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zwilde's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
lsneal's review
4.0
A delightful and eclectic collection of golden age, short story mysteries. The authors range from the well-known to the obscure, and the watery theme of all of the murders is expressed in any number of ways. The introductions to the authors from editor Martin Edwards are always informative, and have resulted in considerable additions to my to-read pile. The oddest story of the lot has to be 1935's "The Pool of Secrets," by Gwyn Evans, which adds a nearly science fiction element in the form of the detective's robot assistant. All in all, a great deal of fun for classic mystery genre fans!
annarella's review
5.0
I'm a fan of British Library Crime Classic's books and I still have to find one that disappoint me.
This book was no exceptions.
All stories were well written and engrossing and I discovered new to me authors.
An entertaining and gripping read.
I look forward to reading another book in this collection.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
This book was no exceptions.
All stories were well written and engrossing and I discovered new to me authors.
An entertaining and gripping read.
I look forward to reading another book in this collection.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
singlecrow's review
I have been reading a lot of these British Library collections and enjoying them, but this one is a bit weaker than the others. My favourites were "A Question of Timing", which is a genuinely sweet story about a disabled writer who gets swept up in criminal goings-on, and the Michael Innes story, "Death by Water", which is wonderfully, dryly funny (the dead man's friends start worrying about his mental health because he starts writing long essays on Schopenhauer, and start to panic when he writes a paper called "Existentialism and the Metaphysic of Despair"!). Not much else that's as good, though.
tonstantweader's review
3.0
Deep Waters is an anthology of mysteries from the Golden Age collected by Martin Edwards who has brought together several similar thematic anthologies, This one, if the title is not clear enough, takes place in deep water with one exception that takes place on a tidal river. Edwards introduces each mystery with a short literary bio of the author, putting the story in the context of the author’s career.
There are sixteen stories and most of them are quite good. I did not care for “The Swimming Pool” by H. C. Bailey. I think Edwards acknowledges this by describing his “idiosyncratic prose..” I fell asleep three times while reading it but then stayed up late reading the rest and finishing the book. I didn’t follow my own advice which is to skip a story if it’s not reaching you. Of course, other readers may enjoy the arch tone of the story. Variety is what makes books and life interesting.
My favorite story is “Four Friends and Death” which has a complex murder with a limited number of suspects since there were only four friends on the boat and one of them is dead of poisoning. There is such acute understanding of human nature combined with an interesting exploration of friendship and how far it can bend before breaking.
Deep Waters is a great boatload of stories. I keep my eye out for Martin Edwards anthologies because I like his sensibility. I enjoy his short introductions and deep understanding of the genre. The only thing is when an anthology is focused on a theme as this is, you will read Edwards describing a better story that is not in the book and want to read that one. There are enough recommendations of better stories and novels to keep Poisoned Pen Press busy for a year from just this book.
Deep Waters will be released September 3rd. I received an e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.
Deep Waters at Poisoned Pen Press
Martin Edwards author site
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2019/08/27/9781464211775/
There are sixteen stories and most of them are quite good. I did not care for “The Swimming Pool” by H. C. Bailey. I think Edwards acknowledges this by describing his “idiosyncratic prose..” I fell asleep three times while reading it but then stayed up late reading the rest and finishing the book. I didn’t follow my own advice which is to skip a story if it’s not reaching you. Of course, other readers may enjoy the arch tone of the story. Variety is what makes books and life interesting.
My favorite story is “Four Friends and Death” which has a complex murder with a limited number of suspects since there were only four friends on the boat and one of them is dead of poisoning. There is such acute understanding of human nature combined with an interesting exploration of friendship and how far it can bend before breaking.
Deep Waters is a great boatload of stories. I keep my eye out for Martin Edwards anthologies because I like his sensibility. I enjoy his short introductions and deep understanding of the genre. The only thing is when an anthology is focused on a theme as this is, you will read Edwards describing a better story that is not in the book and want to read that one. There are enough recommendations of better stories and novels to keep Poisoned Pen Press busy for a year from just this book.
Deep Waters will be released September 3rd. I received an e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.
Deep Waters at Poisoned Pen Press
Martin Edwards author site
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2019/08/27/9781464211775/
pvn's review
4.0
A really solid collection. A good mix of known and lesser known authors -- you're bound to find a new one you'll like. Recommended for almost any mystery fan.
I really appreciate the advanced copy for review.
