Obviously the quality of the stories is variable but there's only one that's outright *bad* or offensively break my suspension of disbelief. At the same time none are really "wow" either. The bad one is The Secret Garden by GK Chesterton, which I admit I didn't read this time because when I first read it years ago I thought it was the worst mystery story I'd ever read. Chesterton doesn't think atheists are human and can't imagine human motives for them so the denouement is purely ludicrous and to be honest I cannot understand why anyone would think this story was good.

Probably the best stories are The New Catacomb by Arthur Conan Doyle - which is highly predictable and yet the payoff is still satisfyingly macabre - and Have You Got Everything You Want? by Agatha Christie - which doesn't have the sparkle of her best writing yet the solution is the most clever *and* satisfying of the book. The other interesting one is The Perfect Murder by Stacy Aumonier, which like the Conan Doyle story is macabre and avoids issues of justice in favour of a grimly satisfying dramatic twist. Other stories are alright but just don't have that special something to elevate them. The Long Dinner by HC Bailey has a highly unusual murder method and crime but somehow doesn't really feel like a "wow" ending like it should. Petit-Jean by Ian Hay is on the poorer side in my opinion but it's at least interesting as an example of a war time story.

At the same time I do really love these compilations, even if individually the stories aren't brilliant, and I'll definitely keep reading them. I really appreciate the range of the stories chosen and how most of them are a bit unusual and admire the editing work. Also I'll admit reading this around the UK election kind of soured my mood ( )

As editor Martin Edward explains in his introduction to this anthology, there is a prevalent but mistaken impression that British crime fiction of the "Golden Age" is invariably set in the familiar landscapes of home. It is a view which is reinforced by TV and movie adaptations of "cozy mysteries". If what they portray were anything near to reality, the mind-boggling levels of violent criminality in sleepy, pastoral English hamlets would be enough to make any sociologist or criminologist go wild.

This enjoyable collection sets the record straight by presenting the reader with a generous selection of stories set on the Continent. The reasons for the protagonists finding themselves away from the British Isles are varied - holidaying, work, war, or the necessities of the investigation itself. The nature of the crimes are equally diverse, ranging from murder most foul (through poisoning and beheading, just to mention a couple of morbid examples) to theft and espionage. It makes for a deliciously assorted bag.

What I particularly liked, however was the well-judged balance between familiar crime writers and characters (Agatha Christie's Parker Pyne, Chesterton's Father Brown, to give an example) and lesser-known (at least to me) authors and characters such as Marie Belloc Lowndes and her Hercules Popeau (the unwitting prototype of Christie's Poirot). Arthur Conan Doyle, who obviously needs no introduction is, interestingly, represented by a story which is generally classified amongst his "dark" or "weird" tales - The New Catacomb. It features no investigator and its setting is deliciously Gothic. As a fan of the latter genre, I also enjoyed the spooky melodrama of J. Jefferson Farjeon's "The Room in the Tower" as well as H.C. Bailey's "The Long Dinner". Bailey's investigator - Reggie Fortune - is rather irritating, but the windswept Breton landscape and the echoes of "folk horror" still made this a worthwhile read.

This anthology's publication date was, quite cannily, set for August. It is indeed the perfect holiday read for mystery lovers: a book to carry on a trip abroad or to use as accompaniment to some armchair travelling - to the Continent, of course. ( )

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss. ( )

As editor Martin Edward explains in his introduction to this anthology, there is a prevalent but mistaken impression that British crime fiction of the "Golden Age" is invariably set in the familiar landscapes of home. It is a view which is reinforced by TV and movie adaptations of "cozy mysteries". If what they portray were anything near to reality, the mind-boggling levels of violent criminality in sleepy, pastoral English hamlets would be enough to make any sociologist or criminologist go wild.

This enjoyable collection sets the record straight by presenting the reader with a generous selection of stories set on the Continent. The reasons for the protagonists finding themselves away from the British Isles are varied - holidaying, work, war, or the necessities of the investigation itself. The nature of the crimes are equally diverse, ranging from murder most foul (through poisoning and beheading, just to mention a couple of morbid examples) to theft and espionage. It makes for a deliciously assorted bag.

What I particularly liked, however was the well-judged balance between familiar crime writers and characters (Agatha Christie's Parker Pyne, Chesterton's Father Brown, to give an example) and lesser-known (at least to me) authors and characters such as Marie Belloc Lowndes and her Hercules Popeau (the unwitting prototype of Christie's Poirot). Arthur Conan Doyle, who obviously needs no introduction is, interestingly, represented by a story which is generally classified amongst his "dark" or "weird" tales - The New Catacomb. It features no investigator and its setting is deliciously Gothic. As a fan of the latter genre, I also enjoyed the spooky melodrama of J. Jefferson Farjeon's "The Room in the Tower" as well as H.C. Bailey's "The Long Dinner". Bailey's investigator - Reggie Fortune - is rather irritating, but the windswept Breton landscape and the echoes of "folk horror" still made this a worthwhile read.

This anthology's publication date was, quite cannily, set for August. It is indeed the perfect holiday read for mystery lovers: a book to carry on a trip abroad or to use as accompaniment to some armchair travelling - to the Continent, of course. ( )

Anthologies are, generally speaking, a tricky business. Whether they are written by one author or by several authors. But "Continental Crimes" happily avoids these traps. These are solid British murder mysteries set in different countries on the continent. There are stories by Agatha Christie, Josephine Bell, Arnold Bennett, Arthur Conan Doyle, G.K.Chesterton and many others...Of course, not all the stories are brilliant, but they are very good and some are brilliant which makes this a surprisingly very good anthology.
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