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Foreign Bodies
Today, translated crime fiction is in vogue - but this was not always the case. A century before Scandi noir, writers across Europe and beyond were publishing detective stories of high quality. Often these did not appear in English and they have been known only by a small number of experts. This is the first ever collection of classic crime in translation from the golden age of the genre in the 20th century. Many of these stories are exceptionally rare, and several have been translated for the first time to appear in this volume. Martin Edwards has selected gems of classic crime from Denmark to Japan and many points in between. Fascinating stories give an insight into the cosmopolitan cultures (and crime-writing traditions) of diverse places including Mexico, France, Russia, Germany and the Netherlands.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2017
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395 people want to read
About the author
Martin Edwards
356 books828 followersMartin Edwards has been described by Richard Osman as ‘a true master of British crime writing.’ He has published twenty-three novels, which include the eight Lake District Mysteries, one of which was shortlisted for the Theakston’s Prize for best crime novel of the year and four books featuring Rachel Savernake, including the Dagger-nominated Gallows Court and Blackstone Fell, while Gallows Court and Sepulchre Street were shortlisted for the eDunnit award for best crime novel of the year. He is also the author of two multi-award-winning histories of crime fiction, The Life of Crime and The Golden Age of Murder. He has received three Daggers from the Crime Writers’ Association and two Edgars from the Mystery Writers of America and has also been nominated three times for Gold Daggers. In addition to the CWA Diamond Dagger (the highest honour in UK crime writing) he has received four other lifetime achievement awards: for his fiction, short fiction, non-fiction, and scholarship. He is consultant to the British Library’s Crime Classics, a former Chair of the CWA, and since 2015 has been President of the Detection Club.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
April 13, 2018
This collection of fifteen stories, edited by Martin Edwards, presents samples of mystery writing from Europe, Asia and South America, some translated into English here for the first time. My personal favorites were two Japanese entries, "The Spider", and "The Cold Night's Clearing", which seemed the most smoothly written and plotted. Of course, with translated texts, it's impossible to know how much is the original vs translation. If the translator is good, I believe we see the true story written by the author, as closely as possible.
There are several other stories that I also liked though many used motifs or techniques that are now dated but were, at the time of original publication, quite new. Some still make for interesting reading due to clever turns of phrase or plot development, but a few simply felt antiquated. Some of this is personal choice, perhaps, but I can't enjoy a story simply because it is historical. All in all, worthwhile for serious mystery lovers. And don't miss the Japanese stories.
Rating 3.5
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
There are several other stories that I also liked though many used motifs or techniques that are now dated but were, at the time of original publication, quite new. Some still make for interesting reading due to clever turns of phrase or plot development, but a few simply felt antiquated. Some of this is personal choice, perhaps, but I can't enjoy a story simply because it is historical. All in all, worthwhile for serious mystery lovers. And don't miss the Japanese stories.
Rating 3.5
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
December 6, 2017
Crime in translation...
Another collection of vintage short stories from the great partnership of the British Library and Martin Edwards, this one is different in that these are all translated. Many are from European countries but there are some that range further afield – Russia, India, Mexico, Japan. As always the book begins with a highly informative and entertaining foreword from Edwards who always manages to get the tricky balance between not enough and too much information just about perfect. Each story also has its own little introduction, where Edwards gives some information about the author and in this collection also about the translation. Some of the stories were translated earlier and have appeared in magazines or other collections, but some have been translated specifically for this collection and are appearing in English for the first time.
There are fifteen stories in all, and as always the quality is variable. There are “impossible” crimes, Holmes pastiches with a foreign slant, little stories that are just a bit of fun, dark stories that linger in the mind, stories that verge on gothic horror. For me, the collection got off to a pretty poor start – I wasn't impressed by the first two or three and began to think I'd made a mistake with this one. But as it goes on, the stories get better and better, and some of the later stories are very good indeed. One of them in particular rates as one of the best crime short stories I've ever read. In the end, I rated 6 of the stories as 5 stars and another 5 as 4 stars, and there were only two that I thought were complete duds that didn't really deserve inclusion on the basis of their quality, although I could see why Edwards had picked them – one for the author's name (Chekhov), and the other because it plays on a classic of the genre. So despite the iffy start, this ended up being one of my favourites of these collections overall.
Here are a few of the stories that stood out for me:-
The Spider by Koga Saburo translated by Ho-Ling Wong. Japanese. Part crime/part horror and definitely not one for arachnophobes! A scientist built a tower where he keeps vast numbers of spiders for study. But one day a visitor to the tower comes to a sticky end. Our narrator is looking into events after the later death of the scientist himself. This is almost Poe-ish in style in that we learn what happened mostly from the diaries of the scientist – a tale told by a man driven mad. Those spiders have haunted me for weeks now!
The Venom of the Tarantula by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay translated by Sreejata Guha. Indian. Very much a Holmes pastiche and excellently done. The detective Byomkesh Bakshi and his Watson, Ajit, apparently appeared in many stories and I'd happily read more of them. In this one, an old man is driving his long-suffering family crazy – he takes a drug that makes him impossible to deal with and they don't know how he's getting hold of it. The solution is very Holmesian even if it's a little obvious, and the story is highly entertaining.
The Kennel by Maurice Level translated by Alys Eyre Macklin. French. There is a crime here, a fairly horrific one too, but mostly this is a great little gothic horror story. A man suspects his wife of having an affair, especially when he finds another man in her room. She claims it's all very innocent but things are about to take a very nasty turn. It has a darkly twisted ending that made me gasp aloud (and then laugh). The author apparently wrote for the Grand Guignol and this story is of that type – melodramatic, gruesome and lots of fun!
The Cold Night's Clearing by Keikichi Osaka translated by Ho-Ling Wong. Japanese again – there's something about the Japanese approach to crime fiction that always draws me in, and this is the story I referred to above as being one of the best crime shorts I've ever read. It's also by far the darkest story in the book. A teacher is called out in the middle of the night to his friend's house, where he finds his friend's wife and cousin dead, Christmas toys and sweets strewn around the floor, and the couple's young son missing. Beautifully written and translated, the author uses the winter snow, the dark night and the frozen countryside to create a great atmosphere of uncanny dread, and there's an excellent puzzle to be solved too. I was blown away by this story – a little piece of dark perfection.
So some great stories in there that well outweigh the less good ones, and make this for me one of the best of these collections... so far! Highly recommended and I hope Edwards and the BL keep 'em coming!
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Another collection of vintage short stories from the great partnership of the British Library and Martin Edwards, this one is different in that these are all translated. Many are from European countries but there are some that range further afield – Russia, India, Mexico, Japan. As always the book begins with a highly informative and entertaining foreword from Edwards who always manages to get the tricky balance between not enough and too much information just about perfect. Each story also has its own little introduction, where Edwards gives some information about the author and in this collection also about the translation. Some of the stories were translated earlier and have appeared in magazines or other collections, but some have been translated specifically for this collection and are appearing in English for the first time.
There are fifteen stories in all, and as always the quality is variable. There are “impossible” crimes, Holmes pastiches with a foreign slant, little stories that are just a bit of fun, dark stories that linger in the mind, stories that verge on gothic horror. For me, the collection got off to a pretty poor start – I wasn't impressed by the first two or three and began to think I'd made a mistake with this one. But as it goes on, the stories get better and better, and some of the later stories are very good indeed. One of them in particular rates as one of the best crime short stories I've ever read. In the end, I rated 6 of the stories as 5 stars and another 5 as 4 stars, and there were only two that I thought were complete duds that didn't really deserve inclusion on the basis of their quality, although I could see why Edwards had picked them – one for the author's name (Chekhov), and the other because it plays on a classic of the genre. So despite the iffy start, this ended up being one of my favourites of these collections overall.
Here are a few of the stories that stood out for me:-
The Spider by Koga Saburo translated by Ho-Ling Wong. Japanese. Part crime/part horror and definitely not one for arachnophobes! A scientist built a tower where he keeps vast numbers of spiders for study. But one day a visitor to the tower comes to a sticky end. Our narrator is looking into events after the later death of the scientist himself. This is almost Poe-ish in style in that we learn what happened mostly from the diaries of the scientist – a tale told by a man driven mad. Those spiders have haunted me for weeks now!
