After the very enjoyable work done by Herb Lester and Caroline Crampton in mapping the key locations of Agatha Christie’s English mysteries, it was surely only a matter of time before a similar project was attempted. And This Deadly Isle, which maps the locations of a raft of Golden Age mysteries across the country, is the delightful inevitable follow-up.

Naturally, the task this time around is far larger: no longer restricted to the 80-some criminous works by Christie, the palette has broadened to include, er, every UK-set novel and short story written in the genre between approximately 1910 and 1950, That’s…a lot of stories. And so, to ensure coverage, Herb Lester have done the sensible thing and gone to the pre-eminent expert in the field, Martin Edwards. And Edwards’ approach is as thorough as you’d expect: 51 locations and 64 novels and short stories — I shall include a full list of these below, for the curious — covering the range of both the Golden Age’s greater and lesser lights and the width and breadth of the country, complete with interesting asides and filled with the sort of fascinating details you’d expect from a man who has just written a comprehensive history of the crime story.

It’s difficult to imagine the scope of this undertaking. For one thing, so many authors would, as Christie did, fictionalise their villages or counties to free them up from the shackles of boring geography — or perhaps the threat of libel — when telling their stories of murder and mayhem. So while you’ll doubtless have a favourite novel set in these shores, the difficulty remains whether it’s actually set somewhere real — and, even then, it could be set somewhere fictional that’s a stand in for a real place, as with The Second Shot (1930) by Anthony Berkeley whose fictional setting of Budeford is, as Edwards points, out an “amalgam of Bude and Bideford” in Cornwall and Devon respectively. Thus, not only is a range of stories required, but some intelligent reading between the lines also goes a long way. Mayhem Parva might, after all, be closer that first glance would lead you to suspect.

Additionally, the desire to do a professional job will inform certain decisions about which books are chosen. One could easily call on Grimpen Mire and Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles (1912) when finding places in Devon, but a) Hound, while a very good and famous book, isn’t technically Golden Age and b) surely anyone could reference that most famous of books. By way of contrast, how many of you have read, or could tell me the setting of, Sinister Crag (1934) by Newton Gayle? Where on the map would you place The May Week Murders (1936) by Douglas G. Browne? The fun of this sort of endeavour, and no doubt the appeal to its intended audience, is in part the educational value in learning of stories in settings that you might not already know, and this is where Edwards’ astonishing genre coverage really comes into its own. There is, perhaps inevitably, a concentration of locations in and around cities — London, Oxford, and Edinburgh each get little bubbles of their own — but the sheer range of people and places involved shows why you go to an expert of Edwards’ standing when putting something like this together.

The 64 works cited encompass some 50 authors from the Golden Age, with Freeman Wills Crofts — a man who moved his detectives around a lot, and you suspect loved the resulting travelogue more sometimes than the detection his character were engaged in — MVP with four titles on the list. Mainstays such as Anthony Berkeley and Dorothy L. Sayers rub shoulders with the less-appreciated likes of Virgil Markham (can someone please reprint Markham?! His books sound wonderful!) and probably-all-but-forgotten names like Angus MacVicar and John Ferguson. It’s to be understood that these authors were no doubt picked to allow a full range of places to feature, but it also serves as a good reminder of just how deep the quality of the Golden Age went that there’s something to say about neglected authors from almost a century ago.

As before, the map is beautifully produced, too: a striking blood-red-and-black colour scheme for the front, and Edwards’ notes included on the reverse side alongside beautifully evocative black-and-white images from artist Ryan Bosse, whose delightful blocky, almost linocut, images enhance the setting without ever overpowering. I’m no artist, but I imagine the urge to over-populate a map with little flourishes is strong — a Stonehenge here, a factory there, six or seven areas of woodland…and suddenly what you’re left with is cramped and difficult on the eye. Walking the tightrope between this as something to be enjoyed visually while also acting, primarily, as a reference work of sorts is probably a lot tougher than it seems, and it only seems easy because Bosse has done such a restrained, measured job in providing illustration, as he did with the Agatha Christie map.

I particularly love the cover of the slim box it comes packaged in, which manages to convey something sinister without needing to resort to lazy crime fiction standbys. These guys really do produce a very high-quality product, both in terms of its physical nature and, by pairing with knowledgable and intelligent partners, the content and appeal of its focus. The classic crime nerd in your life — which, if you’re reading this, is probably you — would very much enjoy this; in fact buy two, and then you can frame them side-by-side and still refer to the notes when poring over it. It can be bought direct from Herb Lester, who kindly sent me a copy for review, and here’s hoping that a few more will be found in their future.

