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A review by shanaqui
Silent Nights: Christmas Mysteries by Martin Edwards
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
Silent Nights is another anthology of crime/mystery stories in the British Library Crime Classics series -- edited as always by Martin Edwards. I think this may even have been the first one in the series, which means it contains an Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock story (Conan Doyle being conspicuous by his absence from the more recent anthologies, presumably owing to running out of Holmes stories that fit the theme) and even a Dorothy L. Sayers story.
It's a fun collection, with a couple of authors I'd be curious to read more books from (such as Marjorie Bowen). I raised my eyebrows a bit about including back-to-back stories by the same author, one under a pseudonym... but they're somewhat different in tone, so it didn't feel too samey.
As ever, it's a collection greater than the sum of its parts, which is a phrase I've typed about these anthologies so often that perhaps I should just assume people will take it as read. Each individual story is mildly entertaining, some more questionable than others, but as a group they're an interesting cross-section. Or archaeological dig through time, really, since they're in chronological order...
It's a fun collection, with a couple of authors I'd be curious to read more books from (such as Marjorie Bowen). I raised my eyebrows a bit about including back-to-back stories by the same author, one under a pseudonym... but they're somewhat different in tone, so it didn't feel too samey.
As ever, it's a collection greater than the sum of its parts, which is a phrase I've typed about these anthologies so often that perhaps I should just assume people will take it as read. Each individual story is mildly entertaining, some more questionable than others, but as a group they're an interesting cross-section. Or archaeological dig through time, really, since they're in chronological order...