The Venom of the Tarantula by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay translated by Sreejata Guha. Indian. Very much a Holmes pastiche and excellently done. The detective Byomkesh Bakshi and his Watson, Ajit, apparently appeared in many stories and I'd happily read more of them. In this one, an old man is driving his long-suffering family crazy – he takes a drug that makes him impossible to deal with and they don't know how he's getting hold of it. The solution is very Holmesian even if it's a little obvious, and the story is highly entertaining.
The Kennel by Maurice Level translated by Alys Eyre Macklin. French. There is a crime here, a fairly horrific one too, but mostly this is a great little gothic horror story. A man suspects his wife of having an affair, especially when he finds another man in her room. She claims it's all very innocent but things are about to take a very nasty turn. It has a darkly twisted ending that made me gasp aloud (and then laugh). The author apparently wrote for the Grand Guignol and this story is of that type – melodramatic, gruesome and lots of fun!
The Cold Night's Clearing by Keikichi Osaka translated by Ho-Ling Wong. Japanese again – there's something about the Japanese approach to crime fiction that always draws me in, and this is the story I referred to above as being one of the best crime shorts I've ever read. It's also by far the darkest story in the book. A teacher is called out in the middle of the night to his friend's house, where he finds his friend's wife and cousin dead, Christmas toys and sweets strewn around the floor, and the couple's young son missing. Beautifully written and translated, the author uses the winter snow, the dark night and the frozen countryside to create a great atmosphere of uncanny dread, and there's an excellent puzzle to be solved too. I was blown away by this story – a little piece of dark perfection.
So some great stories in there that well outweigh the less good ones, and make this for me one of the best of these collections... so far! Highly recommended and I hope Edwards and the BL keep 'em coming!
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, the British Library.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
December 13, 2017
Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the digital ARC.
This volume consists of an Introduction by Martin Edwards and a collection of fifteen vintage crime stories in translation from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands and Russia. Some are making their first appearance in English. The oldest dates from 1883, the most recent from 1960.
The editor claims in his Introduction that:-
“In one or two cases, the stories are notable primarily for their historic or curiosity value; in
other instances, they offer memorable samples of the world’s most popular fictional
genre.”
Many readers may find the first story, “The Swedish Match” by Anton Chekov somewhat hard going. Certainly, it is overly long, but what we have here is a parody of the type of deductive reasoning used by Sherlock Holmes, in a story which predates the first Holmes by four years. This makes it valuable and well worth reading.
I found the majority of the plots in this volume very predictable and most of the solutions easy to work out. I suspect that what we have here are not the best examples of non-English classic crime writing, but the best available. There may be better stories which, for copyright or other reasons, could not be included.
Some of these authors are unjustly neglected outwith their own countries because their stories have not, until now, been made available to the huge English-reading public. Others may simply not be more than second rate.
Apart from the Chekov, the best writing/translation is to be found in “The Cold Night’s Clearing” by Keikichi Osaka. The quirkiest tale is “Kippers” by John Flanders. The prize for the cleverest and most amusing goes to “The Mystery of the Green Room” by Pierre Véry.
Overall, I was slightly disappointed, but perhaps my expectations were set overly high.
This volume consists of an Introduction by Martin Edwards and a collection of fifteen vintage crime stories in translation from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands and Russia. Some are making their first appearance in English. The oldest dates from 1883, the most recent from 1960.
The editor claims in his Introduction that:-
“In one or two cases, the stories are notable primarily for their historic or curiosity value; in
other instances, they offer memorable samples of the world’s most popular fictional
genre.”
Many readers may find the first story, “The Swedish Match” by Anton Chekov somewhat hard going. Certainly, it is overly long, but what we have here is a parody of the type of deductive reasoning used by Sherlock Holmes, in a story which predates the first Holmes by four years. This makes it valuable and well worth reading.
I found the majority of the plots in this volume very predictable and most of the solutions easy to work out. I suspect that what we have here are not the best examples of non-English classic crime writing, but the best available. There may be better stories which, for copyright or other reasons, could not be included.
Some of these authors are unjustly neglected outwith their own countries because their stories have not, until now, been made available to the huge English-reading public. Others may simply not be more than second rate.
Apart from the Chekov, the best writing/translation is to be found in “The Cold Night’s Clearing” by Keikichi Osaka. The quirkiest tale is “Kippers” by John Flanders. The prize for the cleverest and most amusing goes to “The Mystery of the Green Room” by Pierre Véry.
Overall, I was slightly disappointed, but perhaps my expectations were set overly high.
January 26, 2018
Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for a digital galley of this collection of short stories.
My rating for this collection of fifteen translated mystery short stories should probably be 3.5 stars if judged solely by my enjoyment of the majority of items included in the collection. I assign 4 stars mainly because of the convenience of having such a wide assortment of translated stories all in one volume and because of their historical interest. Martin Edwards has gathered a collection which was two years in the making so mystery fans can compare and contrast authors we've probably not read before with the more available American and British authors. The stories are presented in chronological order by Edwards as much as possible.
THE SWEDISH MATCH, Anton Chekhov, Russian
A SENSIBLE COURSE OF ACTION, Palle Rosenkrantz, Danish
STRANGE TRACKS, Balduin Groller, Arad, Hungary (later Romania)
THE KENNEL, Maurice Level, French
FOOTPRINTS IN THE SNOW, Maurice Leblanc, French
THE RETURN OF LORD KINGWOOD, Ivans (Jakob van Schevichaven), Netherlands
THE STAGE BOX MURDER, Paul Rosenhayn, Germany
THE SPIDER, Koga Saburo (Haruta Yoshitame), Japanese
THE VENOM OF THE TARANTULA, Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, India
MURDER A LA CARTE, Jean-Toussaint Samat, French
THE COLD NIGHT'S CLEARING, Keikichi Osaka (Suzuki Fukutara), Japanese
THE MYSTERY OF THE GREEN ROOM, Pierre Very, French
KIPPERS, John Flanders (Jean-Raymond-Marie De Kerner), Belgium
THE LIPSTICK AND THE TEACUP, Havank (Hendrikus Frederikus van der Kallen), Dutch
THE PUZZLE OF THE BROKEN WATCH, Maria Elvira Bermudez, Mexican
As is perfectly natural with an assortment of this type I enjoyed some of the stories more than others. I don't plan to track down other works by any of these authors, but it was interesting from the historical progression viewpoint to have the stories gathered in this one place. For me, because of the subject material, it's pretty hard to go wrong when reading one of these collections from Martin Edwards and the British Library Crime Classics.
My rating for this collection of fifteen translated mystery short stories should probably be 3.5 stars if judged solely by my enjoyment of the majority of items included in the collection. I assign 4 stars mainly because of the convenience of having such a wide assortment of translated stories all in one volume and because of their historical interest. Martin Edwards has gathered a collection which was two years in the making so mystery fans can compare and contrast authors we've probably not read before with the more available American and British authors. The stories are presented in chronological order by Edwards as much as possible.
THE SWEDISH MATCH, Anton Chekhov, Russian
A SENSIBLE COURSE OF ACTION, Palle Rosenkrantz, Danish
STRANGE TRACKS, Balduin Groller, Arad, Hungary (later Romania)
THE KENNEL, Maurice Level, French
FOOTPRINTS IN THE SNOW, Maurice Leblanc, French
THE RETURN OF LORD KINGWOOD, Ivans (Jakob van Schevichaven), Netherlands
THE STAGE BOX MURDER, Paul Rosenhayn, Germany
THE SPIDER, Koga Saburo (Haruta Yoshitame), Japanese
THE VENOM OF THE TARANTULA, Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, India
MURDER A LA CARTE, Jean-Toussaint Samat, French
THE COLD NIGHT'S CLEARING, Keikichi Osaka (Suzuki Fukutara), Japanese
THE MYSTERY OF THE GREEN ROOM, Pierre Very, French
KIPPERS, John Flanders (Jean-Raymond-Marie De Kerner), Belgium
THE LIPSTICK AND THE TEACUP, Havank (Hendrikus Frederikus van der Kallen), Dutch
THE PUZZLE OF THE BROKEN WATCH, Maria Elvira Bermudez, Mexican
As is perfectly natural with an assortment of this type I enjoyed some of the stories more than others. I don't plan to track down other works by any of these authors, but it was interesting from the historical progression viewpoint to have the stories gathered in this one place. For me, because of the subject material, it's pretty hard to go wrong when reading one of these collections from Martin Edwards and the British Library Crime Classics.