I really appreciate the advanced copy for review.
joecam79's review
4.0
The British Library Crime Classics series (published and marketed in the US by Poisoned Pen Press) is growing into a veritable library spanning the “Golden Age” of crime fiction. Since 2012, the series has presented to the public forgotten gems of the genre.
Martin Edwards, who is himself an award-winning crime writer and Chairperson of the Crime Writers’ Association, deserves much of the credit for the success of this venture. Besides acting as series consultant, he has also edited several of its “themed anthologies”. I must admit that although I enjoy some crime fiction now and then, it is not the genre I typically read. I guess that for persons like me, these multi-author anthologies are an ideal entry point to the Crime Classics series. Edwards is an erudite and intelligent editor, who knows how to keep a reader interested through the variety of the chosen stories.
“Deep Waters”, the thirteenth anthology to appear in the series, is an excellent example. It features a total of sixteen stories which all bear some relation to water. Edwards casts his net wide, and the watery settings to the chosen tales range from cruise liners sailing the oceans, to river boats, canals and even ponds and swimming pools. The stories are spread over a century or so, starting in 1893 with the very first piece in the Sherlock Holmes canon (Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Gloria Scott”) and ending with “Death by Water” by Michael Innes (the pen-name of Edinburgh-born academic John Innes Mackintosh Stewart), first published in the 1975 collection “The Appleby File”.
Along the way, we meet examples of works by leading representatives of the “Golden Age” crime fiction, such as E.W. Hornung and Edmund Crispin, alongside lesser-known authors such as Kem Bennett. Crime fiction is often dismissed as being too formulaic – this selection shows that nothing can be further from the truth and that the best authors find ingenious ways of presenting, reinterpreting and in some cases subverting the expectations of the genre. The protagonists range from professional to amateur or even ‘accidental’ investigators and there’s an appearance by E.W. Hornung’s amiable rogue ‘Raffles’. There are also some excellent examples of crime sub-genres such as the ‘locked-room mystery’ (as in “Bullion”, by William Hope Hodgson, possibly better-known as the author of creepy ghost stories) and the “inverted mystery”, where the solution to the mystery is presented to the reader at the outset and the pleasure lies in discovering how the puzzle will be unravelled.
Although the style of some of featured pieces feels rather dated, there is much enjoyment to be had from these watery tales. As a bonus, Martin Edwards provides a foreword to the anthology, as well as an introduction to each story, with biographical and bibliographical details.
Martin Edwards, who is himself an award-winning crime writer and Chairperson of the Crime Writers’ Association, deserves much of the credit for the success of this venture. Besides acting as series consultant, he has also edited several of its “themed anthologies”. I must admit that although I enjoy some crime fiction now and then, it is not the genre I typically read. I guess that for persons like me, these multi-author anthologies are an ideal entry point to the Crime Classics series. Edwards is an erudite and intelligent editor, who knows how to keep a reader interested through the variety of the chosen stories.
“Deep Waters”, the thirteenth anthology to appear in the series, is an excellent example. It features a total of sixteen stories which all bear some relation to water. Edwards casts his net wide, and the watery settings to the chosen tales range from cruise liners sailing the oceans, to river boats, canals and even ponds and swimming pools. The stories are spread over a century or so, starting in 1893 with the very first piece in the Sherlock Holmes canon (Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Gloria Scott”) and ending with “Death by Water” by Michael Innes (the pen-name of Edinburgh-born academic John Innes Mackintosh Stewart), first published in the 1975 collection “The Appleby File”.
Along the way, we meet examples of works by leading representatives of the “Golden Age” crime fiction, such as E.W. Hornung and Edmund Crispin, alongside lesser-known authors such as Kem Bennett. Crime fiction is often dismissed as being too formulaic – this selection shows that nothing can be further from the truth and that the best authors find ingenious ways of presenting, reinterpreting and in some cases subverting the expectations of the genre. The protagonists range from professional to amateur or even ‘accidental’ investigators and there’s an appearance by E.W. Hornung’s amiable rogue ‘Raffles’. There are also some excellent examples of crime sub-genres such as the ‘locked-room mystery’ (as in “Bullion”, by William Hope Hodgson, possibly better-known as the author of creepy ghost stories) and the “inverted mystery”, where the solution to the mystery is presented to the reader at the outset and the pleasure lies in discovering how the puzzle will be unravelled.
Although the style of some of featured pieces feels rather dated, there is much enjoyment to be had from these watery tales. As a bonus, Martin Edwards provides a foreword to the anthology, as well as an introduction to each story, with biographical and bibliographical details.
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