Tag Archives: British Library Crime Classics
Deep Waters: Mysteries on the Waves edited by Martin Edwards
December is my favorite time of the year to curl up with a British Library Crime Classic anthology. When days are short and dark, my mood calls for grim stories, preferably bite-sized. Not only does Deep Waters fit the bill, but also being an islander, I especially appreciate crime tales set at sea. For me, […]
Death Has Deep Roots by Michael Gilbert
After the exceptional Death in Captivity, which I quite enthusiastically reviewed here, Death Has Deep Roots was a bit of a letdown. In Death Has Deep Roots, Gilbert once again writes about what he knows best. There’s no question that the law and war are his familiar grounds. Before becoming a partner at a London based law firm, Gilbert […]
Death in Captivity by Michael Gilbert
Michael Gilbert’s Death in Captivity is the twelveth British Library Crime Classic I read, and let me tell you it’s not their usual murder mystery offering. Set in 1943 after the Sicilian Campaign when Allies had started gaining momentum in the war-front, this vintage crime novel takes place in Campo 127, a prisoner-of-war camp in […]
Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert
I really do appreciate British Library for taking the pains to rediscover and reprint some of the forgotten crime classics of the golden age! Before I started following this series, Dame Agatha and Georges Simenon were the only crime classics writers on my radar. While I like to believe I would have come across great […]
The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories Edited by Martin Edwards
When I saved this anthology to be read on Christmas Eve, I could imagine myself sitting by the window, enjoying the snowfall, while indulging in some crime classics and a hot brew. Alas, Michiganders didn’t have a White Christmas this time around – in fact not a whiff of snow yet – nonetheless, this book […]
Murder by Matchlight by E. C. R. Lorac
Murder by Matchlight is my first novel by E. C. R. Lorac, and it didn’t disappoint. It is set in London during the Blitz at a time when blackouts were enforced by the government, so that alone was enough to pique my interest in this classic who-dun-it. Murder by Matchlight opens with Bruce Mallaig wandering […]
The Belting Inheritance by Julian Symons
After reading the outstanding vintage crime novel The Colour of Murder, I had an appetite for some more Julian Symons. And as luck would have it, British Library Crime Classics published another one of Symons’s books this month! Christopher Barrington is the narrator of The Belting Inheritance which is set in a grand old country house called the […]
The Colour Of Murder by Julian Symons
I think I have found my new favorite British Library Crime Classic! The Colour of Murder is a gripping novel broken into two sections. Part One: Before is a tale of psychological intrigue, which is followed by Part Two: After where courtroom drama takes place upon the discovery of the crime. Before opens with John […]
The Division Bell Mystery by Ellen Wilkinson
It has been a while since I last read a Vintage Crime novel, so I decided to get back on track with Ellen Wilkinson’s The Division Bell Mystery. The Division Bell Mystery is the second novel I read this year written by a politician (the first being Operation Heartbreak by Duff Cooper), and Wilkinson’s mystery […]
Capital Crimes: London Mysteries Edited by Martin Edwards
After reading The Long Arm of the Law last month, I wanted to try another anthology in the British Library Crime Classics series. So this time around I picked Capital Crimes; a collection of London based crime stories put together by Martin Edwards, which as usual begins with Edward’s brilliant and informative introduction! Capital Crimes […]
The Long Arm of the Law: Classic Police Stories Edited by Martin Edwards
Before I started my vintage crime book per month project this year, the only Vintage Crime Classics I had read were Sherlock Holmes books. I remember thinking back when I was reading them how utterly helpless Inspector Lestrade would have been without the help of Holmes he received from time to time in solving crimes. […]
Death Makes a Prophet by John Bude
For me, Death Makes a Prophet ranks up there with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd when it comes to vintage crime novels. From the instant I started reading this book, I’ve been struggling to see how/ why it took me so long to come across John Bude’s novels. Maybe it’s because crime fiction in that […]
The Z Murders by J. Jefferson Farjeon
The plot The Z Murders occurs over a short time-span of a day and a half. The story starts at around 5 AM in the morning when Richard Temperley arrives at Euston station. Temperley is expected at his sister’s house, but he doesn’t want to go there too early and bother the servants. Instead, he […]
Thirteen Guests by J. Jefferson Farjeon
I must have been around fourteen-years-old the first time I read a vintage crime novel. It was A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie, and it did not leave much of an impression. I was still learning English at the time – it is not my mother-tongue, which in retrospect might have been a factor. But other […]