April 11, 2018
A range of mystery subgenres and time periods are covered in this collection of short stories from authors across the world. The introductions from Martin Edwards are wonderful, and many of the translated stories are terrific, but the main thing that appeals to me about the collection is how it brings together so many "classic" mystery stories beyond what we think of as classic English-language mysteries.
January 14, 2018
Editor Martin Edwards has performed a real service to English-speaking readers by introducing a century’s worth of fictional sleuths from around the globe, many of which have never made it into translation. The short stories in Foreign Bodies come from writers from Denmark, the Netherlands, Mexico, Japan, Germany, Belgium, Russia and many, many from France.
Unfortunately, there are more misses than hits. Anton Chekov kicks off the anthology with a short story that’s no The Cherry Orchard or The Three Sisters; actually, it’s pretty much unreadable. But don’t let that put you off! There are still plenty of delicious tales that prove that the mystery genre isn’t confined to British and American authors, making this book worth a read. “A Sensible Course of Action” by Palle Rosenkrantz (Danish), the shocking “The Kennel” by Maurice Level (French), “Footprints in the Snow” by Maurice Leblanc (French), “The Return of Lord Kingwood” by Ivans (pen name for Dutch author Jakob van Shevichaven), “The Stage Box Murder” by Paul Rosenhayn (German), “The Cold Night’s Clearing” by Keikichi Osaka (Japanese), the horrifying “Kippers” by John Flanders (Flemish) and “The Puzzle of the Broken Watch” by María Elvira Bermúdez (Mexican).
And special thanks to Edwards, an English solicitor and a mystery writer in his own right, for including the sly, clever “The Mystery of the Green Room” by Pierre Véry, my very favorite entry. Unfortunately, I could only find his works in the original French! Quelle terrible! I hope that British Library and Poisoned Pen Press will rectify this tragedy by releasing Véry’s novels in English.
In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley, British Library and Poisoned Pen Press in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, there are more misses than hits. Anton Chekov kicks off the anthology with a short story that’s no The Cherry Orchard or The Three Sisters; actually, it’s pretty much unreadable. But don’t let that put you off! There are still plenty of delicious tales that prove that the mystery genre isn’t confined to British and American authors, making this book worth a read. “A Sensible Course of Action” by Palle Rosenkrantz (Danish), the shocking “The Kennel” by Maurice Level (French), “Footprints in the Snow” by Maurice Leblanc (French), “The Return of Lord Kingwood” by Ivans (pen name for Dutch author Jakob van Shevichaven), “The Stage Box Murder” by Paul Rosenhayn (German), “The Cold Night’s Clearing” by Keikichi Osaka (Japanese), the horrifying “Kippers” by John Flanders (Flemish) and “The Puzzle of the Broken Watch” by María Elvira Bermúdez (Mexican).
And special thanks to Edwards, an English solicitor and a mystery writer in his own right, for including the sly, clever “The Mystery of the Green Room” by Pierre Véry, my very favorite entry. Unfortunately, I could only find his works in the original French! Quelle terrible! I hope that British Library and Poisoned Pen Press will rectify this tragedy by releasing Véry’s novels in English.
In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from NetGalley, British Library and Poisoned Pen Press in exchange for an honest review.
February 18, 2018
This review - and my thoughts on the episode of The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, in which John Thaw plays Holst can also be found on my blog
Anton Chekhov: The Swedish Match
A murder has happened. The victim was far from popular so there’s no shortage of suspect. Enter the eager detective who finds important clues (likes the eponymous Swedish match), makes lots of deduction (much to the chagrin of his colleagues) and just won’t stop investigating. His final conclusion shocks everybody…but is he right?
It actually reads more like an author had gone ‘I’m bloody sick of this Holmes and how every little scrap he finds tells him volumes. I’ll write a character using his methods and have him end up in a really awkward situation because of it’, only that The Swedish Match is from 1883, which is a bit early for a Holmes-parody, considering A Study in Scarlet wasn’t published till 1887
It’s not great: there are lots of coincidences, and suspects appear at the drop of a hat without having been mentioned before. No matter how many crime-novels you’ve read before you will not guess the resolution. It still is an amusing story and (as somebody who had to read Lady with Dog for university and sat went to see a questionable version of Uncle Wanja neither of which could awaken my admiration for Chekhov), it did make me curious about some of his other works, since the introduction mentioned he wrote quite a few detective stories.
Palle Rosenkrantz: A Sensible Course of Action
A Russian countess comes to Holt and claims her brother-in-law wants to kill her. However she doesn’t appear too trustworthy, while said brother-in-law is calm, collected, and has a perfectly reasonable explanation for the countess’ behavior.
In the end, the solution is more complicated than either of the parties stories. Or is it? And that’s the problem this story has: in one paragraph it implies that not everything is black and white and that stories have more than one side, only to describe a character as “one of the blackest villains upon whom the sun of Russia has ever shone.” It almost seems the author got afraid of his own courage to tell a more unconventional detective story. So one moment it’s all ‘there’s no real hero or innocent person in this story’ only to go ‘but don’t worry, the person punished at the end was still the true villain’ a moment later.
Balduin Groller: Strange Tracks
A man has been murdered. There are no footprints near his body even though it had been raining and there should be. There are, however, some very peculiar other tracks…
Reading older stories we inevitably come across parts with sexist, racist, ableist or other -ist elements. At the time of writing these things might have been considered perfectly fine because most people though [group] is just like this. That doesn’t make it OK. But it also doesn’t make the authors who wrote these things 100% horrible people with no redeeming qualities.
In the end, everybody has to decide for themselves how much they can stomach and I’m not judging anybody who can put up with more than I do. But I expect from a modern anthology that the editor doesn’t pick one of the stories that don’t dive head-first and with full force into offensiveness and problematic content. Which this story does. And that also means it’s not a particularly good story. There are no fiendish motives to discover. The bad guy is bad because he’s different…
Maurice Level: The Kennel
A man finds his dead friend in his wife’s bedroom…but is everything as it seems?
(No. It is not. I hope you don’t mind me spoiling that much). This is more a gothic story than a mystery of any kind and while it is certainly atmospheric (there is a properly described creepy thunderstorm because of course) it’s over before the atmosphere can take any effect and the final twist is rather cheap.
Maurice Leblanc: Footprints in the Snow
A beautiful woman who is unhappily married to a jealous man and a suitor who is hell-bent on saving her. I am sure this will end happily for everybody.
This story has ‘influenced by Sherlock Holmes’ written all over it. A crime that seems to not only have an obvious solution but one with circumstances that make any other solution impossible. A damsel in distress (who does very little apart from being in distress). A dastardly and evil villain, and of course a sleuth who can explain why everything isn’t like it seems. So if you enjoy Holmes you’ll enjoy this one as well. (You might also strain a muscle from rolling your eyes at the behaviour of the women in it but in that aspect, the story isn’t exactly unique for the time).
Ivans (Jakob van Schevichaven): The Return of Lord Kingwood
Lord Kingwood has not returned to his home estate in years. When he does return it doesn’t take long till a murder happens.
It is somewhat amusing to have a story in a foreign-language detective fiction anthology by a Dutch author that is set…in England. It’s also not a great story. Not bad, either but simply average. A motive that’s easy to guess (at least parts of it) and a sleuth that is not particularly memorable
Paul Rosenhayn: The Stage Box Murder
A theatre-director has been murdered. He has been seen quarreling with his son not long before. Surprising to crime-fiction readers everywhere, everything isn’t as it seems at first.
This story is told only through letters (and the occasional newspaper-clipping) which is nice. However, if you’ve ever been near a crime-story, you will be able to guess the killer about two lines after the murder is mentioned for the first time.
