, John Dickson Carr and Dorothy L. Sayers along with rare finds by Raymond Postgate, J. Jefferson Farjeon and many more, this anthology invites you to join some of the greatest detectives ever written on their perilous trail through London’s darker underside.

Metropolitan Mysteries is another anthology edited by Martin Edwards for the British Library Crime Classics series, this time themed around London’s fictional detectives. Some of the famous ones are here, of course — Wimsey, Holmes — but some more obscure ones as well. As usual with this series’ anthologies, it’s an interesting survey of the “classic” crime fiction (though I think “classic” is a bit tired and ill-defined when it comes to this series: Golden/Silver Age would be a better descriptor, perhaps).

Also as usual with these anthologies, I think it’s greater than the sum of its parts. I’d read some of the stories before, but some of the others are of surprising interest, and altogether it’s a bit like a series of taster dishes for different authors and slightly different phases of crime fiction.

There are some stories that are better than others (I thought the Allingham one was pretty weakly related, just included just to shoehorn Campion into it, just barely), but as a whole it’s fun.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Scandalize My Name

Posted May 16, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Scandalize My Name

Scandalize My Name

by Fiona Sinclair

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 240
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

One the eve of Elaine Southey's 21st birthday, Ivan Sweet has been found dead in his flat in the basement of the Southeys' historic north London home. A slick charmer to some of the tenants and a loathsome young scoundrel to others his death doesn't draw out many tears among the house's residents and neighbours. And yet the sordid truth starts to seep into the heart of their small community a murder is living among them, and who's to say when they might strike again? The shrewd Oxford man Superintendent Paul Grainger finds himself faced with a small circle of suspects whose connections and hidden motives heap complexity upon complexity in this tightly wrought mystery, shot through with a chilling touch of the macabre.

Fiona Sinclair’s Scandalize My Name feels very much on the cusp between “Golden Age” styles of mystery fiction and the more modern gritty crime. There’s a detailed and explicit autopsy scene, which is definitely not something I expected from something in this series, but there’s still a sense of an individual police officer going about the normal beat. Grainger’s not a world away from Lorac’s Macdonald at all, they’re very much in the same mode, even if the story has a lot more gruesome detail.

Overall, I think this one didn’t give enough clues to tie the solution of the mystery in with the rest. There was a rather sudden and very dramatic denouement which revealed the killer, but it didn’t really feel like the plot had got there yet — the denouement revealed the killer, rather than the detective.

There were some interesting character portraits, but I think it mostly felt a bit thin — maybe, as the introduction by Martin Edwards says, because there’s too many characters introduced and used as POV characters, and too much swapping around between them. That said, that doesn’t feel too unusual for a mystery story.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Lessons in Crime

Posted February 17, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Lessons in Crime

Lessons in Crime: Academic Mysteries

by Martin Edwards (editor)

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Short Stories
Pages: 336
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

An Oxford Master slain on campus during Pentecost. A pupil and teacher face off with a conniving uncle suspected of murder. A sociology student turns the tables on the lies and fictions of an English undergraduate.

In the hush of the college library and the cacophonies of school halls, tensions run higher than is healthy and academic achievement can be to die for. Delving into the stacks and tomes of the British Library collections, Martin Edwards invites you to a course on the darker side of scholarly ambition with an essential reading list of masterful short stories.

With a teaching cohort including esteemed writers such as Dorothy L Sayers, Celia Fremlin, Michael Innes and the commanding Arthur Conan Doyle, this new anthology offers an education in the beguiling art of mystery writing.

Lessons in Crime is a pretty recent collection from the British Library Crime Classics series, edited as usual by Martin Edwards. Unsurprisingly, this one focuses on mystery stories set in academic settings — schools, weekend courses, and of course, universities.

There are some big names here — Sayers, Arthur Conan Doyle — and some lesser-known ones, along with ones that are familiar to me from these anthologies, such as E.W. Hornung. As ever, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts: I’m not a huge fan of Reggie Fortune and A.J. Raffles as characters, but in a collection like this, it all adds up to a feel for how writers viewed and used these settings, the trends in the stories, etc.

I was a little surprised by the heavy anti-Welsh sentiment in one of the stories: it’s been a while since I met that kind of thing so openly. (The Welsh character mutates ps and bs in English, lies habitually, etc, etc; we’re in “Taffy was a Welshman” territory.) I know the British Library Crime Classics series typically doesn’t edit this sort of thing out, and they do say so in a preface — they present the stories as part of their historical context, as well as for entertainment. But it was a little surprising, all the same.

