#1398: “It’s goin’ to take a bit o’ thinkin’ out…” – As If by Magic: Locked Room Mysteries and Other Miraculous Crimes [ss] (2025) ed. Martin Edwards

January 10, 2026January 2, 2026 / JJ / 4 Comments

A second anthology of impossible crimes from the British Library Crime Classics range, As If by Magic [ss] (2025) is another genre-spanning collection from editor and Detection Club President Martin Edwards that does much to highlight the depth and breadth of classic crime and detective fiction.

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#1390: “Circumstances might arise when a murder would be the only way out of a difficulty.” – Continental Crimes [ss] (2017) ed. Martin Edwards

December 27, 2025January 10, 2026 / JJ / 6 Comments

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

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#1318: “That’s the worst of these detective stories; every criminal knows that trick.” – The Long Arm of the Law [ss] (2017) ed. Martin Edwards

July 12, 2025January 11, 2026 / JJ / 8 Comments

An earlier British Library Crime Classics short story collection today, with The Long Arm of the Law [ss] (2017) featuring 15 stories of professional police selected by the hugely knowledgeable Martin Edwards.

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#1240: “Our investigation is foxed and bewildered because everybody is thinking of Christmas.” – Crimson Snow [ss] (2016) ed. Martin Edwards

December 21, 2024January 10, 2026 / JJ / Leave a comment

Having looked at Silent Nights [ss] (2015), the first collection of Christmas-themed short stories in the British Library Crime Classic collection a fortnight ago, I move on to Crimson Snow [ss] (2016), the second such collection, edited once again by Martin Edwards.

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#1196: “It is not good for the dead to be alone.” – Best Detective Stories of Cyril Hare, a.k.a. Death Among Friends [ss] (1959) ed. Michael Gilbert

July 20, 2024July 20, 2024 / JJ / 3 Comments

Thirty stories from the pen of Cyril Hare, an author whose legal-themed novels leave me rather cold, but whose scattered short fiction I have encountered is typically very positive. So a chance to dig deeper into that his miniature plots is to be seized.

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#1135: “Don’t be so infernally bloodthirsty!” – Who Killed Father Christmas? and Other Seasonal Mysteries [ss] (2023) ed. Martin Edwards

November 4, 2023January 10, 2026 / JJ / 8 Comments

Astoundingly, Who Killed Father Christmas? (2023) is the fifth collection of seasonal mysteries collated by Martin Edwards for the British Library Crime Classics range. And, with the BL kind enough to provide me with a review copy, it seemed like the perfect excuse to start some Christmas reading a little earlier than planned.

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#1089: “Murder! What in God’s name do you mean?” – Crimes of Cymru [ss] (2023) ed. Martin Edwards

July 15, 2023January 13, 2026 / JJ / 8 Comments

Another themed collection of crime and mystery stories from the British Library, Crimes of Cymru (2023) sees Martin Edwards’ exemplary genre knowledge tasked with selecting tales with Welsh settings or origin.

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#919: “Tonight, in this house, is there going to be another killing?” – Bodies from the Library 5 [ss] (2022) ed. Tony Medawar

June 4, 2022February 1, 2025 / JJ / 11 Comments

Another year, another collection of forgotten or unknown tales from the luminaries of detective fiction’s Golden Age brought to us by the tireless efforts of Tony Medawar. So how does Bodies from the Library 5 (2022) stack up?

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