Murder Most British by Janet Hutchings

Murder Most British Reviews

• 
  Terri

  A nice mix of classic and more modern British authors that show a bit some of the best traditions over the years. From well know classics like the Sherlock Holmes tale: The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle and Agatha Christie's The Mystery of the Bagdad chest to more recent tales likw The Gentlemen in the Lake by Robert Barnard. Some of my favorites were: Percival Bland's Proxy by R Austin Freeman, The New Hat by Thomas Burke, and A Posteriori by Helen Simpson (hysterical).
• 
  Heidi

  This is an anthology of British mystery and suspense short stories that appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (a personal favourite of mine!). Despite the title, 7 of the 20 stories don't actually feature a murder at all, but some other type of crime. Like most story collections, it is a mixed bag -- a lot of really good stories, one I hated, one that disappointed me, and several that were just OK.
  Most of the authors were already quite beloved by me -- Freeman, Christie, Sayers, Michael Gilbert, Keating, Rendell, Brett, Lovesey, Barnard -- but I did find one great story by an unfamiliar author (Margaret Yorke's "A Little Dose of Friendship"). Chesterton's Father Brown is of course known to all mystery buffs and is sometimes entertaining, but I find "The Man in the Passage" long-winded and stupid. And I've read quite a few really funny Holmes pastiches, but Milne's early effort "The Rape of the Sherlock" fell well short of the mark for me.
• 
  Cindy

  Wonderful time passer (resting between Christmas season duties). Some touching moments, all had holiday flavor. Well read by Librivox volunteers. Highly recommended — any time of the year.
• 
  Abbey

  BOTTOM LINE: subtitled: Stories from Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine” and edited by Janet Hutchings, this 1996 mix of old reprints and current authors is a very good short story anthology. A fairly eclectic grouping of older and newer (mid-1990s) authors, with only a few of the oft-anthologized, and several small gems. Hutchings’ commentary is “just enough”.
  
  IMO the best stories include “A Good Thing”, Simon Brett; “The Pushover”, Peter Lovesey; “Burning End”, Ruth Rendell; “The Passing of Mr. Toad”, Jeffry Scott; “A Little Dose of Friendship”, Margaret Yorke. Other authors include Robert Bernard, Thomas Burke, G.K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, R. Austin Freeman, Anthony Gilbert, Michael Gilbert, H.R.F. Keating, Gillian Linscott, A.A. Milne, Baroness Orczy, Dorothy L. Sayers, Helen Simpson, Julian Symons.
  
  
  Barnard, Robert: “The Gentleman in the Lake”, 1994
  — nicely convoluted tale of a conwoman and her wealthy, elderly “mark”
  
  Brett, Simon: “A Good Thing”, 1995
  — sublime con-man tale
  
  Burke, Thomas: “The New Hat”, 1926
  — nasty little bit of lifeintheraw, but fascinating
  
  Chesterton, G.K.: “The Man in the Passage”
  — oft anthologized, still interesting but ending too abrupt
  
  Christie, Agatha: “The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest”, 1932
  — murder for love, and nicely done too
  
  Doyle, Arthur Conan: “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle”
  — sumptuous Victoriana at Christmastime, a deserved classic
  
  Freeman, R. Austin: “Percival Bland’s Proxy”
  — a con man meets his match in Dr. Thorndyke, rather good if slow moving
  
  Gilbert, Anthony: “You Can’t Hang Twice”, 1946
  — a cockney lawyer solves two murders, smooth
  
  Gilbert, Michael: “Fear and Trembling’s”, 1962
  — Mr. Calder and the tour business make a nice combination
  
  Keating, H.R.F.: “My First Murder”, 1995
  — another odd little tale set in India, not an Inspector Ghote, though
  
  Linscott, Gillian: “Death of a Dead Man”, 1994
  — tidy almost-academic mystery, with a nice twist
  
  Lovesey, Peter: “The Pushover”, 1995
  — an insurance scam, a freeloader, and some service buddies, simply superb!
  
  Milne, A.A.: “The Rape of the Sherlock”, 1903
  — loopy little pastiche
  
  Orczy, Baroness: “The Mysterious Death in Percy Street”, 1909
  — ?the last “Old Man in the Corner” story, good plot but don’t like characters
  
  Rendell, Ruth: “Burning End”, 1995
  — accidental death, guilt, and lack of remorse
  
  Sayers, Dorothy L.: “Striding Folly”, 1940
  — murder, chess, and Wimsey in a nice combination
  
  Scott, Jeffry: “The Passing of Mr. Toad”, 1994
  — smooth bit of Village Life - and death
  
  Simpson, Helen: “A Posteriori”, 1954
  — slyly scatalogical tale about a vacationing spinster
  
  Symons, Julian: “The Man Who Hated Television”, 1994
  — sad psychodrama about an actress with a scary childhood
  
  Yorke, Margaret: “A Little Dose of Friendship”, 1994
  — a lonely woman comes home from a cruise and then disappears, bitterly dark
  
• 
  M

  Well-written stories from various authors, but most of them too grim for my taste. I like a nice light-hearted murder, myself.
• 
  Mario Medina

  Nice collection of stories. None of them are great, though.