Just Finished Reading: Murder in Midsummer edited by Cecily Gayford (FP: 2019) [280pp] 

I actually bought this by accident thinking it was part of the much-admired British Library Crime Classics series – it wasn’t. Thankfully, that wasn’t a problem at all. This was, essentially, a collection of holiday related crime short stories (with a few strange exceptions) mostly from the Golden Age of Crime – with the single exception of a Sherlock Holmes short. From experience most collections like this are pretty hit and miss with a few really good stories, mostly OK stories and one (or if you’re unlucky) two stinkers. Fortunately, even the ‘worst’ story of the collection - The Oracle of the Dog by G K Chesterton – had some interesting/fun moments which I enjoyed. 

We were off to a good start with Achilles Heel by Ruth Rendell. Apart from the fact that it was very clever and had some great characters – I'm always impressed when an author can get you invested in a character and actively like them in as little as 30 pages of text – I particularly liked that the detective's wife told him to ‘stop detecting’ on holiday when he was obviously listening into a couple’s conversation and musing over meanings. That did make me LOL!   

The Villa Marie Celeste by Margery Allingham was one of several stories that revolved around a mystery rather than a crime (never mind murder). It was very much a puzzle story – which I love – and was resolved quite nicely. The only niggle (being the pedant that I am) is that the real ships name was Mary Celeste and not Marie. The wrong name became popular and supplanted the real name because of a story by Conan Doyle based on the actual events. 

The Blue Scarab by R Austin Freeman was another fun one, dependent on a generation's long mystery, buried treasure and a mysterious Egyptian artifact that was both more, and less, than it seemed. Finally, I’ll mention Dead Mountain Lion by Ellis Peters. Although I clued into the murderer pretty quickly, partially due to a twisted prejudice I have to be honest, I did like the way that the naïve protagonist/amateur detective had a positive moral growth arc which made me rather less frustrated with him! 

Overall, this was a solid introduction to Golden Age Crime writers and should (and in my case did) prompt readers to delve further into the genre. I’ve discovered that there are more of these collections out there and I’ll definitely be looking out for them. Recommended.