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See also

Kate @ Cross-Examining Crime: The map’s locations cover private houses, buildings involving the criminal justice system, department stores, political landmarks, key London streets and even royal abodes. The artwork continues to be brilliant and is one of the reasons these products are pleasing to collect. Lots of attention is given to little details, so the map is enjoyable at a visual level as well as on an information level. It is a great gift to self, but also to others who enjoy classic crime fiction.

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The full list of titles included in This Deadly Isle: A Golden Age Mystery Map by Martin Edwards

1. Death of a Ghost (1934) by Margery Allingham
2. Out Went the Taper (1934) by R.C. Ashby
3. Death Walks in Eastrepps (1931) by Francis Beeding
4. Half-Mast for the Deemster (1953) by George Bellairs
5. The Second Shot (1930) by Anthony Berkeley
6. The Bells at Old Bailey (1946) by Dorothy Bowers
7. Cat and Mouse (1950) by Christianna Brand
8. The May Week Murders (1936) by Douglas G. Browne
9. ‘The Hands of Mr. Ottermole’ (1929) by Thomas Burke
10. The Case of the Flowery Corpse (1956) by Christopher Bush
11. Death Under Snowdon (1952) by Glyn Carr
12. The Case of the Constant Suicides (1941) by John Dickson Carr
13. ‘The Absence of Mr. Glass’ (1912) by G.K. Chesterton
14. The A.B.C. Murders (1936) by Agatha Christie
15. Towards Zero (1944) by Agatha Christie
16. Dead Man’s Folly (1956) by Agatha Christie
17. Dr. Tancred Begins (1935) by G.D.H. & Margaret Cole
18. Last Will and Testament (1936) by G.D.H. & Margaret Cole
19. The Moving Toyshop (1946) by Edmund Crispin
20. Sir John Magill’s Last Journey (1930) by Freeman Wills Crofts
21. Mystery in the Channel (1931) by Freeman Wills Crofts
22. Mystery on Southampton Water (1934) by Freeman Wills Crofts
23. Man Overboard! (1936) by Freeman Wills Crofts
24. Night at the Mocking Widow (1950) by Carter Dickson
25. The Hammer of Doom (1928) by Francis Everton
26. The Young Vanish (1932) by Francis Everton
27. Death Comes to Perigord (1931) by John Ferguson
28. The Penrose Mystery (1936) by R. Austin Freeman
29. Mr. Pinkerton Finds a Body (1934) by David Frome
30. Mr. Pinkerton at the Old Angel (1939) by David Frome
31. Sinister Crag (1934) by Newton Gayle
32. The Woman in Red (1941) by Anthony Gilbert
33. Murder in the House of Commons (1932) by Mary Agnes Hamilton
34. Death is No Sportsman (1938) by Cyril Hare
35. Who Goes Hang? (1958) by Stanley Hyland
36. Operation Pax (1951) by Michael Innes
37. Dead Man’s Quarry (1930) by Ianthe Jerrold
38. Dead Man’s Riddle (1957) by Mary Kelly
39. Crime in Reverse (1939) by J. de N. Kennedy
40. The Shop Window Murders (1930) by Vernon Loder
41. Still Waters (1949) by E.C.R. Lorac
42. Crook O’Lune (1953) by E.C.R. Lorac
43. The Screaming Gull (1935) by Angus MacVicar
44. Death in the Dusk (1928) by Virgil Markham
45. Shock! (1930) by Virgil Markham
46. A Surfeit of Lampreys (1941) by Ngaio Marsh
47. Sunset Over Soho (1934) by Gladys Mitchell
48. The Devil’s Elbow (1951) by Gladys Mitchell
49. ‘The Glasgow Murder’ (1902) by Baroness Orczy
50. Murder at Cambridge (1933) by Q. Patrick
51. The Warrielaw Jewel (1933) by Winifred Peck
52. The Red Redmaynes (1922) by Eden Philpotts
53. The Ingenious Mr. Stone (1945) by Robert Player
54. The Cambridge Murders (1945) by Dilwyn Rees
55. Death in the Hop Fields (1937) by John Rhode
56. Clouds of Witness (1926) by Dorothy L. Sayers
57. Five Red Herrings (1931) by Dorothy L. Sayers
58. Gaudy Night (1935) by Dorothy L. Sayers
59. The Singing Sands (1953) by Josephine Tey
60. ‘The Rubber Trumpet’ (1934) by Roy Vickers
61. The Missing Partners (1928) by Henry Wade
62. Lonely Magdalen (1940) by Henry Wade
63. Darkness at Pemberley (1932) by T.H. White
64. The Division Bell Mystery (1932) by Ellen Wilkinson