Koga Saburo: The Spider
A famous physics professor abandons his position at the university to study spiders. Less than a year later he is dead.
The story is memorable for the method of murder that makes The Hound of the Baskervilles or The Adventure of the Speckled Band look really dull and ordinary. It also lacks any actual sleuthing. The killer was considerate enough to write a diary in which he laid out his motive and the details of his plan. The narrator just stumbles over that diary.
Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay: The Venom of the Tarantula
A doctor despairs. His patient is addicted to a dangerous drug and refuses to give it up, despite the dangers to his health. The man’s family and the doctor do everything to stop him from getting fresh supplies but somehow he always manages.
Another story with very obvious Holmes-inspiration. Ajit, the narrator is not the investigator (that’s Byomkesh) but his close friend. They live together. Ajit publishes stories about Byomkesh’s cases that make him famous. And Byomkesh is such a genius that he doesn’t even need to visit the man’s home. What Ajit tells him about his own visit there is enough. Byomkesh even thinks that “if there was a logical inference that could be made, even if it appeared improbable, one had to take it to be the only possible solution.” I feel I’ve heard something like this somewhere before…
In the introduction to the story, Martin Edwards quotes another writer who explains that unlike Doyle and other Eurocentric writers, Bandyopadhyay doesn’t write about middle class and rich people but “ordinary Indians in and around the subaltern metropolis of colonial Kolkota”…but this story is as rich-people-problems as you can get. A horrible old man refuses to listen to his doctor and spends his day insulting him and his whole family. Part of me wonders if Holmes in this situation wouldn’t have just said ‘If he wants to poison himself, just let him.’
Jean-Toussaint Samat: Murder à la Carte
A well-traveled stranger has a story to tell.
Imagine Holmes hadn’t just claimed that he can tell apart 140 types of tobacco ash but had gone on and on about it, essentially just repeating the claim over and over again with different words. Imagine he would have just given very vague examples, without ever saying anything concrete. No explanation of how he is distinguishing them all. He would have dropped a few names of people involved in cases that were solved due to his knowledge of tobacco ash but he’d told none of them from start to finish. That’s what happens in this story. It’s as boring as it sounds.
Keikichi Osaka: The Cold Night’s Clearing
A murdered couple, a disappeared child and the only hint to what has happened are tracks in the snow…that lead nowhere. (Isn’t it convenient how many murders are committed after it has snowed? What would genius detectives do without all these mysterious tracks?)
This is an unusually dark story. Detective-stories are often more about the puzzles than about the people. Often enough the murder-victims were unlikeable anyway so that you don’t need to worry about them too much and can focus totally on the detective’s genius. This is not the case here, The Cold Night’s Clearing doesn’t spare the reader anything, which makes it really stand out.
Pierry Véry: The Mystery of the Green Room
A house has been burgled. Strangely the robber took only some of the less valuable items and left the owner’s precious jewelry (which wasn’t even locked up in a safe. She kept it in a drawer in the Green Room).
As you might guess from the title this is an homage to Gaston Leroux’s The Mystery of the Yellow Room, a book I haven’t read yet. Which is a shame because The Mystery of the Green Room has now spoiled its entirety for me. The detective who investigates the case is a big fan of the story and doesn’t get tired of pointing out how everything mirrors the events of Leroux’s tale. If you have read it, you might find this story much more entertaining than I did.
John Flanders: Kippers
Two sailors get stranded on an island. Two?
Repeat after me: just because someone gets murdered in a story, it doesn’t make it a detective story.
Havank (Hendrikus Frederikus van Kallen): The Lipstick and the Teacup
A murdered man. The only clues to the murdered are a cigarette with lipstick-traces and a teacup. Killers should probably stop smoking and wearing lipstick.
Another story that’s nothing special but still entertaining.
Maria Elvira Bermudez: The Puzzle of the Broken Watch
Armando Zozoya gets asked by his friend, the lawyer Miguel Prado, to help one of his clients who is accused of murder. Miguel is convinced he is innocent but all the evidence points towards him, including the watch of the murder-victim that broke at the time of death. (*ominous music* but did it really?)
Not the most original of plot-points for a mystery novel but here it is incorporated into an enjoyable plot. Also, compared to many of the other stories (especially those by the Dutch and French authors) it doesn’t feel like it could be set anywhere. I’m not saying that this story would only work in Mexico, but the location is still an important part of it. Which is nice, especially considering the topic of this anthology.
So in the end…this anthology could probably be described as ‘interesting’, rather than ‘good’. None of the stories made me jump up and search for the author to see if any of their works are available in a language I understand. But then neither did my first Holmes story. I just happened to have a collection, read on and enjoyed them more and more. Here, I definitely will keep the names Bermudez and Rosenkrantz in mind since their stories might not have been outstanding, their detectives were interesting enough. I might also search for more of Bandyopadhyay’s work, just to see if the story was unfortunately chosen or if the introduction was lying, and Keikichi Osaka’s work could also be worth checking out further.
Still, I don’t think this is a must-have, especially for casual golden age/detective stories readers. But if you’re really interested what Holmes’ foreign colleagues were up to, this anthology gives a nice overview. It’s still a rather Eurocentric one, but I understand that finding stories that fit the topic (and have easily obtainable rights) is probably not easy.
ARC received from NetGalley
Anton Chekhov: The Swedish Match
A murder has happened. The victim was far from popular so there’s no shortage of suspect. Enter the eager detective who finds important clues (likes the eponymous Swedish match), makes lots of deduction (much to the chagrin of his colleagues) and just won’t stop investigating. His final conclusion shocks everybody…but is he right?
It actually reads more like an author had gone ‘I’m bloody sick of this Holmes and how every little scrap he finds tells him volumes. I’ll write a character using his methods and have him end up in a really awkward situation because of it’, only that The Swedish Match is from 1883, which is a bit early for a Holmes-parody, considering A Study in Scarlet wasn’t published till 1887
It’s not great: there are lots of coincidences, and suspects appear at the drop of a hat without having been mentioned before. No matter how many crime-novels you’ve read before you will not guess the resolution. It still is an amusing story and (as somebody who had to read Lady with Dog for university and sat went to see a questionable version of Uncle Wanja neither of which could awaken my admiration for Chekhov), it did make me curious about some of his other works, since the introduction mentioned he wrote quite a few detective stories.
Palle Rosenkrantz: A Sensible Course of Action
A Russian countess comes to Holt and claims her brother-in-law wants to kill her. However she doesn’t appear too trustworthy, while said brother-in-law is calm, collected, and has a perfectly reasonable explanation for the countess’ behavior.
In the end, the solution is more complicated than either of the parties stories. Or is it? And that’s the problem this story has: in one paragraph it implies that not everything is black and white and that stories have more than one side, only to describe a character as “one of the blackest villains upon whom the sun of Russia has ever shone.” It almost seems the author got afraid of his own courage to tell a more unconventional detective story. So one moment it’s all ‘there’s no real hero or innocent person in this story’ only to go ‘but don’t worry, the person punished at the end was still the true villain’ a moment later.
Balduin Groller: Strange Tracks
A man has been murdered. There are no footprints near his body even though it had been raining and there should be. There are, however, some very peculiar other tracks…
Reading older stories we inevitably come across parts with sexist, racist, ableist or other -ist elements. At the time of writing these things might have been considered perfectly fine because most people though [group] is just like this. That doesn’t make it OK. But it also doesn’t make the authors who wrote these things 100% horrible people with no redeeming qualities.
In the end, everybody has to decide for themselves how much they can stomach and I’m not judging anybody who can put up with more than I do. But I expect from a modern anthology that the editor doesn’t pick one of the stories that don’t dive head-first and with full force into offensiveness and problematic content. Which this story does. And that also means it’s not a particularly good story. There are no fiendish motives to discover. The bad guy is bad because he’s different…
Maurice Level: The Kennel
A man finds his dead friend in his wife’s bedroom…but is everything as it seems?
(No. It is not. I hope you don’t mind me spoiling that much). This is more a gothic story than a mystery of any kind and while it is certainly atmospheric (there is a properly described creepy thunderstorm because of course) it’s over before the atmosphere can take any effect and the final twist is rather cheap.
