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angesquires's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
littlemissgemreads's review
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
mrdavid205's review
4.0
This is a very good anthology with no real dips in quality, which you always expect in these cases. The range of writers is very interesting, moving from the classic stories involving Sherlock Holmes, Lord Peter Wimsey and Campion to more modern short stories. I would say that seven of the stories are genuinely engaging and three pass the time pleasantly. A real festive treat.
thisisbert's review
4.0
If there's one thing better than Christmas it's probably a lot of things, because at Christmas I have to spend all my money and work too many days without one off and also it's too hot. But one of the better things I guess is Christmassy murders. Someone died, but festively. If you're going to die, you might as well ruin everyone else's Christmas on your way out I guess.
maggieaduol's review
mysterious
fast-paced
4.5
An enjoyable collection of crime stories consisting of a stellar lineup.
My favourites where by Edmund Crispin, Val Mcdermid, Arthur Conan Doyle, G. K Chesterton, Ngaio Marsh, and Elis Peters.
1. The Necklace of Pearls - 3/5
2. The Name In The Window - 4/5
3. A Traditional Christmas- 5/5
4. The Adventure Of The Blue Carbuncle - 5/5
5. Cinders - 4/5
6. Death on Air - 4/5
7. Persons or Things Unknown- 1/5
8. The Case Is Altered - 3/5
9. The Price Of Light - 4/5
My favourites where by Edmund Crispin, Val Mcdermid, Arthur Conan Doyle, G. K Chesterton, Ngaio Marsh, and Elis Peters.
1. The Necklace of Pearls - 3/5
2. The Name In The Window - 4/5
3. A Traditional Christmas- 5/5
4. The Adventure Of The Blue Carbuncle - 5/5
5. Cinders - 4/5
6. Death on Air - 4/5
7. Persons or Things Unknown- 1/5
8. The Case Is Altered - 3/5
9. The Price Of Light - 4/5
lucyfionabooks's review
4.0
I flew through this in one afternoon! It was a nice collection of short stories and I really enjoyed most of them.
whatischellereading's review
3.0
For lovers of a Christmas whodunnit Profile Books have a series of Wintertime short stories ideal for a little bit of murder during your festive season!
This is the last of 3 Winter Short story compilations I'm reading over Christmas and it's just a nice basic read - perfect for a 10 minute tea break while working or that spare half hour you find amongst wrapping presents! Could be ideal for one short story each day leading up to New Year if you have multiple of these on your bookshelf? Ideal!
This is the last of 3 Winter Short story compilations I'm reading over Christmas and it's just a nice basic read - perfect for a 10 minute tea break while working or that spare half hour you find amongst wrapping presents! Could be ideal for one short story each day leading up to New Year if you have multiple of these on your bookshelf? Ideal!
frickative's review
4.0
My family have developed a lovely Christmas Eve tradition in the last few years. Participating members pop their names into a hat and draw one in return (ala Secret Santa). You then buy a book for your recipient to open on Christmas Eve, and receive one in return. Cue a lovely evening curled up in pyjamas and dressing gown, lost in the beauty of a brand new book.
This year my name was picked out by my brother, who had the delightful idea of combining my love of crime fiction with my love of Christmas. And there was a lot to love in this book. Most of the stories really set the scene for Christmas - family gatherings around blazing fires, turkey, tinsel and trimmings, and games galore.
A few towards the end of the collection are peculiarly light on the Christmas theme (surely in the pantheon of crime fiction there exist ten stories fully emeshed in the festivities?) but this didn't detract from my enjoyment. For the most part the stories are set in Ye Olde Genteel times, which made the very modern inclusion of Val McDermid and Ian Rankin stand out, but as these are two of my favourite authors then I'm hardly complaining.
I'd definitely recommend this as a lovely Christmas gift for any crime fiction fan.
This year my name was picked out by my brother, who had the delightful idea of combining my love of crime fiction with my love of Christmas. And there was a lot to love in this book. Most of the stories really set the scene for Christmas - family gatherings around blazing fires, turkey, tinsel and trimmings, and games galore.
A few towards the end of the collection are peculiarly light on the Christmas theme (surely in the pantheon of crime fiction there exist ten stories fully emeshed in the festivities?) but this didn't detract from my enjoyment. For the most part the stories are set in Ye Olde Genteel times, which made the very modern inclusion of Val McDermid and Ian Rankin stand out, but as these are two of my favourite authors then I'm hardly complaining.
I'd definitely recommend this as a lovely Christmas gift for any crime fiction fan.
thereadinghobbit's review
3.0
Difficult to rate and difficult to write a review about. Some stories were great, funny, well-written and exciting. But others were just disappointing. There were one or two that I found barely had a plot or a point, and did not deserve to be in any anthology of a kind, but others were good to read so it's really a mixed bag.
balancinghistorybooks's review
4.0
When Akylina and I met up in Edinburgh at the end of November, we decided to purchase two copies of Murder Under the Christmas Tree to read together. With essay deadlines and the like, our collaboration didn't quite go to plan, but I thought I'd post my review of the book regardless. I decided to open it on the first of December and read one of the ten stories per day, as a kind of constructive advent treat.
