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    Crimson Snow: Winter Mysteries
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    Crimson Snow: Winter Mysteries
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    Crimson Snow: Winter Mysteries
    Ebook342 pages6 hours

    Crimson Snow: Winter Mysteries

    By Sourcebooks

    3.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Mystery crime fiction written in the Golden Age of Murder

    "Edwards's second winter-themed anthology in the British Library Crime Classics series is a standout. As in the most successful of such volumes, the editor's expertise results in a selection of unusual suspects, expanding readers' knowledge." —Publishers Weekly STARRED review

    Crimson Snow brings together a dozen vintage crime stories set in winter. Welcome to a world of Father Christmases behaving oddly, a famous fictional detective in a Yuletide drama, mysterious tracks in the snow, and some very unpleasant carol singers. There's no denying that the supposed season of goodwill is a time of year that lends itself to detective fiction.

    On a cold night, it's tempting to curl up by the fireside with a good mystery. And more than that, claustrophobic house parties, with people cooped up with long-estranged relatives, can provide plenty of motives for murder.

    Including forgotten stories by major writers such as Margery Allingham, as well as classic tales by less familiar crime novelists, each story in this selection is introduced by the leading expert on classic crime, Martin Edwards. The resulting volume is an entertaining and atmospheric compendium of wintry delights.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSourcebooks
    Release dateJan 3, 2017
    ISBN9781464206764
    Unavailable
    Crimson Snow: Winter Mysteries

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    Reviews for Crimson Snow