A nicer surprise was a story by Jacqueline Wilson — yes, that one! Her earliest works were crime stories, and one of her short stories is included here to round out the volume with a recent story.

Overall, a collection I enjoyed!

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Mr. Pottermack’s Oversight

Posted February 11, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – Mr. Pottermack’s Oversight

Mr. Pottermack's Oversight

by R. Austin Freeman

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 302
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

On a sultry afternoon in July, a man stumbles through thick foliage and rough ground, making for the coast. He wears prisoner’s garb and the guards are hot on his heels. Happening upon a bather’s clothes – the bather nowhere in sight – the escapee takes the risk, changes and leaves the scene looking the part of the average beachcomber.

But it can be hard to stay hidden forever. When a blackmailer intrudes for the last time upon the promising life of the man who now calls himself Mr. Pottermack, a violent fate befalls him, and the stakes are set: Pottermack must avoid discovery at all costs to escape the hangman’s noose for murder.

When Pottermack’s attempts to fabricate evidence arouse the suspicions of the fiercely forensic Dr. Thorndyke, a nerve-racking game is afoot as we follow both detective and suspect in their contest to root out – or bury – the damning truth in this inverted-mystery classic, first published in 1930.

I was looking forward to Mr Pottermack’s Oversight, because I’d read one of R. Austin Freeman’s earlier books and really liked it. It was slow and methodical, but in a way that was interesting. This one had the same style, but it was maybe a bit too slow and methodical, and Freeman’s interest in writing a sort of inverted mystery (the mystery is more how the detective works out what happened, since we see the crime committed directly, and spend most of the book with the killer) went maybe a bit toooo in depth. There’s a certain amount of detail that lends verisimilitude, and then there’s getting overly into detail about (for example) casting a copy of a shoe sole from a footprint…

That said, somewhere partway through I entered into the spirit of the thing a bit more and found myself reading as eagerly as I’d expected. I don’t know whether the pace just improved a bit there (probable) or maybe I just got used to the new expectations. For a killer, Pottermack is pretty likeable, though the sense that he’s justified is set up very very deliberately and transparently (the victim is a blackmailer who originally framed him for the crime he’s blackmailing him about).

I really wonder whether the lady in the case has realised that of course it is her lost love… but we’re never told that explicitly.

Overall, I genuinely enjoyed it, but it felt like a bit of a book of two halves — though I couldn’t put my finger on a specific dividing point. Hard to rate, as a consequence, but ultimately I’ll go with my final assessment: a fascinating “inverted mystery”, if a little slow at times.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Dramatic Murder

Posted December 29, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Dramatic Murder

Dramatic Murder

by Elizabeth Anthony

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 272
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Dimpson McCabe—Dimpsie—has invited all of his closest friends of the theatre world to join him for Christmas at his castle on a private island a few hours’ drive from Edinburgh. The festivities have barely had a chance to begin when poor Dimpsie is found draped atop the Christmas tree, electrocuted by the lights with which it is festooned.

The Sheriff’s Court yields a verdict of Accidental Death, but in the swirling snow suspicion is dancing among the flakes. Through Dimpsie’s cadre of directors, producers, actors, secretaries and agents runs a hot streak of hidden grievances and theatrical scheming, and as the group return to London the dogged Inspector Smith begins to circle, seeking to find the leading man or prima donna responsible for this ghoulish crime.

First published in 1948 and lost for over 75 years, this classic seasonal murder mystery is long overdue its bedazzling return to print.

Elizabeth Anthony’s Dramatic Murder has the subtitle “A Lost Christmas Mystery” in the British Library Crime Classics series. And it’s technically true: it is set at Christmas, opening as Dr Harley and Katherine arrive at the Scottish home of a playwright, Dimpson McCabe — and find him dead, electrocuted while working on the lights for an enormous Christmas Tree.

The descriptions of his home and the tree are atmospheric but… somehow none of it screams Christmas. It’s basically the fact that there’s a tree and a brief mention of giving out presents from the deceased afterwards that reminds you — barely — that it opened at Christmas. The story doesn’t really revolve around it at all, except that the lights provided a method for murder.

So not a super seasonal read, but I found it a fun mystery. After a certain point it becomes blindingly obvious who the murderer is, though it takes a bit longer for the motive to be spelled out as clearly. It’s still very tense, though, because you don’t know quite who might be in the firing line next.