Maurice Leblanc: Footprints in the Snow
A beautiful woman who is unhappily married to a jealous man and a suitor who is hell-bent on saving her. I am sure this will end happily for everybody.
This story has ‘influenced by Sherlock Holmes’ written all over it. A crime that seems to not only have an obvious solution but one with circumstances that make any other solution impossible. A damsel in distress (who does very little apart from being in distress). A dastardly and evil villain, and of course a sleuth who can explain why everything isn’t like it seems. So if you enjoy Holmes you’ll enjoy this one as well. (You might also strain a muscle from rolling your eyes at the behaviour of the women in it but in that aspect, the story isn’t exactly unique for the time).
Ivans (Jakob van Schevichaven): The Return of Lord Kingwood
Lord Kingwood has not returned to his home estate in years. When he does return it doesn’t take long till a murder happens.
It is somewhat amusing to have a story in a foreign-language detective fiction anthology by a Dutch author that is set…in England. It’s also not a great story. Not bad, either but simply average. A motive that’s easy to guess (at least parts of it) and a sleuth that is not particularly memorable
Paul Rosenhayn: The Stage Box Murder
A theatre-director has been murdered. He has been seen quarreling with his son not long before. Surprising to crime-fiction readers everywhere, everything isn’t as it seems at first.
This story is told only through letters (and the occasional newspaper-clipping) which is nice. However, if you’ve ever been near a crime-story, you will be able to guess the killer about two lines after the murder is mentioned for the first time.
Koga Saburo: The Spider
A famous physics professor abandons his position at the university to study spiders. Less than a year later he is dead.
The story is memorable for the method of murder that makes The Hound of the Baskervilles or The Adventure of the Speckled Band look really dull and ordinary. It also lacks any actual sleuthing. The killer was considerate enough to write a diary in which he laid out his motive and the details of his plan. The narrator just stumbles over that diary.
Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay: The Venom of the Tarantula
A doctor despairs. His patient is addicted to a dangerous drug and refuses to give it up, despite the dangers to his health. The man’s family and the doctor do everything to stop him from getting fresh supplies but somehow he always manages.
Another story with very obvious Holmes-inspiration. Ajit, the narrator is not the investigator (that’s Byomkesh) but his close friend. They live together. Ajit publishes stories about Byomkesh’s cases that make him famous. And Byomkesh is such a genius that he doesn’t even need to visit the man’s home. What Ajit tells him about his own visit there is enough. Byomkesh even thinks that “if there was a logical inference that could be made, even if it appeared improbable, one had to take it to be the only possible solution.” I feel I’ve heard something like this somewhere before…
In the introduction to the story, Martin Edwards quotes another writer who explains that unlike Doyle and other Eurocentric writers, Bandyopadhyay doesn’t write about middle class and rich people but “ordinary Indians in and around the subaltern metropolis of colonial Kolkota”…but this story is as rich-people-problems as you can get. A horrible old man refuses to listen to his doctor and spends his day insulting him and his whole family. Part of me wonders if Holmes in this situation wouldn’t have just said ‘If he wants to poison himself, just let him.’
Jean-Toussaint Samat: Murder à la Carte
A well-traveled stranger has a story to tell.
Imagine Holmes hadn’t just claimed that he can tell apart 140 types of tobacco ash but had gone on and on about it, essentially just repeating the claim over and over again with different words. Imagine he would have just given very vague examples, without ever saying anything concrete. No explanation of how he is distinguishing them all. He would have dropped a few names of people involved in cases that were solved due to his knowledge of tobacco ash but he’d told none of them from start to finish. That’s what happens in this story. It’s as boring as it sounds.
Keikichi Osaka: The Cold Night’s Clearing
A murdered couple, a disappeared child and the only hint to what has happened are tracks in the snow…that lead nowhere. (Isn’t it convenient how many murders are committed after it has snowed? What would genius detectives do without all these mysterious tracks?)
This is an unusually dark story. Detective-stories are often more about the puzzles than about the people. Often enough the murder-victims were unlikeable anyway so that you don’t need to worry about them too much and can focus totally on the detective’s genius. This is not the case here, The Cold Night’s Clearing doesn’t spare the reader anything, which makes it really stand out.
Pierry Véry: The Mystery of the Green Room
A house has been burgled. Strangely the robber took only some of the less valuable items and left the owner’s precious jewelry (which wasn’t even locked up in a safe. She kept it in a drawer in the Green Room).
As you might guess from the title this is an homage to Gaston Leroux’s The Mystery of the Yellow Room, a book I haven’t read yet. Which is a shame because The Mystery of the Green Room has now spoiled its entirety for me. The detective who investigates the case is a big fan of the story and doesn’t get tired of pointing out how everything mirrors the events of Leroux’s tale. If you have read it, you might find this story much more entertaining than I did.
John Flanders: Kippers
Two sailors get stranded on an island. Two?
Repeat after me: just because someone gets murdered in a story, it doesn’t make it a detective story.
Havank (Hendrikus Frederikus van Kallen): The Lipstick and the Teacup
A murdered man. The only clues to the murdered are a cigarette with lipstick-traces and a teacup. Killers should probably stop smoking and wearing lipstick.
Another story that’s nothing special but still entertaining.
Maria Elvira Bermudez: The Puzzle of the Broken Watch
Armando Zozoya gets asked by his friend, the lawyer Miguel Prado, to help one of his clients who is accused of murder. Miguel is convinced he is innocent but all the evidence points towards him, including the watch of the murder-victim that broke at the time of death. (*ominous music* but did it really?)
Not the most original of plot-points for a mystery novel but here it is incorporated into an enjoyable plot. Also, compared to many of the other stories (especially those by the Dutch and French authors) it doesn’t feel like it could be set anywhere. I’m not saying that this story would only work in Mexico, but the location is still an important part of it. Which is nice, especially considering the topic of this anthology.
So in the end…this anthology could probably be described as ‘interesting’, rather than ‘good’. None of the stories made me jump up and search for the author to see if any of their works are available in a language I understand. But then neither did my first Holmes story. I just happened to have a collection, read on and enjoyed them more and more. Here, I definitely will keep the names Bermudez and Rosenkrantz in mind since their stories might not have been outstanding, their detectives were interesting enough. I might also search for more of Bandyopadhyay’s work, just to see if the story was unfortunately chosen or if the introduction was lying, and Keikichi Osaka’s work could also be worth checking out further.
Still, I don’t think this is a must-have, especially for casual golden age/detective stories readers. But if you’re really interested what Holmes’ foreign colleagues were up to, this anthology gives a nice overview. It’s still a rather Eurocentric one, but I understand that finding stories that fit the topic (and have easily obtainable rights) is probably not easy.
ARC received from NetGalley
May 15, 2022
This is the first ever collection of classic crime in translation. Rare stories and first time translated into the English language are included in this absolutely delightful book of nefarious deeds and wicked crimes. From gastronomical poisonings to locked room intrigue, this collection will fascinate the reader. Each story is annotated to introduce you to the author, his or her time and place in history. Poisoned Pen Press is a golden star of classic crime and this book gets five stars for the effort of gathering these takes together and translation for the English reader.
Note: This book is one of the many British Library Crime Classics in print for you to collect.
Note: This book is one of the many British Library Crime Classics in print for you to collect.
April 17, 2018
Some stories are more successful than others, of course, but it was a fun and fascinating collection to read. I really appreciate the Poison Pen/British Library Crime Classics series. It's a terrific way to discover forgotten and lesser-known classics of the Golden Age of mystery!
December 11, 2017
I received a copy of this collection of crime stories from the publisher via Netgalley.
I found these stories highly variable, both in terms of their content and the quality/style of the translation. Broadly speaking, I was disappointed with the first few stories, and underwhelmed by the the last third of the collection, but in the middle there were a few enjoyable tales. Not all are "detective" stories and some are not even mysteries as such. The length of the series means that many operate at an intellectual/working out the puzzle level, with very underwritten characters.
My favourites included "The Kennel" (very short and shocking), "The Spider" (ingenious), and "The Return of Lord Kingswood" (likeable detective).
