Fond of stories about murders that couldn't have happened - but did? Stories about bodies found in locked rooms - or disappearing from them? Murder before witnesses who never saw the killer? Single lines of footprints in the sand leading to a body - but no footprints returning? A train disappearing without a trace? If these sound like your kind of mystery stories, have I got a collection for you, courtesy of the British Library Crime Classics series. It's called Miraculous Mysteries, edited by Martin Edwards, and it's a collection of sixteen short stories, all of which feature seemingly impossible crimes. Miraculous Mysteries is the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the entire review by clicking here.
Martin Edwards, who is, among other things, the president of England's prestigious Detection Club, has been kept quite busy of late collecting short stories by classic authors and putting them together into anthologies. As I am particularly fond of stories in the "impossible crimes" sub-genre, I am most grateful for this latest anthology which focuses its attention entirely upon impossibilities. Edwards has chosen from a good mix of authors - some quite famous, some who have lapsed into obscurity. All have turned out wonderfully tricky stories about impossible crimes, and the solutions, in general, are quite novel.
I'm not going to waste your time here - if you listen to the podcast, you will find brief (and spoiler-free) summaries of all the stories. Martin Edwards has chosen authors ranging from Conan Doyle (and his story is NOT a Sherlock Holmes story...is it?), to Golden Age lions such as Dorothy L. Sayers and Michael Innes, with stops along the way for lesser-known names such as Nicholas Olde and Grenville Robbins. You'll also find a general introduction to the stories and to the genre from Edwards, along with his introductions to each story and each author. If, like me, you are fascinated by this sub-genre of the mystery world, you can’t go wrong with this book, recently published in the British Library Crime Classics series and published in the U.S. by Poisoned Pen Press. Don’t miss it.
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