With regard to crime novels, cosy crime is definitely my favourite sub-genre; I adore authors such as Agatha Christie and Edmund Crispin, and will always seek them out over contemporary thrillers (much as I'll admit that I tend to enjoy these too, I'm generally not that surprised by the plot twists, as I feel that a lot of them follow the same - or at least very similar - guidelines). Whilst I had heard of a lot of the authors in this collection, there were a couple who were on my radar but whom I was not familiar with, and one (Carter Dickson) whom I hadn't even heard of before.
I feel that the best way in which to approach such a collection is to give a mini review of each tale. Murder Under the Christmas Tree begins with Dorothy L. Sayers' 'The Necklace of Pearls', a clever tale in which a very rich, and not very well liked, man named Septimus Shale's daughter has her precious pearl necklace stolen during a holiday gathering. Lord Peter Wimsey makes an appearance (of course), just happening as he does to be part of the festivities. The way in which Sayers writes is enjoyable, and she sets the scene perfectly throughout. The second story in the collection is Edmund Crispin's 'The Name on the Window', which I very much enjoyed. In this Boxing Day mystery, which centres upon his famous creation of Oxford Don-cum-detective Gervase Fen, a recent murder is investigated. The locked-room variety of plot which has been used here is clever; not the best Fen story, but its workings and conclusion certainly suited the length of the piece.
Val McDermid's 'A Traditional Christmas' catapults one from past decades to the present, and its opening sentence was reminiscent to me of Daphne du Maurier's wonderful Rebecca: 'Last night, I dreamed I went to Amberley'. This is where our female narrator's wife was brought up in luxury. Again, the story deals with a murder. McDermid's prose style is rather matter-of-fact at points, but it has flashes of great humour within it, and any oddness which the tale holds is made up by the fact that it has been so well done. Next comes a classic, Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle'. I have read this before on numerous occasions, and still find it wonderfully clever. For those of you unfamiliar with this particular Sherlock Holmes story, a rare and precious stone - the blue carbuncle of the title - has been placed within a goose, and subsequently lost.
'The Invisible Man' by G.K. Chesterton and 'Cinders' by Ian Rankin both have merit. The tales are very different from one another, but the contrast provided by their placing in the collection is memorable. In the former, which provided my first taste of Chesterton's work, a spectre appears, and a mysterious note consequently shows itself upon the window of a shop in Camden Town. Chesterton's prose is rich, and stylistically rather original. This Father Brown story takes on many issues about the perils of the modern world, and is entertaining from start to finish. In Rankin's effort, the crux of the problem is immediately shown to the reader: 'The Fairy Godmother was dead'. At an Edinburgh pantomime, the body is found, and Rebus is sent to investigate. The manner of the murder is simple, yet it demonstrates Rankin's intelligence and clever plot twists, struck as she is by Cinderella's slipper: 'Not that it was a glass slipper. It was Perspex or something. And it wasn't the one from the performance. The production kept two spares.'
'Death on the Air' provided my first glimpse into Ngaio Marsh's work, and I very much enjoyed it. She immediately sets the scene, and I was reminded a little of Harry Potter: 'On the 25th of December at 7:30am our Septimus Tonks was found dead beside his wireless set'. His body is discovered by the under-housemaid, and the investigation comes about when it is found that he was not accidentally electrocuted as first thought. After Marsh's crafty tale, we come to 'Persons or Things Unknown' by Carter Dickson, which I must admit I didn't much enjoy. The new owner of an old house in Sussex is convinced that it is haunted; he then tells a story from the 1660s which supposedly happened on the site. Whilst Dickson's story marks a differentiation in the collection in some ways, I did not personally find it immediately interesting or engaging, and could have happily skipped past it. There was a curious distancing and framing here, and the monologue structure makes it rather dull and plodding.
Margery Allingham's 'The Case is Altered' picked up the pace once more; as a penultimate tale, it fits perfectly. This particular Campion tale is wonderfully crafted, from its initial sentence - 'Mr Albert Campion, sitting in a first-class smoking compartment, was just reflecting sadly that an atmosphere of stultifying decency could make even Christmas something of a stuffed-owl occasion, when a new hogskin suitcase of distinctive design hit him on the knees' - to its plot, in which his contemporary, Lance, receives an anonymous letter instructing him to wait in the grounds one night. True to form, Campion is immediately suspicious. This is one of the only stories in the collection which does not deal with a murder, and it feels refreshing in consequence. The final tale, Ellis Peters' 'The Price of Light', was a bit of a letdown in consequence. It does not feel overly grounded historically, despite the necessity of such a thing, being set in 1135 as it is. Whilst Peters' story was well written, I did not find it captivating by any means, and am of the opinion that it jarred the whole collection; it did not fit with anything else within Murder Under the Christmas Tree, aside from the general theme of murder.
To conclude, Murder Under the Christmas Tree would have been utterly fantastic had it consisted solely of festive Golden Age crime fiction. As it is, the book is enjoyable enough, but a couple of the entries do tend to make the whole feel a touch disjointed. Regardless, it has finally given me the push I needed to incorporate Ngaio Marsh into my 2017 reading.