As the biographies make clear, most of these authors wrote widely, including full length novels, and I can see this collection being an introduction to the further works of the authors showcased here.
I found these stories highly variable, both in terms of their content and the quality/style of the translation. Broadly speaking, I was disappointed with the first few stories, and underwhelmed by the the last third of the collection, but in the middle there were a few enjoyable tales. Not all are "detective" stories and some are not even mysteries as such. The length of the series means that many operate at an intellectual/working out the puzzle level, with very underwritten characters.
My favourites included "The Kennel" (very short and shocking), "The Spider" (ingenious), and "The Return of Lord Kingswood" (likeable detective).
As the biographies make clear, most of these authors wrote widely, including full length novels, and I can see this collection being an introduction to the further works of the authors showcased here.
March 2, 2018
Martin Edwards offers short stories in translation in this volume. Normally I'll discover one or two real duds among a few gems and mostly mediocre to slightly above average offerings. Nothing really hit me as being a "dud" or even below average in this collection. "The Kennel" by Maurice Level became the first "standout story." I enjoyed the twist at the end. The introduction compared his work to Guy de Maupassant and Edgar Allan Poe. Perhaps that is why it resonated so well with me. I usually enjoy short stories by both of those authors. Told in the form of letters, "The Stage Box Murder" by Paul Rosenhayn provides the story of a murderer who lacks the cleverness he thinks he possesses. Although I guessed it, I still loved it. "The Mystery of the Green Room" by Pierre Very makes a statement about reading's importance, drawing heavily from The Mystery of the Yellow Room throughout. The author also mentions Poe's "The Purloined Letter." I received an advance copy from the publisher through NetGalley with the expectation of an honest review. (3.5 stars)
December 31, 2018
Foreign Bodies is a book of crime stories from foreign author's. Martin Edwards is the editor. Some of these stories are very rare.
There are a few stories that I truly loved.
A Swedish Match by Anton Chekhov, was a comical mystery.
The Kennel by Maurice Level was chilling, especially the ending.
Footprints in the snow by Maurice LeBlanc. He is famous for his Arsene Lupin character.
The Stage Box Murder by Paul Rosenhayn was one of my favorites.
Truly I did not come across one story that was bad. I of course loved some more then other's, but that is to be expected.
I gladly recommend this book to anyone.
There are a few stories that I truly loved.
A Swedish Match by Anton Chekhov, was a comical mystery.
The Kennel by Maurice Level was chilling, especially the ending.
Footprints in the snow by Maurice LeBlanc. He is famous for his Arsene Lupin character.
The Stage Box Murder by Paul Rosenhayn was one of my favorites.
Truly I did not come across one story that was bad. I of course loved some more then other's, but that is to be expected.
I gladly recommend this book to anyone.
March 1, 2018
This is a collection of short mysteries from classic crime writers all over the world that were not originally published in English. I will review each story individually since collections are always a mixed bag. I did like the vast array of countries the writers came from and liked being able to compare the different flavors each brought to the classic crime story. One of the pitfalls of such a collection is that others have copied these masters repeatedly since they published and now some of these original twists come off as cliché twists. You've got to keep in mind while reading them that they were much more clever and groundbreaking when originally released than they may read today. Overall a very worthwhile read for the armchair sleuth.
I received an ARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
"The Swedish Match" by Anton Chekhov
***
A magistrate and his assistant are working on figuring out who murdered Mark Ivanitch who hasn't been seen in a week and his rooms are locked from the inside. Hard evidence, including a body are proving hard to come by and yet they manage to piece together a theory of how the man died and by whose hand. Now they just have to prove it with the help of one piece of evidence, a Swedish match.
I figured out the mystery to this pretty quickly based on the tone. Russian names are confusing in the way they switch based on the situation and that makes it a teensy bit challenging to keep everyone straight even though this is short. Eventually, though, names don't matter all that much for the main plot so don't sweat it. It is a nice little different twist on the typical mystery story though.
Notes on content: One swear word I think. No sexual content (though it is mentioned that a married woman is seeing men other than her husband, but no details at all). No violent details.
"A Sensible Course of Action" by Palle Rosenkrantz
***
Interesting side note, the author's ancestor had a colleague named Gyldenstierne pre-Shakespeare.
A Russian countess shows up at a Danish police station begging for them to protect her from her brother-in-law who she says is going to kill her. The police can't tell if she is insane or telling the truth, and meeting her brother-in-law doesn't clear the air at all.
This feels different from the typical mystery I'm used to in the way it is laid out and the conclusion. I'm not 100% satisfied with the ending, but it is probably truer to life than most mysteries.
Notes on content: No language or sexual content. One death by hanging.
"Strange Tracks" by Balduin Groller
****
Inspector Dagobert is called in to help solve the case of a murdered groundskeeper and does so in record time.
I totally figured this one out before the inspector. Still, a clever short mystery.
Notes on content: No language or sexual content. One death, but not bloody.
"The Kennel" by Maurice Level
**
A husband finds a man dead in his wife's bedroom.
This is super short. At first it seems like there is no mystery until the last couple of sentences and then readers must make their own decisions.
Notes on content: No language, and only some vague implied sexually related content. One death.
"Footprints in the Snow" by Maurice Leblanc
****
After hearing three shots in the night and no response at the gate the next morning, the town's people are convinced that no good came to a certain man. The inspector of the case believes it is an open and shut case based on footprints in the snow, but the amateur detective has another interpretation.
Ok, that one was pretty clever. I didn't figure that one out before the Prince.
Notes on content: No content issues.
"The Return of Lord Kingwood" by Ivans
****
Mr Monk of Scotland Yard is asked to come round to the manor of of Lord Kingwood. The caretaker of the manor was rather cryptic as to the why, but Mr Monk was intrigued, especially since the caretaker asked that the Yard please not contact the newly returned Lord Kingwood until they had spoken to him. When Monk arrives at the manor the next morning, it is to the news that there has been a murder and art theft.
I totally figured this one out before the reveal, but partly because I think I've seen an adaptation of this very plotline in a TV murder mystery series. It sounds super familiar. It's also fun to learn that the more modern detective Monk was inspired by an older Mr Monk (who is described as a funny little man, though not with OCD). A nice puzzle and I loved the humorous voice. I would be interested to find out if more of Ivans mysteries have been translated into English.
Notes on content: No language issues or sexual content. Two deaths are mentioned that aren't super pleasant but not described in much detail.
"The Stage Box Murder" by Paul Rosenhayn
****
A theater owner in Germany is murdered in his own box during an evening production. Famous American detective Joe Jenkins is called on to solve the crime, and all events are relayed through letters from a journalist starting up a sensational newspaper to his fiancé.
I figured this one out pretty fast, but that doesn't mean it wasn't well done. (It more likely means that so many other mystery writers liked this idea it has been redone a couple times since this was written almost a century ago.) I liked the letter format and the clever twist at the end even if I saw it coming. It's a cleverly constructed mystery story.
Notes on content: One minor swearword. No sexual content. One death that isn't bloody.
"The Spider" by Koga Saburo
****
A physical chemistry professor suddenly quits his profession, builds an oddly designed laboratory in the middle of nowhere, and takes up a study of spiders. But why?
A calm mystery story in that at first there seems to be nothing untoward going on, but as the layers are peeled back you figure out everything had a nefarious purpose. Clever. May have to find more by this author in English too. If you don't like spiders, just skip this one. It'll probably only fuel your arachnophobia.
Notes on content: No language issues or sexual content. Two deaths, neither described in much gory detail.
"The Venom of the Tarantula" by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay
***
Investigator Byomkesh and his assistant Ajit are taking a forced break from a forgery case to walk around when they bump into an old classmate of Ajit's who is now a doctor. The doctor of course has heard of the famous Byomkesh and has a puzzle for him. A certain patient is in very bad shape but insists on continuing to take his drug of choice - tarantula venom. The doctor, the patient's family and household help are all extremely vigilant and yet the man is still getting the drug somehow and no one can figure it out. Byomkesh sends Ajit to observe the situation and see if he can figure out the case.