    3.5/5

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    • 3/5
      This is the latest collection of Christmas mysteries from The British Library Crime Classics. Many readers of detective stories love Christmas mysteries, but until a while ago there wasn't an awful lot of them around to choose from, so thanks to heaven that some forgotten classics have been unearthed and republished. Although I have to admit that Mavis Doriel Hay's The Santa Klaus Murder, the British Library's first yuletide mystery, wasn't really my cup of tea at all. Crimson Snow is thankfully more enjoyable.When looking through the contents I realised that three of these stories had already been anthologized in The Black Lizard Big Book Of Christmas Mysteries. These were Christmas Eve by S. C. Roberts, Julian Symons’ The Santa Claus Club and Josephine Bell’s The Carol Singers. The Carol Singers must be one of the most depressing Christmas tales ever written as it is about a bunch of criminals disguised as carol singers who target old ladies, robbing and killing them. Christmas Eve is a short Sherlock Holmes play, while The Santa Claus Club is one of the weaker stories featuring Symons' private detective Francis Quarles. Let’s take a look at the rest:Fergus Hume’s The Ghost’s Touch is your typical ghost-story-cum- mystery that plays out exactly the way you would expect it to, but that’s part of its charm. We have two brothers, one well-off, the other struggling financially; a manor house with a haunted bedroom, which kills everyone who spends the night there (the haunting of course goes back to a centuries old curse). Obviously someone will spend the night in this room and eventually it will become clear that the evil lurking there has some very real, human origin. Fergus Hume is an almost forgotten author today, even though his book “Mystery Of A Hansom Cab” was one of the bestselling detective novels of its day. Edgar Wallace needs no introduction. Even if you have never read any of his books or watched any of the movie adaptations made from them, you must have heard of him. Today Wallace is often dismissed as a mass-producer of cheap thriller literature, a bit like the James Patterson of his time, he was however a much better writer than he gets credit for. The Chopham Affair is a clever little story with a surprising twist at the end.Margery Allingham is considered one of the crime queens along with Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and Ngaio Marsh. Unlike her peers she is not as widely read today anymore, even though after her death the adventures of her serial-detective Albert Campion were continued by other authors. She might be the sort of writer you either love or hate. Personally I’ve always been immune to her charms, however her novels are very uneven in tone verging from the outright comical to the quite serious. The Man With The Sack does not have the most complex plot, Campion has to catch a jewel thief at a Christmas party. Victor Gunn’s novella Death In December is the most fun entry in this collection. Featuring his larger than life detective Bill “Ironsides” Cromwell along with his assistant Johnny Lister this is another ghost story and also an impossible mystery of sorts. The detectives have been invited by Lister’s father to his country house. Everything is set for the Christmas celebrations when the bloodied corpse of a dead man appears in a haunted room sending the occupant into hysterics, before disappearing just as suddenly without a trace. A mysterious figure appears who seems to be able to walk without leaving footprints in the snow and there is a secret passage leading into a dusty vault. So all ingredients are here for a riping good yarn. It may not be the greatest mystery ever written, but it is so entertaining that you easily forgive the flaws in plotting. Christopher Bush is an author I’ve had on my radar for a while, but after reading Murder at Christmas I’m glad I didn’t bother with any of his novels. It is written in such a sleep-inducingly dull style that it does not surprise me the least that the author has fallen into obscurity.Off The Tiles by Ianthe Jerrold is a quirky little story, a bit absurd and improbable, but not without its charm.Mr. Cork’s Christmas by Macdonald Hastings was originally published as a Christmas competition in a magazine with readers having to figure out the titular secret, thankfully the solution is also reprinted here along with some interesting ideas sent in by readers. Mr. Cork is an insurance expert who has to deal with a murder and jewel robbery at a hotel. Deep And Crisp And Even by Michael Gilbert features Police Sergeant Patrick Petrella who was also the protagonist in two of Gilbert’s novels. This is a tale about the modern police force seeming a bit out of place in this more classical collection.Crimson Snow might not be what you would call an essential collection of yuletide murder yarns, but one could do worse when looking for some atmospheric Christmas mysteries.
    • 4/5
      Crimson Snow is a wonderful step back in time to the classic British crime writers. A series of short stories, all centered around Christmas, from the isolated country house to the city of London, all were entertaining. I enjoyed being able to read an entire story then return later for the next story.
    • 3/5
      Christmas and murder mysteries, they go hand-in-hand, right? Crimson Snow is the selected book for the Kindle English Mystery Club. This volume of short stories is perfect for the mystery lover during a hectic holiday season. You can read a story quickly. This is part of the British Library Crime Classics, the short story collection. There were authors I am not familiar with and I enjoyed most of the stories but none were brilliant. You can see the surprise ending fairly well. The Christmas ghost story was great.
    • 4/5
      This is a pleasant little set of vintage mystery short stories (often enough, detective stories) that a friend bought me as a Christmas gift last year. All the stories have a strong sense of Christmas, or sometimes just wintertime, in their setting. That I didn't find them overwhelmingly memorable shouldn't be a surprise: these are treats, sometimes trifles, and they often lack the more satisfying aspects of the full-blown detective novel. Still, they were delightful to read with a little morning coffee or a warm cup of cider at night.Despite my generalization toward the short form, there are treasures to be found here: my friend almost certainly bought the book for me on the strength of Margery Allingham's "The Man with the Sack," starring her own Mr. Campion, whom we both enjoy. This and the Edgar Wallace entry "The Chopham Affair" are the classics of the volume, I think, though neither is very long. In contrast, Victor Gunn's "Death in December" is a proper novella, which gives it more weight than many of the other tales. The final entry in the book, Josephine Bell's "The Carol Singers," is also one of the darkest, and an odd note on which to end an anthology - but the story's strong social conscience makes it feel very modern, with the best character work in any of the stories in Bell's portrayal of an elderly victim.
    • 3/5
      A collection of old crime stories (eleven) set during the winter season. Most of these I enjoyed reading, a couple not so much, but overall an enjoyable read by authors I mostly had not heard of before.
      A NetGalley Book
    • 5/5
      Wonderfull stories, yes murder and crime stories, but without the usual liters of blood and gore, graphic details, dna procedures and very troubled characters. Old-fashioned? Perhaps, but oh so enjoyable. And very seasonal.
    • 4/5
      This book was sent to me by the publisher Poisoned Pen Press via Net Gallery. Thank you.Crimson Snow, an entry in the excellent British Library Classic Crime series, is a group of shorts stories set at Christmas or in the winter. And, for the most part, the holiday or the season is really relevant to the story. I found ninety per cent of these stories very entertaining. And why shouldn’t they be with authors like Margery Allingham, Michael Gilbert, Josephine Bell, Julian Symons and other worthy writers from the Golden Age through the best of the 1950’s. Here are reviews of the ones I thought special.“Mr. Cork’s Secret” has a unique twist. It is a classic heist story. A fantastically valuable necklace set is stolen and Mr. Cork, the eminent insurance investigator, has to find the jewels or his company will have to pay out a pile of money to the owner. What is really fun is that this story was a part of an actual contest run by the magazine where it first appeared. One aspect of the puzzle was not explained and the readers were invited to submit their own explanations for a prize. The winners’ conclusions are included at the end of the book.Michel Gilbert has his young policeman Petrilla fighting a bad case of the flu while trying to solve a possible breaking-and-entry case. Poor Petrillo is really sick and sometimes his judgment is off. Gilbert had his tongue firmly in cheek in this one.Margery Allingham comes through with a Christmas Campion. Albert is a real charmer as he helps a pair of young lovers overcome parental disapproval while solving the case of a disappearing diamond necklace. (Jewel thefts are a hot topic for holiday fics!) Vintage Allingham and a great deal of fun.My favorite story was Death in December by Victor Gunn, an author I knew nothing about. This longest story, almost a novella, has a fantastic plot. The guests at an ancient castle are curious about the supposed haunted room which has been locked for over 100 years. A challenge is accepted by a young man full of his own superiority to spend the night in the room. Of course, he sees a dead body surrounded by a pool of blood. But when the others enter the room there is no trace of body or blood. What is great about this tale is Detective Inspector Bill Cromwell, a curmudgeon who really dislikes all the jolly holiday customs and is roped into being a house guest by his young partner (also the son of the castle owner). They have a wonderful relationship which carries this over-the-top Christmas tale. I plan to hunt down more by this author. (Hint: Poisoned Pen and British Library).This well-rounded collection would make a great stocking-stuffer,