The Detection Collection

March 20, 2006
Britain's Detection Club, founded in 1930 by such legends of the genre as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, celebrates its 75th anniversary with an all-original anthology whose strongest entries are by two living legends, P.D. James and Colin Dexter. The volume opens with James's "The Part-time Job," an ironic and concise tale of vengeance narrated from beyond the grave by the victim of a childhood bully. Inspector Morse's creator weighs in with "Between the Lines," a twisty exercise in deception related through correspondence between two friends who may have witnessed a theft on a train. Weaker stories include H.R.F. Keating's "A Toothbrush," which has a marvelous setup—a man returns home to find a strange toothbrush has mysteriously appeared in his bathroom—but a disappointingly prosaic payoff. Editor Brett provides a brief history of the Detection Club.