Classic Mysteries

P. D. James on Detective Fiction

I note, with some eagerness, that P. D. James, surely one of the modern greats of detective fiction, has a new non-fiction book which will be released in the U. S. this December. It's called "Talking About Detective Fiction," and it is a compendium of her thoughts on the genre.

According to friends who have seen the book, which is already available in the U. K., much of the book is spent talking about the Golden Age, particularly in Britain. It sounds like an interesting read, and I have ordered my own copy through Amazon (and, yes, if you pre-order it from Amazon through these links, I get a few cents). I'll post my reactions here after I read it. In the meantime, if you want to read more about it, "Vegetableduck" has posted a thoughtful review at the Golden Age of Detection group on Yahoo.

Good News About Poisoned Chocolates

As I mentioned in my last post, "The Avenging Chance" is a short story version of Anthony Berkeley's novel, "The Poisoned Chocolates Case," a book which, like all of Berkeley's novels, has been out of print in the United States.

Until now.

I find that Amazon is now accepting pre-publication orders for "The Case of the Poisoned Chocolates," which is due to be published by the Felony & Mayhem press in January. I have duly placed my order accordingly. I would expect that any mystery book store will be happy to pre-order it for you - or, of course, you can use my link to Amazon and order it that way (thereby sending a few cents in my direction)...

I'm looking forward to it. I've read about the book, but have never had a chance to read it. With a "fair play" novelist like Berkeley, it should be a lot of fun.

"The Avenging Chance"

I suspect that not very many of today's mystery enthusiasts will remember the name of Anthony Berkeley, and that seems to me to be a pity. Berkeley, the pen name of Anthony Berkeley Cox, was a champion of the "play fair" school of detective story writing so popular during the Golden Age between the first and second world war. He was also the founder, in 1930,  of the Detection Club in London, whose members included virtually every major mystery author in the U. K. at the time.

All of Anthony Berkeley's novels are out of print, but Crippen & Landru have published a collection of his short stories, called "The Avenging Chance and Other Mysteries from Roger Sheringham's Casebook." It features stories about Sheringham and also Chief Inspector Moresby of Scotland Yard - sometimes working together, sometimes separately. It's the subject of this week's review on our Classic Mysteries podcast, which you can hear here. For readers who enjoy matching wits with fictional sleuths, rest assured that you will be given every opportunity to do so. Berkeley was quite honest with his clues - and quite skilled at disguising and hiding them.

It's worth noting that Berkeley allowed his detectives to make mistakes - sometimes building elaborate theories about crimes which lead them to stunningly wrong conclusions. The clues provided can be quite ambiguous. In fact, the story which gives the collection its title, "The Avenging Chance," is a short story version of Berkeley's best-known novel, "The Poisoned Chocolates Case," but the solution of the short story is reached and discarded in the novel.

Whether you read these stories to match wits with the author or simply to enjoy some well-written and fiendishly devised mysteries, Anthony Berkeley deserves your attention. The collection is edited by Tony Medawar and Arthur Robinson, who provide an excellent and informative introduction, called "The Master of the Final Twist." Not a bad epitaph for a fine writer.

Sherlock Holmes Stories Ranked by Popularity

I hadn't seen this list before: Rafe McGregor has reprinted a list of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories - ranked by popularity. According to his post, the list comes from a poll taken ten years ago by Randall Stock of the Baker Street Irregulars. It doesn't include the four novels.

It's a pretty interesting list. I suspect that most of us have read and will re-read the story chronologically - that is, based on the original collections in the order in which they appeared: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Memoirs, The Return, etc. Listing them by popularity provides another interesting angle. Maybe it's time for me to re-read them again.

Hat tip: J. Kingston Pierce of The Rap Sheet blog.