Matthew Booth

Short form crime fiction is difficult. The author cannot rely on red herrings, a host of possible suspects, or deeply technical sleuthing. The scene, character and plot must come immediately. The four novellas of this book are masterpieces of their kind.

Meet Anthony Rathe, a barrister who abruptly retired from practice after his brilliant prosecution resulted in an innocent man's conviction and subsequent suicide. Rathe is now a shade of his former self, haunting the cemetery, staring at show more gravestones, meditating on justice. Until, that is, he is forced to consider (not investigate really) four different murders, one for each novella.

Rathe is a handsome, wealthy, cultured, yet empathetic man who listens to his intuition. Each story is different and enjoyable, if a bit reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes written by Martin Gatiss. However, I must say that the final story is overly shocking, making it the weakest of the group. The murder victim could easily have been someone else.

I received a review copy of "When Anthony Rathe Investigates" by Matthew Booth (Sparkling Books) through NetGalley.com. show less

This is a small collection of three Sherlock Holmes spin off stories. I always judge such spin offs by how authentically Holmesian they feel. These are really good, the personas of Holmes and Watson and the writing itself feel genuinely Conan Doylesque. The plots of two of them were reasonable, though the other one contained a rather implausible crucifixion in Chislehurst. I'd read more Holmes pastiches by this author.

This had a perfect balance of deduction and soul searching to make the main character compelling. The mysteries were well written with refreshing style but a few typos and lapses. I received this as a LibraryThing Early Reviewer. Thank you. NB: I believe the mistakes I noticed have been corrected in the latest version.

This was a collection of mystery short stories, all of them interesting and quite enjoyable. Anthony Rathe leaves his legal career behind after a wrongly accused man commits suicide and takes on cases in his almost obsessive attempt to unveil the truth, help those he knows, and find a way to forgive himself for his past errors.

The mysteries were interesting but quite short. The only downside to that is that there's no real room for a lot of red herrings. I was pleased with failing to show more discover the culprit too early on for most of these stories (only one exception).

The stories are written in third person omniscient, which I don't usually mind, but I found I don't prefer for mysteries. Getting into the head of everyone involved takes a bit away from the mystery.

All in all, an enjoyable mystery collection. My overall rating is 3.5. show less