Cynthia Manson

Although short stories aren't my favorite format for crime/mystery fiction, I like to read the occasional anthology. I've discovered a few authors I enjoy that way. Most of the authors in this collection were already well known to me – Margery Allingham, Dorothy Sayers, Michael Innes, Christianna Brand, Ruth Rendell. The biggest surprise to me is a story by P. G. Wodehouse. I had no idea he wrote any crime/mystery pieces. His “Strychnine in the Soup,” Dorothy Sayers' “The Necklace of show more Pearls,” and E. C. Bentley's “The Ministering Angel” are among the better stories in this volume. This collection will appeal to fans of classic British mysteries. show less

Overall, this is a fun anthology of 12 Christmas mysteries collected from the pages of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. It's quick, light reading to pick up and put down during a hectic season.

As the stories have initial copyright dates ranging from the 1940's through the 1980's they reflect a wide range of styles.

They also have a wide range of quality--my favorite was a 1953 gem by mystery icon Rex Stout. Other notable authors included in the show more collection are John D MacDonald and Margery Allingham. Unfortunately, one or two of the twelve stories were so painfully bad ,with such obvious plot lines, that I didn't bother to finish reading them. I have the unhappy feeling that these were included to make up the magical number of twelve, rather than on their literary merit.

Fun to read, but I don't think it will have a permanent place in my Christmas library. show less

This 1993 collection consists of 33 short stories that originally appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Most originally were published in the 1970s - 1980s; two exceptions are the contributions by Cornell Woolrich (1940) and Michael Shaara (1958). The theme of psychological suspense is all that the stories have in common. They are otherwise diverse in tone, and include stories that are engrossing, thrilling, deeply disturbing, and show more terrifying, to others that are poignant and even semi- humorous. The stories are likewise diverse in content, and include tales of murder, betrayal, psychological disorder, and gender confusion. The reader inhabits the minds of both victims and perpetrators, sometimes from a first- person perspective. One notable story, Going to Meet Terry puts the reader into the mind of a young teenage boy.

Several of the contributions come from well- known writers of fiction, including Patricia Highsmith, Cornell Woolrich, and Daphne du Maurier, as well as Lawrence Block, Robert Bloch, Antonia Fraser, and Ruth Rendell. I found the contributions to be quite mixed in their appeal. Particularly noteworthy (in my opinion) are Minutes of Terror (Honig), Golden Tuesday (Fremlin), In the Clear (McGerr), The Ghost of Monday (Klavan), Things Had Gone Badly (Highsmith), The Letter Carrier (Gottlieb), and for old time’s sake, Cornell Woolrich’s 1940s- era Meet Me by the Mannequin. Much less appealing to me were the contributions from Fraser, Harrington, Bloch, and du Maurier. Knowing Michael Shaara from his great novel of the US Civil War, I was surprised and impressed with his contribution in this collection The Wide and Starry Sky.

Overall, this is a fairly good collection of short stories, although due to their content, not necessarily ones for pre- bedtime reading. Full contents are listed below, with my ratings of 1-5 stars. (Those with checkmarks were hard to rate).

4* In the Clear by Patricia McGerr
4* Minutes of Terror by Donald Honig
1* The New Girl Friend by Ruth Rendell
4* The Letter Carrier by Kathryn Gottlieb
✓At a Rest Stop South of Portland by Robert Twohy
✓The Moon Was to Blame by Antonia Fraser
3* Night Watch Hero by Paul Amedick
1* A Summer Night's Visitor by Gordon A. Reims
1* The Marked Man by David Ely
2.5* The Other Side of the Wall by Stanley Ellin
✓A Place of Her Own by Joyce Harrington
2.5* Dead Man's Switch by Bill Crenshaw
2* The Girl of My Dreams by Donald E. Westlake
1* East Wind by Daphne du Maurier
2* Dr. Temple Is Dead by William Bankier
2* From the Balcony by Christianna Brand
2* Ted Bundy’s Father by Ruth Graviros
4* Meet Me by the Mannequin by Cornell Woolrich
3* Placebo by Andrew Vachss
3* The Ghost of Monday by Andrew Klavan
2* A Good Head for Murder by Charles W. Runyon
5* Golden Tuesday by Celia Fremlin
2* Babysitter by Dion Henderson
3* When This Man Dies by Lawrence Block
2.5* Going to Meet Terry by Rick Hills
2.5* The Innocence of Rachel Crewe by Virginia Moriconi
✓See How They Run by Robert Bloch
2* My Son, My Son by Robert Barnard
3* The Man on the Stair by Bryce Walton
4* Things Had Gone Badly by Patricia Highsmith
✓Killer in the House by Jas. R. Petrin
4* The Wide and Starry Sky by Michael Shaara
3* The Anderson Boy by Joseph Hansen show less

This is an omnibus of short stories, obviously, so not all the stories will appeal to everyone. But they were all very well-written and smartly selected. It has introduced me to some writers whose work I want to pursue in novel form. Even if I personally didn't especially like a character or style of story, not a single one was a clunker.