The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits Volume 2

by Mike Ashley

An all-new collection of exciting murder-mysteries with historical settings This new volume of historical murder and mystery contains over 20 specially commissioned stories ranging in period from Ancient Rome to the reign of Good Queen Bess. It features original stories from such masters as Steven Saylor, Peter Tremayne, Philip Gooden, Susanna Gregory, Kate Ellis, Michael Jecks, Edward D. Hoch and Marilyn Todd. · In Steven Saylor’s Roman tale, Poppy and the Poisoned Cake, Gordianus the Finder feels his latest assignment is suspiciously easy to solve. · Edward D. Hoch puts a novel twist on the locked-room mystery by setting it on a “locked ship” — Christopher Columbus’s, in fact! · In Flibbertigibbet Paul Finch unleashes a deranged serial killer on Elizabethan London. · Falstaff ’s successor Sir Johan de Mandeville turns sleuth in Keith Taylor’s Bene?t of Clergy. · Sister Fidelma must solve the mystery of a murdered Celtic monk in Death of an Icon by Peter Tremayne. · A pig provides the key to Michael Jecks’s latest Sir Baldwin mystery.- · Cherith Baldry turns Geoffrey Chaucer into a secret agent in her version of The Pilgrim’s Tale. · Anarchy and murderous intent rule when the Romans leave the British Isles in Richard Butler’s The Last Legion. . . . plus many more tales of dark age murder and mayhem!

Genres: Anthologies, Mystery, Short Stories, Historical Mystery

404 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 27, 2015

About the author

Michael Raymond Donald Ashley is the author and editor of over sixty books that in total have sold over a million copies worldwide. He lives in Chatham, Kent.

Reviews

[Alison C · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Mammoth Book…” series is a well-curated set of themed anthologies, sometimes comprising mostly new stories and sometimes with more reprints than originals; the current volume, “The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits, Volume 2,” contains 22 stories set from Roman times to roughly the mid-1600s, most original to this volume. As with any such anthology, each reader will have his/her favourites: mine include Steven Saylor’s “Poppy and the Poisoned Cake,” the only reprint here; “The Last Legion,” by Richard Butler, depicting murder within the precincts of the last Roman legion, about to leave Britain; a new entry in Peter Tremayne’s Sister Fidelma series, in which she investigates the death of a scholar/monk; Susan Gregory’s “The Death Toll,” about a dispute along the Welsh Marches as to who is empowered to collect tolls from a nearby ford, a dispute leading to death; “The Amorous Armourer,” by Michael Jecks, featuring Keeper of the King’s Peace Sir Baldwin, who must determine whether the new, foppish Coroner is guilty of murder; Mat Coward’s “And What Can They Sow, or What Reasons Give?”, set during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 and my favourite in the whole book; “House of the Moon,” by Claire Griffen, set first in Venice and then in Istanbul in 1503, and featuring a Borgia spy; and Paul Finch’s novella, “Flibbertigibbet,” which has a serial killer stalking the Southwark Stews in 1581 during the reign of Elizabeth I (squeamish readers should be warned that explicit violence and Elizabethan methods of torture are described in detail here). Once again, Mr. Ashley provides lively and interesting introductions to each story, and all of them are well-told and well worth the reading for anyone interested in historical mystery fiction; recommended!

[Prp · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is difficult to rate a book with so many and disparate authors. Some good: Philip Gooden, Jean DavidsonMat Coward, Peter T. Garratt... , others.. well: What would you think of a story happening in the seventheeth century wher peolpe talk like this?. Moderm man and moderm woman, the horse was dehydrated, mass hysteria , you still don't get it, bully for them. All this and more we find in "A taste for Burning"