The police character, Smith, is a fairly background one, but not exactly cast in the usual mystery mould somehow. He seems so mild. The main “detective” is Katherine, I suppose, but really we get to see the mystery unfold from the point of view of the whole cast of suspects, which adds to the tension as they all seem to feel a sense of foreboding and danger.

Overall, I think I enjoyed it quite a bit. It’s kind of hard to say because for a while, as I was reading it, it felt a bit fragmented. But at the end, looking back on it, it came together well, and there’s certainly some very fine writing.

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Crimson Snow

Posted December 23, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Crimson Snow

Crimson Snow: Winter Mysteries

by Martin Edwards (editor)

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Short Stories
Pages: 317
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: four-stars
Synopsis:

Crimson Snow brings together a dozen vintage crime stories set in winter. Welcome to a world of Father Christmases behaving oddly, a famous fictional detective in a Yuletide drama, mysterious tracks in the snow, and some very unpleasant carol singers. There's no denying that the supposed season of goodwill is a time of year that lends itself to detective fiction.On a cold night, it's tempting to curl up by the fireside with a good mystery. And more than that, claustrophobic house parties, with people cooped up with long-estranged relatives, can provide plenty of motives for murder.

Including forgotten stories by major writers such as Margery Allingham, as well as classic tales by less familiar crime novelists, each story in this selection is introduced by the leading expert on classic crime, Martin Edwards. The resulting volume is an entertaining and atmospheric compendium of wintry delights.

Crimson Snow is one of the British Library Crime Classic collections themed around mysteries set at Christmas. The back copy says the theme is “stories set in winter”, but I think all of them featured Christmas specifically in some way.

There’s a fun range here, and I think it was one of the earlier ones, since they had a Margery Allingham one to include as well. They range around a bit in tone, with “The Carol Singers” feeling particularly dark and unpleasant (an old woman is victimised by carol singers who tie her up, covering her mouth with sticking plaster, ultimately leading to her death).

I’ve read a bunch of these collections, but I think this was one of the better ones. Or maybe I’ve just had a bit of a break from the format since last Christmas!

Rating: 4/5

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Review – Tour de Force

Posted July 29, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Tour de Force

Tour de Force

by Christianna Brand

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 272
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: two-stars
Synopsis:

Inspector Cockrill’s dull vacation is jolted by a Mediterranean murder. From the moment he steps on the plane, Inspector Cockrill loathes his fellow travelers. They are typical tour group bores: the dullards of England whom he had hoped to escape by going to Italy. He gives up on the trip immediately, burying his nose in a mystery novel to ensure that no one tries to become his friend. But not long after the group makes landfall at the craggy isle of San Juan el Pirata, a murder demands his attention. The body of a woman is found laid out carefully on her bed, blood pooled around her and fingers wrapped around the dagger that took her life. The corrupt local police force, impatient to find a killer, names Cockrill chief suspect. To escape the Italian hangman, the detective must find out who would go on vacation to kill a stranger.

Christianna Brand’s Tour de Force was her final novel featuring Inspector Cockrill, and it features Cockie on an actual holiday! Naturally, it’s going to turn into a busman’s holiday, and you know that from the start: you’re just left to guess at exactly how the tensions are going to rupture and who exactly will die. It’s a fairly typical collection of characters: someone’s in love with someone’s husband, someone’s a fortune hunter, someone’s an old spinster, someone’s a detective…

I think my problem with Christianna Brand is that there’s something so deeply cynical about her writing. I always compare her with E.C.R. Lorac, where I think sometimes Lorac tends the other way too much (but that’s much more pleasant to read). It feels like everyone in Brand’s work has ulterior motives, and she doesn’t seem to have liked other women very much. Leo Rodd’s a cheat and deeply bitter due to his disability, but it’s Vanda Lane, Helen Rodd, Miss Trapp and Louvaine Barker that have their weaknesses and foibles truly exposed. Not that Brand had a great deal of sympathy for the men either, but the nature of their flaws feel different, and the spotlight less cruel.

In the end, as well, Cockrill’s simply not that great a detective here, and his blindness is just frustrating — and because of a pretty face? Meh.

I always want to like Brand’s work a lot more than I do, but here we are.

