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georgina12345's review against another edition
3.0
A nice collection of stories. Good for an easy read and getting into the Christmas spirit. It was difficult for the mysteries to develop within the short-story format. I didn't feel the usual sense of suspense or intrigue I usually would when trying to work out a mystery, and there wasn't time for character development. Despite this it was an enjoyable way to fill some time.
annemariep68's review against another edition
3.0
This is a compilation so there’s better and less enjoyable stories but it fit well into my Christmas cozy mystery tradition…and there’s even a Father Brown!
berlinbibliophile's review against another edition
3.0
This is a book of mystery short stories set around Christmas, and like with any collection, the stories are of extremely variable quality. Some of them I really liked, like Ian Rankin's and Val McDermid's. Others were a sexist mess, like the first story in the collection, which comments on the murder victim's virginity and denigrates the murderer by calling her a stupid harpy drenched in cheap perfume. I guess if there's no substance to the story and no real motive for the murder, insults are the only way to go. Still, despite these missteps, overall I enjoyed this collection of christmas-themed mysteries.
mike_brough's review
4.0
A good collection of Christmas-related mysteries, mostly of the old school although the Rankin and McDermid stories are from the present-day. I'd read a couple of these before in The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries but they were no worse for the re-visiting.
The pick of the, for Christmas spirit at least, are Ian Rankin's Rebus short story and Chesterton's Father Brown, although Block's Nero Wolfe pastiche is entertaining too.
Well worth a read, especially if you like Christmas to be a little darker than most do.
The pick of the, for Christmas spirit at least, are Ian Rankin's Rebus short story and Chesterton's Father Brown, although Block's Nero Wolfe pastiche is entertaining too.
Well worth a read, especially if you like Christmas to be a little darker than most do.
1mpossiblealice's review
3.0
As with most short story collections, this was a mixed bag. Two of them, the Val McDermid and Margery Allingham, I'd read in other collections and enjoyed. A couple of them were a bit rubbish. Several were good. I think my favourite was The Four Seasons by Michael Innes which has no murder or crime at all, I just really enjoyed it.
I think the British Library Crime Classics collections are better because for each story/author there's a short introduction about the story and the writer, which helps with context when many of the stories are older. But I've read several of these ones too, and there are always a few very good stories in each one.
I think the British Library Crime Classics collections are better because for each story/author there's a short introduction about the story and the writer, which helps with context when many of the stories are older. But I've read several of these ones too, and there are always a few very good stories in each one.