The idea of a collection of Golden Age short stories based around a theme of animals seemed like an unusual one, until I remembered that one of the genre’s foundational short stories and one of its most famous novels both have animals in fairly central roles. So that’s all right, then.
Continue readingArthur Conan Doyle
#1453: “The police are bound to be about the place somewhere.” – Lessons in Crime: Academic Mysteries [ss] (2024) ed. Martin Edwards
Featuring fifteen felonious fables from phrontistery factions, Lessons in Crime [ss] (2024) is another collection in the British Library Crime Classics range edited by the acme of appreciation of this era, Martin Edwards.
Continue reading#1422: “Same old game, what?” – Settling Scores: Sporting Mysteries [ss] (2020) ed. Martin Edwards
Fifteen tales of murder and mystery centring around various athletic pastimes would, you imagine, be a fairly difficult undertaking to assemble, and so Martin Edwards is to be commended for finding enough to fill the pages of Settling Scores [ss] (2017) for the British Library Crime Classics series.
Continue reading#1390: “Circumstances might arise when a murder would be the only way out of a difficulty.” – Continental Crimes [ss] (2017) ed. Martin Edwards
Christmas is done for another year, and so my mind turns to the summer holidays and the possibilities of Europe. Yeah, it’s early to be planning this sort of thing, but I like to be prepared. And so naturally it is the British Library’s collection Continental Crimes [ss] (2017) that I crack open for research
Continue reading#1363: “I have a dozen fresh people call on me every month with queer stories…” – Capital Crimes: London Mysteries [ss] (2015) ed. Martin Edwards
Seventeen scenarios of skulduggery, stealing, and slaughter in the British Library Crime Classics range, all centred on London, the finest city on god’s green Earth, and selected by the ne plus ultra of classic crime appreciation, Martin Edwards.
Continue reading#1286: Little Fictions – ‘The Final Problem’ (1893) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
#1283: Little Fictions – ‘The Naval Treaty’ (1893) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The key facet of most crime and detective fiction is that we, the reader, should find ourselves in sympathy with the person who is the victim — or, more rarely, the perpetrator — of, some crime. Sometimes, though, that’s simply not possible.
Continue reading#1280: Little Fictions – ‘The Greek Interpreter’ (1893) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The original antepenultimate case for the world’s first consulting detective; the perfect time to introduce some new lore, what?
Continue reading#1277: Little Fictions – ‘The Resident Patient’ (1893) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
#1274: Little Fictions – ‘The Crooked Man’ (1893) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Five Tuesdays in April should allow me to finish off the last five stories in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894). Right?
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