A decent puzzle and very believable situation, though I question the solution a teensy bit. I think it would've been found out before the detective was needed…but then that wouldn't make as good of a story. The patient is lucky he didn't reappear as a murder victim in a future case. He wasn't a very nice guy.
Notes on content: Swearing is mentioned but only first letters of words related. No sexual content, though some very big words and vague hints refer to past indiscretions. No violence, except the patient harming himself with a crazy drug of choice.
"Murder à la Carte" by Jean-Toussaint Samat
**
The narrator relates a secret he says that no one will believe…a way to poison without poison.
Most of this is absolute hogwash based on old wives tales which were prevalent at the time of writing and/or a poor understanding of the term poison…afterall, death from drinking too much water is called water poisoning even if we don't consider water a poison. But it is effective in making the narrator's listeners pause.
Notes on content: No language or sexual content. Lots of poisonings mentioned.
P.S. You can totally eat artichoke and drink milk and be fine, those with pre-existing bile duct conditions or stomach issues are the only ones likely to suffer and they'll suffer from eating many other innocuous things too.
"The Cold Night's Clearing" by Keikichi Osaka
***
On Christmas eve a teacher is summoned by a student to the house of a former teacher, now placed at a different school but still has his wife, son, and a visiting cousin living in this area. A grisly scene meets his eyes with the wife and cousin murdered and the child gone from the scene. A tantalizing set of ski prints seem to be the only clue but they end in the middle of a field. Another teacher summoned to the scene has some ideas of what really happened.
A fairly well done puzzle. I had narrowed things down to two options, and the answer was one of them. Kind of surprised to have the Santa Claus and Christmas Eve elements to this mystery in a Japanese writing. This may be the grisliest murder case so far in this collection. But then again, the Japanese do have a penchant for the dark and sad endings so that shouldn't be surprising.
Notes on content: No language issues. No sexual content beyond mention of "an intimate embrace." Multiple murders, and a messy mystery scene (no blood described but the few details given let your imagination fill in plenty).
"The Mystery of the Green Room" by Pierre Véry
****
A robbery of a middle-aged woman who has fallen on hard times is remarkable for where the thief didn't go. He didn't go into the woman's bedroom even though she is well known to have expensive jewelry, the last of the riches she has held onto. A police man and a detective ponder the case and one of them remarks that the case seems like the opposite of Leroux's Yellow Room mystery. This proves to be a case-breaking comment.
Quite a clever nod to a classic piece of French crime writing. Of course, best appreciated if you're familiar with Leroux's original story but that is also explained enough (and spoiled) so you don't have to know it before reading this.
No content issues.
"Kippers" by John Flanders
***
A ship's pilot relates the tale of surviving a shipwreck on an island with only the cabin boy, who is hiding a secret.
Yeah, that kid may need some serious mental health care. Yikes! The crime isn't so surprising given the opening scene, but the method is a bit…umm, creative in all the worst ways. Those who like reading about devious revenge should relish this short thing.
Notes on content: No language or sexual content. Several deaths due to a storm but one due to a cruel form of murder, not bloody but certainly gross.
"The Lipstick and the Teacup" by Havank
***
A man is found dead in his flat and the only evidence of someone else there is a still smoking cigarette with lipstick on it beside a teacup. Three suspects have non-confirmable allibies. But the cigarette and the teacup together are enough to point to the killer.
The first case in this collection that actually uses forensic evidence to catch the criminal. And a smart little piece of work it is too. Of course, the downside is that certain details are withheld from the reader till the last moment so only guesswork is possible until the inspector is willing to share his evidence.
Notes on content: No language or sexual content. One somewhat bloody murder with just the victim afterward briefly described.
"The Puzzle of the Broken Watch" by Maria Elvira Bermudez
****
A young woman is left home sick. Her sister and little niece go out to get her medicine, and her brother-in-law is away at work, though he leaves for a period of time. When she is found dead upon the return of her sister, the brother-in-law is accused of the crime but the lawyer defending him is not convinced he committed the crime. He goes to Armando Zozaya for help in puzzling out the crime.
This was a convoluted tale that required serious attention to detail to figure out. A nice conclusion to this collection. I also appreciated being introduced to the Queen of the Mexican crime novel through this story.
I received an ARC of this title from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
"The Swedish Match" by Anton Chekhov
***
A magistrate and his assistant are working on figuring out who murdered Mark Ivanitch who hasn't been seen in a week and his rooms are locked from the inside. Hard evidence, including a body are proving hard to come by and yet they manage to piece together a theory of how the man died and by whose hand. Now they just have to prove it with the help of one piece of evidence, a Swedish match.
I figured out the mystery to this pretty quickly based on the tone. Russian names are confusing in the way they switch based on the situation and that makes it a teensy bit challenging to keep everyone straight even though this is short. Eventually, though, names don't matter all that much for the main plot so don't sweat it. It is a nice little different twist on the typical mystery story though.
Notes on content: One swear word I think. No sexual content (though it is mentioned that a married woman is seeing men other than her husband, but no details at all). No violent details.
"A Sensible Course of Action" by Palle Rosenkrantz
***
Interesting side note, the author's ancestor had a colleague named Gyldenstierne pre-Shakespeare.
A Russian countess shows up at a Danish police station begging for them to protect her from her brother-in-law who she says is going to kill her. The police can't tell if she is insane or telling the truth, and meeting her brother-in-law doesn't clear the air at all.
This feels different from the typical mystery I'm used to in the way it is laid out and the conclusion. I'm not 100% satisfied with the ending, but it is probably truer to life than most mysteries.
Notes on content: No language or sexual content. One death by hanging.
"Strange Tracks" by Balduin Groller
****
Inspector Dagobert is called in to help solve the case of a murdered groundskeeper and does so in record time.
I totally figured this one out before the inspector. Still, a clever short mystery.
Notes on content: No language or sexual content. One death, but not bloody.
"The Kennel" by Maurice Level
**
A husband finds a man dead in his wife's bedroom.
This is super short. At first it seems like there is no mystery until the last couple of sentences and then readers must make their own decisions.
Notes on content: No language, and only some vague implied sexually related content. One death.
"Footprints in the Snow" by Maurice Leblanc
****
After hearing three shots in the night and no response at the gate the next morning, the town's people are convinced that no good came to a certain man. The inspector of the case believes it is an open and shut case based on footprints in the snow, but the amateur detective has another interpretation.
Ok, that one was pretty clever. I didn't figure that one out before the Prince.
Notes on content: No content issues.
"The Return of Lord Kingwood" by Ivans
****
Mr Monk of Scotland Yard is asked to come round to the manor of of Lord Kingwood. The caretaker of the manor was rather cryptic as to the why, but Mr Monk was intrigued, especially since the caretaker asked that the Yard please not contact the newly returned Lord Kingwood until they had spoken to him. When Monk arrives at the manor the next morning, it is to the news that there has been a murder and art theft.
I totally figured this one out before the reveal, but partly because I think I've seen an adaptation of this very plotline in a TV murder mystery series. It sounds super familiar. It's also fun to learn that the more modern detective Monk was inspired by an older Mr Monk (who is described as a funny little man, though not with OCD). A nice puzzle and I loved the humorous voice. I would be interested to find out if more of Ivans mysteries have been translated into English.
Notes on content: No language issues or sexual content. Two deaths are mentioned that aren't super pleasant but not described in much detail.
"The Stage Box Murder" by Paul Rosenhayn
****
A theater owner in Germany is murdered in his own box during an evening production. Famous American detective Joe Jenkins is called on to solve the crime, and all events are relayed through letters from a journalist starting up a sensational newspaper to his fiancé.
I figured this one out pretty fast, but that doesn't mean it wasn't well done. (It more likely means that so many other mystery writers liked this idea it has been redone a couple times since this was written almost a century ago.) I liked the letter format and the clever twist at the end even if I saw it coming. It's a cleverly constructed mystery story.
Notes on content: One minor swearword. No sexual content. One death that isn't bloody.
"The Spider" by Koga Saburo
****
A physical chemistry professor suddenly quits his profession, builds an oddly designed laboratory in the middle of nowhere, and takes up a study of spiders. But why?
