Crimson Snow winter mysteries is a collection of vintage crime short stories edited by Martin Edwards. Reading this book gave me an opportunity to read a lot of vintage crime authors that I hadn’t read before.
The contributors are: Fergus Hume, Edgar Wallace, Margery Allingham, S.C. Roberts, Victor Gunn, Christopher Bush, Ianthe Jerrold, Macdonald Hastings, Julian Symons, Michael Gilbert and Josephine Bell.
Most of the stories are fairly short but the one by Victor Gunn is about seventy pages long so it’s really a novella and I don’t know if it’s because that one is longer – but I think it’s my favourite story. I’ll definitely be looking for more books by Victor Gunn anyway. I’ve seen a lot of his books on my travels but had no idea what they would be like and didn’t give them a go. No doubt now I won’t see any of his books in shops for yonks. That’s what happened to me with Dornford Yates, he was all over the place until Valerie said some of his books were good – and now they’ve disappeared after me being just about haunted by them previously.
I enjoyed this collection of short stories which are all set around winter/Christmas celebrations although the stories that I liked least were the ones by authors that I’ve read most. Margery Allingham and Macdonald Hastings disappointed me, maybe I just expected too much of them.
Published by British Library Crime Classics of course and the cover is taken from a vintage St Moritz travel poster. There’s a wee biography of each writer on the page before their story begins, which was interesting but I would have liked it if they had also added the date the story was originally published and which magazine it first appeared in. That’s me nit-picking though. This was perfect Christmas bedtime reading, why is murder and Christmas such a good combination?!
I don’t always enjoy vintage short stories, but I may try this book. That novella sounds interesting. I agree that I like to know the date of original publication for short stories (and where first published too).
tracybham,
I think in general I prefer getting stuck into a nice long book, but short stories are good for bedtime reading I suppose. I hope you enjoy it if you get around to reading it.
I have been saving this to read once the weather got cooler, I was just thinking it was time to pull it off the shelf.
Lisa,
It’s freezing here now although we don’t have snow so it’s definitely time for Christmas and winter themed stories. I’m hoping they’ll get me into the mood for Christmas minus murder!
I *thought* the name of Victor Gunn was familiar to me, because my mother used to enjoy his works, and looking further I see the author (Edwy Searles Brooks) also wrote under the name of Berkeley Gray which explains it: as Berkeley Gray he was the author of the “Norman Conquest” books which I love and have collected all I can find. They are a rollicking light-hearted read.
Must say I’d forgotten about Victor Gunn, will keep an eye out for those too.
Sorry the Dornford Yates books have vanished from the face of the earth. Isn’t that often the way?
Valerie,
I wish I knew what had happened to my father’s books as I’m sure he was a Gunn reader. Now I’ll need to search out Berkeley Gray books too! I know that if I stop searching for Dornford Yates – he’ll begin to throw himself at me again!