Martin Edwards has already earned the title of Invaluable Curator of Golden Age Detective Fiction, and every anthology volume he edits and introduces for the British Library Crime Classics series (made available here in the U.S. through Poisoned Pen Press) is delightful confirmation. I have previously reviewed two collections in the series, Serpents in Eden and Crimson Snow, and the recently released Continental Crimes offers the same satisfaction for classic mystery fans: an assortment of stories by authors familiar and unknown, this time focusing on plotlines that cast a wider net and venture beyond comfortable old England.
France is especially well-represented here, and the setting likely appealed to the largely U.K.-based writers because of its proximity and its glamorous and romantic southern coastal towns. Marie Belloc Lowndes, E. Phillips Oppenheim, and F. Tennyson Jesse each deliver intrigue and deception among the aristocrats – or those just pretending to be – in stories set on the French Riviera. Oppenheim tells a tale of international espionage among the tony hotels in "The Secret of the Magnifique". Jesse lets her protagonist, Solange Fontaine, observe a lovers' triangle with the objective air of a psychoanalyst in "The Lover of St. Lys". And Lowndes, whose detective Hercules Popeau (a creation that appeared before Agatha Christie's similarly named Belgian detective, Edwards informs us) eavesdrops shamelessly on the conversations of hotel guests in "Popeau Intervenes", manages to outwit both the suspicious Russian Countess Filenska and the sinister-sounding Doctor Scorpion!
Some of the most recognized names in crime fiction are also represented here, and the choices are sound ones. While Arthur Conan Doyle's Italy-set "The New Catacomb" suffers from being both similar to Edgar Allan Poe's unforgettable "The Cask of Amontillado" and three times longer than that compact story, G.K. Chesterton's entry "The Secret Garden" has everything that I adore about his best Father Brown tales: a bizarre murder (here the beheading of a victim in an enclosed garden), a moment of utter bafflement for the reader, and the blinking, unremarkable Father Brown ready to demystify with an explanation that grounds the bizarre tableau once more in reality.
And the most recognized name of all is included, albeit with a lesser-known detective and story. Agatha Christie's Parker Pyne helps a woman on a train bound for Istanbul in "Have You Got Everything You Want?" After some encouragement from professional problem-solver and fellow passenger Pyne, the woman confides that she's worried about what might happen to her on the trip, based on a scrap of writing she saw on her husband's blotting paper: "Just before Venice would be the best time." While I am hardly the Christie acolyte that so many other GAD readers understandably have become, there is something admirable and clever in the way the Queen of Crime spins a story with three characters (not counting Pyne) and a hook and effortlessly manages to engage the reader and keep the actions moving forward with the efficiency of a European express train. It's a minor tale, but it's masterfully done.
My favorite discoveries in Continental Crimes include "Petit-Jean" by First World War soldier and playwright Ian Hay (Major General John Hay Beith), a lively and wryly comic story about a British military unit stationed in France and its relationship with a pair of native lads, Jean and Henri (or 'Nrri', as Captain Crombie refers to him in his labored lingua franca). It's an uncommon scenario, and Hay's deft tone and narrative sweep provided a satisfying story.
Equally enjoyable were "The Room in the Tower" by J. Jefferson Farjeon, a short and effective ghost story about familial defenestration in an imposing German castle tower, and Michael Gilbert's "Villa Almirante", which combines assured writing with the specter of Percy Shelley's death when a poet is found drowned off the Italian coast.
With fourteen tales in this collection – additional authors include H.C. Bailey, Josephine Bell, Arnold Bennett, Stacy Aumonier, and Henry de Vere Stacpoole – Continental Crimes is a great companion to bring along on international travel … or for enjoying in as sedentary a setting as your favorite armchair. I received an eBook reading copy through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Some of the most recognized names in crime fiction are also represented here, and the choices are sound ones. While Arthur Conan Doyle's Italy-set "The New Catacomb" suffers from being both similar to Edgar Allan Poe's unforgettable "The Cask of Amontillado" and three times longer than that compact story, G.K. Chesterton's entry "The Secret Garden" has everything that I adore about his best Father Brown tales: a bizarre murder (here the beheading of a victim in an enclosed garden), a moment of utter bafflement for the reader, and the blinking, unremarkable Father Brown ready to demystify with an explanation that grounds the bizarre tableau once more in reality.
And the most recognized name of all is included, albeit with a lesser-known detective and story. Agatha Christie's Parker Pyne helps a woman on a train bound for Istanbul in "Have You Got Everything You Want?" After some encouragement from professional problem-solver and fellow passenger Pyne, the woman confides that she's worried about what might happen to her on the trip, based on a scrap of writing she saw on her husband's blotting paper: "Just before Venice would be the best time." While I am hardly the Christie acolyte that so many other GAD readers understandably have become, there is something admirable and clever in the way the Queen of Crime spins a story with three characters (not counting Pyne) and a hook and effortlessly manages to engage the reader and keep the actions moving forward with the efficiency of a European express train. It's a minor tale, but it's masterfully done.
My favorite discoveries in Continental Crimes include "Petit-Jean" by First World War soldier and playwright Ian Hay (Major General John Hay Beith), a lively and wryly comic story about a British military unit stationed in France and its relationship with a pair of native lads, Jean and Henri (or 'Nrri', as Captain Crombie refers to him in his labored lingua franca). It's an uncommon scenario, and Hay's deft tone and narrative sweep provided a satisfying story.
Equally enjoyable were "The Room in the Tower" by J. Jefferson Farjeon, a short and effective ghost story about familial defenestration in an imposing German castle tower, and Michael Gilbert's "Villa Almirante", which combines assured writing with the specter of Percy Shelley's death when a poet is found drowned off the Italian coast.
With fourteen tales in this collection – additional authors include H.C. Bailey, Josephine Bell, Arnold Bennett, Stacy Aumonier, and Henry de Vere Stacpoole – Continental Crimes is a great companion to bring along on international travel … or for enjoying in as sedentary a setting as your favorite armchair. I received an eBook reading copy through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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