With regard to crime novels, cosy crime is definitely my favourite sub-genre; I adore authors such as Agatha Christie and Edmund Crispin, and will always seek them out over contemporary thrillers (much as I'll admit that I tend to enjoy these too, I'm generally not that surprised by the plot twists, as I feel that a lot of them follow the same - or at least very similar - guidelines). Whilst I had heard of a lot of the authors in this collection, there were a couple who were on my radar but whom I was not familiar with, and one (Carter Dickson) whom I hadn't even heard of before.
I feel that the best way in which to approach such a collection is to give a mini review of each tale. Murder Under the Christmas Tree begins with Dorothy L. Sayers' 'The Necklace of Pearls', a clever tale in which a very rich, and not very well liked, man named Septimus Shale's daughter has her precious pearl necklace stolen during a holiday gathering. Lord Peter Wimsey makes an appearance (of course), just happening as he does to be part of the festivities. The way in which Sayers writes is enjoyable, and she sets the scene perfectly throughout. The second story in the collection is Edmund Crispin's 'The Name on the Window', which I very much enjoyed. In this Boxing Day mystery, which centres upon his famous creation of Oxford Don-cum-detective Gervase Fen, a recent murder is investigated. The locked-room variety of plot which has been used here is clever; not the best Fen story, but its workings and conclusion certainly suited the length of the piece.
Val McDermid's 'A Traditional Christmas' catapults one from past decades to the present, and its opening sentence was reminiscent to me of Daphne du Maurier's wonderful Rebecca: 'Last night, I dreamed I went to Amberley'. This is where our female narrator's wife was brought up in luxury. Again, the story deals with a murder. McDermid's prose style is rather matter-of-fact at points, but it has flashes of great humour within it, and any oddness which the tale holds is made up by the fact that it has been so well done. Next comes a classic, Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle'. I have read this before on numerous occasions, and still find it wonderfully clever. For those of you unfamiliar with this particular Sherlock Holmes story, a rare and precious stone - the blue carbuncle of the title - has been placed within a goose, and subsequently lost.
'The Invisible Man' by G.K. Chesterton and 'Cinders' by Ian Rankin both have merit. The tales are very different from one another, but the contrast provided by their placing in the collection is memorable. In the former, which provided my first taste of Chesterton's work, a spectre appears, and a mysterious note consequently shows itself upon the window of a shop in Camden Town. Chesterton's prose is rich, and stylistically rather original. This Father Brown story takes on many issues about the perils of the modern world, and is entertaining from start to finish. In Rankin's effort, the crux of the problem is immediately shown to the reader: 'The Fairy Godmother was dead'. At an Edinburgh pantomime, the body is found, and Rebus is sent to investigate. The manner of the murder is simple, yet it demonstrates Rankin's intelligence and clever plot twists, struck as she is by Cinderella's slipper: 'Not that it was a glass slipper. It was Perspex or something. And it wasn't the one from the performance. The production kept two spares.'
'Death on the Air' provided my first glimpse into Ngaio Marsh's work, and I very much enjoyed it. She immediately sets the scene, and I was reminded a little of Harry Potter: 'On the 25th of December at 7:30am our Septimus Tonks was found dead beside his wireless set'. His body is discovered by the under-housemaid, and the investigation comes about when it is found that he was not accidentally electrocuted as first thought. After Marsh's crafty tale, we come to 'Persons or Things Unknown' by Carter Dickson, which I must admit I didn't much enjoy. The new owner of an old house in Sussex is convinced that it is haunted; he then tells a story from the 1660s which supposedly happened on the site. Whilst Dickson's story marks a differentiation in the collection in some ways, I did not personally find it immediately interesting or engaging, and could have happily skipped past it. There was a curious distancing and framing here, and the monologue structure makes it rather dull and plodding.
Margery Allingham's 'The Case is Altered' picked up the pace once more; as a penultimate tale, it fits perfectly. This particular Campion tale is wonderfully crafted, from its initial sentence - 'Mr Albert Campion, sitting in a first-class smoking compartment, was just reflecting sadly that an atmosphere of stultifying decency could make even Christmas something of a stuffed-owl occasion, when a new hogskin suitcase of distinctive design hit him on the knees' - to its plot, in which his contemporary, Lance, receives an anonymous letter instructing him to wait in the grounds one night. True to form, Campion is immediately suspicious. This is one of the only stories in the collection which does not deal with a murder, and it feels refreshing in consequence. The final tale, Ellis Peters' 'The Price of Light', was a bit of a letdown in consequence. It does not feel overly grounded historically, despite the necessity of such a thing, being set in 1135 as it is. Whilst Peters' story was well written, I did not find it captivating by any means, and am of the opinion that it jarred the whole collection; it did not fit with anything else within Murder Under the Christmas Tree, aside from the general theme of murder.
To conclude, Murder Under the Christmas Tree would have been utterly fantastic had it consisted solely of festive Golden Age crime fiction. As it is, the book is enjoyable enough, but a couple of the entries do tend to make the whole feel a touch disjointed. Regardless, it has finally given me the push I needed to incorporate Ngaio Marsh into my 2017 reading.