Rating: 2/5

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Review – Foreign Bodies

Posted July 1, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Foreign Bodies

Foreign Bodies

by Martin Edwards (editor)

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 288
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

Today, translated crime fiction is in vogue - but this was not always the case. A century before Scandi noir, writers across Europe and beyond were publishing detective stories of high quality. Often these did not appear in English and they have been known only by a small number of experts. This is the first ever collection of classic crime in translation from the golden age of the genre in the 20th century. Many of these stories are exceptionally rare, and several have been translated for the first time to appear in this volume. Martin Edwards has selected gems of classic crime from Denmark to Japan and many points in between. Fascinating stories give an insight into the cosmopolitan cultures (and crime-writing traditions) of diverse places including Mexico, France, Russia, Germany and the Netherlands.

Foreign Bodies, edited as usual by Martin Edwards, is an interesting addition to the British Library Crime Classics series. The series normally focuses on British work or at least work published in English, but this series of short stories is from the same era but in translation, by a range of writers that are much less familiar.

It was an interesting choice, and it was fascinating to see some familiar tropes and themes from a slightly different angle. I was horrified at the punctuation of two of the stories, and I don’t understand why it wasn’t edited — when you’re writing dialogue, the punctuation goes inside the quotation marks. It was really jarring to read. I don’t mean to be prescriptivist, but it jumps out because it’s so far out of the ordinary.

A fascinating collection, though to those who are purists about what should be included in the British Library Crime Classics series, undoubtedly an annoying aberration.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – The Lost Gallows

Posted June 17, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

Review – The Lost Gallows

The Lost Gallows

by John Dickson Carr

Genres: Crime, Mystery
Pages: 288
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

John Dickson Carr lays on the macabre atmosphere again in this follow up to It Walks by Night in which Inspector Bencolin attempts to piece together a puzzle involving a disappearing street, a set of gallows which mysteriously reveals itself to a number of figures traipsing through the London fog, and the bizarre suggestion that a kind of fictional bogeyman, Jack Ketch, may be afoot and in the business of wanton execution. An early gem from one of the great writers of the genre. Also includes the rare Bencolin short story "The Ends of Justice."

The Lost Gallows is, I think, one of John Dickson Carr’s earlier novels, so I went in with fairly low expectations — the melodrama and bombast of his other Bencolin books isn’t entirely for me, but he’s still a plotter of ingenious mysteries. I don’t know if it was because I went in fully prepared for that, or maybe I’ve learned more sympathy through enjoying his later books, but this one wasn’t so bad.

It is of course very colourful and highly dramatic, with some surprisingly prosaic explanations; it’s full of atmosphere, using the London fog as a device in a similar way (though a very different tone) to Christianna Brand’s London Particular. It’s funny thinking about how ubiquitous that fog was, and yet I can barely imagine fog being so thick, so awful.

If you like a bit of adventure in your mystery novels, this one has that as well — the narrator puts himself in the thick of things, and there are a couple of very breathless scenes.

It all ends up feeling almost too prosaic for the fantastic atmosphere, but it works out interestingly enough.

Rating: 3/5

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Review – Final Acts

Posted June 9, 2024 by Nicky in Reviews / 0 Comments

Review – Final Acts

Final Acts: Theatrical Mysteries

by Martin Edwards (editor)

Genres: Crime, Mystery, Short Stories
Pages: 347
Series: British Library Crime Classics
Rating: three-stars
Synopsis:

"… and what a motive! Murder to save one's artistic soul… who'd believe that?"

Behind the stage lights and word-perfect soliloquies, sinister secrets are lurking in the wings. The mysteries in this collection reveal the dark side to theatre and performing arts: a world of backstage dealings, where unscrupulous actors risk everything to land a starring role, costumed figures lead to mistaken identities, and on-stage deaths begin to look a little too convincing...

This expertly curated thespian anthology features fourteen stories from giants of the classic crime genre such as Dorothy L. Sayers, Julian Symons and Ngaio Marsh, as well as firm favourites from the British Library Crime Classics series: Anthony Wynne, Christianna Brand, Bernard J. Farmer and many more.

Mysteries abound when a player's fate hangs on a single performance, and opening night may very well be their last.

Final Acts is another collection from the British Library Crime Classics series, edited as always by Martin Edwards, and this time all themed around the theatre and acting. It’s a fun spread of stories, not all using the theatre in quite the same way, and as usual demonstrating a bit of a spread across time as well.

The one thing to note is that there’s a repeat story in here, by Christianna Brand. I’m not sure which other anthology it appeared in, or whether it was maybe included with one of her novels, and I’m also not sure (because of that) whether this is the repeat or the other is the repeat. Still, bit disappointing.

Still, as usual, a fun handful of stories.

Rating: 3/5

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