Silent Nights

September 28, 2015
Like an assortment of presents under a Christmas tree, there’s something for everyone in this Yule-themed reprint anthology in the British Library Crime Classics series from Edwards (Guilty Parties). The 15 selections range from stories by such leading lights of the genre’s golden age as Arthur Conan Doyle (“The Blue Carbuncle”) and Dorothy L. Sayers (“The Necklace of Pearls”) to works by such forgotten authors as H.C. Bailey (“The Unknown Murderer”) and Ralph Plummer (“Parlour Tricks”). Connoisseurs of locked-room mysteries will welcome Edmund Crispin’s “The Name on the Window.” Ethel Lina White’s “Waxworks” will send shivers down readers’ spines, though it contains the now-cliché stopped watch to indicate time of death. In “Stuffing,” Edgar Wallace repeats Doyle’s prize-in-the-bird trick from “Carbuncle,” but this is another quibble. These classic tales of murder and jewel thievery with a light dusting of snow reveal bygone sensibilities, which, by and large, are fun to read about.

October 15, 2015

Editor Edwards (The Golden Age of Murder) assembles 15 classic Christmas detective stories that include contributions by Arthur Conan Doyle, G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Margery Allingham, and that feature favorite characters Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown, and Lord Peter Wimsey. Interspersed are more obscure but still thoroughly enjoyable golden age mysteries such as Leo Bruce's "Beef for Christmas," starring the inimitable Sergeant Beef, and Ralph Plummer's "Parlour Tricks." VERDICT Follow Edwards's advice to curl up with these good mysteries, as they're much better for the digestion than another helping of plum pudding. A delectable treat for fans of classic crime fiction.

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