The variety in this book was the greatest thing. Growing up on the Sherlock Holmes stories as the primary source for my mysteries, with a few Poirots and Nero Wolfes thrown in, I had a specific idea of the formulation of a detective story: The mystery is presented, the detective goes to solve the problem, and while this collection did of course have a few that followed that form, including a Sherlock and a Father Brown, it also had other stories which fit the category rather less squarely. The Ministering Angel was the first of these, a story of a woman married to a man she hounded because she wanted his money after he died—what a classic motive, I’m discovering, and such a rampant trope, although for stories in this book, they’re written so early as to be, perhaps, the ones that built the trope.
Not Guilty is a story about a woman who gets away with murder, as is The Idol’s Eye, and The Perfect Crime and The Intruder are about people who get caught doing crimes, although not by people who are detectives in particular. Cast-Iron Alibi is about someone who very nearly gets away with it, including a police detective who very narrowly doesn’t solve the case, which is a refreshing turn.
Huxley’s A Deal in Old Masters is simply about a skillful fake art trafficker, although maybe skillful is an overstatement. It’s really just about an art salesman passing off a fake to a rube who doesn’t know any better, which kind of annoyed me to have in this collection when I read it. But then again Huxley usually strikes me as overblown.
A few more little stories of hoaxes follow, and then tales of murder with little twists but no detectives. Last, a few Sherlocks by Doyle and one by Knox.
In all, an interesting and good collection of detective stories that sparked a hunger (which I have, alas, continued with Agatha Christie remake movies from the library via hoopla rather than continuing getting through my books...) But thankfully I have a couple more books, a Victorian detective anthology, a Nero Wolfe anthology and a novel-length mystery, to satisfy me after I finish a couple of the books I just picked up this weekend.

Lucky enough to pick this book up at a used book store for a dollar. What a steal! I enjoyed reading the editor's selections of stories from the famous detective/mystery/suspense magazine The Strand.

As with any compilation, there are stories that are stronger or weaker than others, but on the whole, excellent quality stories, with a few introductions to let the reader understand more about the stories and authors we may nit be familiar with. ( )

Lucky enough to pick this book up at a used book store for a dollar. What a steal! I enjoyed reading the editor's selections of stories from the famous detective/mystery/suspense magazine The Strand.

As with any compilation, there are stories that are stronger or weaker than others, but on the whole, excellent quality stories, with a few introductions to let the reader understand more about the stories and authors we may nit be familiar with. ( )