helpful intro for future mystery reading ( )

Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. ( )

The Measure of Malice is a fun anthology of classic mystery short stories from the Golden Age of Mystery. Martin Edwards has produced several editions for Poisoned Pen Press harvesting stories from authors who have been lost to the passage of time. This anthology focuses on stories with an element of science.

While Edwards includes a few of the most well-known authors like Arthur Conan Doyle and Dorothy Sayers. His primary focus, though, is on those who have been lost to time such as Robert Eustace, L. T. Meade, and H. C. Bailey.

Some of them are very clever such as “The Cyprian Bees” by Anthony Wynne and “The Broken Toad” by H. C. Bailey. “The Case of the Chemis in the Cupboard” on the other hand irritated me with the way the detective treated the woman who worked for him. “The New Cement” by Freeman Willis Crofts is pure genius.

I love mysteries and I love short stories. When they come together, in a package like The Measure of Malice I am thrilled. I think Edwards does an excellent job of finding a good mix of the famous and the forgotten and the various kinds of mysteries. I appreciate that Edwards did not define science to narrowly. This is is not CSI: The Golden Age. This is why I always look forward to his anthologies.

I received an e-galley of The Measure of Malice from the publisher through NetGalley.

The Measure of Malice at Poisoned Pen Press
Martin Edwards author site

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2020/02/20/the-measure-of-malice-by-... ( )

This is an assortment of short stories by British crime writers from the early and mid 20th Century, some are well-known and others are mostly unknown. The theme is aptly described by the book's subtitle: "Scientific Detection Stories". Every one of the stories has a scientific or technological angle, especially around poisons, medical knowledge and related devices.
The leadoff story is "The Boscombe Valley Mystery", an excellent Sherlock Holmes short story by Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes and Watson travel into the English countryside to meet up with Inspector Lestrade and solve a complicated "puzzle" whodunit. Holmes coins a droll comment to Watson: " There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact". He goes on to apply his trademark method to solve the puzzle.
Fans of Golden Age of Murder stories will recognize many of the other included authors: John Rhode, R. Austin Freeman, Dorothy L. Sayers, Edmund Crispin, Anthony Wynne and Freeman Wills Croft. There are some talented writers of which many readers have not previously heard or read: for example, C.J. Cutcliffe Hyne and H.C. Bailey. Their stories included in this anthology can serve as an introduction to their detective stories.
A charm of these British Library Crime Classics anthologies, in addition to introducing talented but little known crime writers, is the readability of the collection. It is easy to put down the book after an individual story and come back to the rest later. Or, the book can be read through to the end in one sitting. Either way, the book is an entertaining read.
I find Martin Edwards's Introductions well worth the time it takes to read them. He provides insight into each author's body of work and puts it in a general context of the Golden Age of Murder as a whole.

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for providing an advanced reading copy to me, via Netgalley. The comments about it are my own. ( )

Generally pretty good stories

This story collection highlights the use of science to aid detectives in fiction of an earlier age. The stories are not equally appealing but they are all fun, if only because the styles of the authors vary so much. Readers who enjoy the British Library Crime Classic series will like this offering.

I have read a number of books from this series now and this one seems to have cemented my dislike of the introductory remarks Martin Edwards, the series editor, gives us as a formal introduction in each book and epigraphs in story collections. This time I planned to read the introduction and epigraphs after I had read all the stories to avoid the spoilers Mr. Edwards is prone to revealing, but when the time came, I skipped them all. I do not feel this was a loss.

I received a review copy of "The Measure of Malice: Scientific Detection Stories" edited by Martin Edwards from the British Library Crime Classic and Poisoned Pen Press through NetGalley.com. ( )