A calm mystery story in that at first there seems to be nothing untoward going on, but as the layers are peeled back you figure out everything had a nefarious purpose. Clever. May have to find more by this author in English too. If you don't like spiders, just skip this one. It'll probably only fuel your arachnophobia.
Notes on content: No language issues or sexual content. Two deaths, neither described in much gory detail.
"The Venom of the Tarantula" by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay
***
Investigator Byomkesh and his assistant Ajit are taking a forced break from a forgery case to walk around when they bump into an old classmate of Ajit's who is now a doctor. The doctor of course has heard of the famous Byomkesh and has a puzzle for him. A certain patient is in very bad shape but insists on continuing to take his drug of choice - tarantula venom. The doctor, the patient's family and household help are all extremely vigilant and yet the man is still getting the drug somehow and no one can figure it out. Byomkesh sends Ajit to observe the situation and see if he can figure out the case.
A decent puzzle and very believable situation, though I question the solution a teensy bit. I think it would've been found out before the detective was needed…but then that wouldn't make as good of a story. The patient is lucky he didn't reappear as a murder victim in a future case. He wasn't a very nice guy.
Notes on content: Swearing is mentioned but only first letters of words related. No sexual content, though some very big words and vague hints refer to past indiscretions. No violence, except the patient harming himself with a crazy drug of choice.
"Murder à la Carte" by Jean-Toussaint Samat
**
The narrator relates a secret he says that no one will believe…a way to poison without poison.
Most of this is absolute hogwash based on old wives tales which were prevalent at the time of writing and/or a poor understanding of the term poison…afterall, death from drinking too much water is called water poisoning even if we don't consider water a poison. But it is effective in making the narrator's listeners pause.
Notes on content: No language or sexual content. Lots of poisonings mentioned.
P.S. You can totally eat artichoke and drink milk and be fine, those with pre-existing bile duct conditions or stomach issues are the only ones likely to suffer and they'll suffer from eating many other innocuous things too.
"The Cold Night's Clearing" by Keikichi Osaka
***
On Christmas eve a teacher is summoned by a student to the house of a former teacher, now placed at a different school but still has his wife, son, and a visiting cousin living in this area. A grisly scene meets his eyes with the wife and cousin murdered and the child gone from the scene. A tantalizing set of ski prints seem to be the only clue but they end in the middle of a field. Another teacher summoned to the scene has some ideas of what really happened.
A fairly well done puzzle. I had narrowed things down to two options, and the answer was one of them. Kind of surprised to have the Santa Claus and Christmas Eve elements to this mystery in a Japanese writing. This may be the grisliest murder case so far in this collection. But then again, the Japanese do have a penchant for the dark and sad endings so that shouldn't be surprising.
Notes on content: No language issues. No sexual content beyond mention of "an intimate embrace." Multiple murders, and a messy mystery scene (no blood described but the few details given let your imagination fill in plenty).
"The Mystery of the Green Room" by Pierre Véry
****
A robbery of a middle-aged woman who has fallen on hard times is remarkable for where the thief didn't go. He didn't go into the woman's bedroom even though she is well known to have expensive jewelry, the last of the riches she has held onto. A police man and a detective ponder the case and one of them remarks that the case seems like the opposite of Leroux's Yellow Room mystery. This proves to be a case-breaking comment.
Quite a clever nod to a classic piece of French crime writing. Of course, best appreciated if you're familiar with Leroux's original story but that is also explained enough (and spoiled) so you don't have to know it before reading this.
No content issues.
"Kippers" by John Flanders
***
A ship's pilot relates the tale of surviving a shipwreck on an island with only the cabin boy, who is hiding a secret.
Yeah, that kid may need some serious mental health care. Yikes! The crime isn't so surprising given the opening scene, but the method is a bit…umm, creative in all the worst ways. Those who like reading about devious revenge should relish this short thing.
Notes on content: No language or sexual content. Several deaths due to a storm but one due to a cruel form of murder, not bloody but certainly gross.
"The Lipstick and the Teacup" by Havank
***
A man is found dead in his flat and the only evidence of someone else there is a still smoking cigarette with lipstick on it beside a teacup. Three suspects have non-confirmable allibies. But the cigarette and the teacup together are enough to point to the killer.
The first case in this collection that actually uses forensic evidence to catch the criminal. And a smart little piece of work it is too. Of course, the downside is that certain details are withheld from the reader till the last moment so only guesswork is possible until the inspector is willing to share his evidence.
Notes on content: No language or sexual content. One somewhat bloody murder with just the victim afterward briefly described.
"The Puzzle of the Broken Watch" by Maria Elvira Bermudez
****
A young woman is left home sick. Her sister and little niece go out to get her medicine, and her brother-in-law is away at work, though he leaves for a period of time. When she is found dead upon the return of her sister, the brother-in-law is accused of the crime but the lawyer defending him is not convinced he committed the crime. He goes to Armando Zozaya for help in puzzling out the crime.
This was a convoluted tale that required serious attention to detail to figure out. A nice conclusion to this collection. I also appreciated being introduced to the Queen of the Mexican crime novel through this story.
August 20, 2021
A few gems, but mostly rather silly.
May 31, 2025
Non-English mysteries. I feel like in a perfect world, all of Edwards's anthologies that aren't nation-specific would include a diverse array of authors, and this wouldn't be necessary; but I get, even if I don't like, that the British Library Crime Classics is going to focus on British stories, and I also understand that it might be trying Edwards unfairly; being an expert in one country's mystery traditions (in addition to being a major author in his own right) is already a full-time job. So, in this extremely imperfect world, an anthology like this can go a little ways towards addressing a major gap in most mystery-readers' bookshelves.
I normally like Edwards's chronological approach, but with so many traditions being represented, I think that arranging them by continent or region might have been more to the point. The stories are the main thing, though. Trying to keep my impressions as brief as possible ...
“The Swedish Match” by Anton Chekhov (Russia, 1883) is predictable and interminable. Something you sometimes see in genre anthologies like this is the editor selecting stories that aren't really appropriate, or are clearly worse than the rest, because they're by “legitimate authors” and (the editor thinks) helps legitimize the genre. My opinion is that genre fiction does not need to be legitimized, and editors who do this are merely showing their insecurities. Edwards rarely falls into this trap, but does here.
“A Sensible Course of Action” by Palle Rosenkrantz (Denmark, 1909) is cynical and ambiguous, and doesn't overstay its welcome.
“Strange Tracks” by Balduin Groller (Hungary, 1911) is pretty dire. Its opening (which describes the detective's lengthy morning routine after he has been called to a murder scene “with all possible speed”) is so self-evidently ridiculous that I initially assumed it would be a parody, but it doesn't commit to that. It's more that it's aping the Holmes formula, and realizes that Holmes is eccentric, so Dagobert must be eccentric as well. He merely comes across as ridiculous, and the finale which is presumably meant to shock us, is merely silly.
“The Kennel” by Maurice Level (France, 1920) is certainly unpleasant, but I guessed what was going to happen by the end of the second page. While Edwards suggests that the author may be “due a revival,” I would suggest that conte cruel is inherently limited and not very interesting in its mono-focus; read “The Torture of Hope” if you must and then move on to better things.
“Footprints in the Snow” by Maurice Leblanc (France, 1923) is what I might call charming in its naivety; very few modern mystery readers are going to be taken in, but it's ten minutes of pleasant enough reading.
“The Return of Lord Kingwood” by Ivans (Netherlands, 1926) is fine. Sometimes it's hard to say much else. The detective is fine, the writing is fine, the case is on the obvious side.
“The Stage Box Murder” by Paul Rosenhayn (Germany, 1929) is pretty great. It's told in a series of letters, unusual for the genre, and while the reveal is obvious, it's still very good; a much more famous British writer would get a lot of credit for the sane trick.
“The Spider” by Koga Saburo (Japan, 1930) is a bit of grotesquerie that manages to both over-explain the trick, and present it in a way that makes it seem totally unbelievable. Detached from its genre failings, its ending is pretty vivid.
“The Venom of the Tarantula” by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay (Bengal, 1933) is the most overtly Holmesian story in this collection. I was prepared to not like it because it's a “find the thing” story, where people look for a missing thing (often a will or similar document, here drugs) in exhausting detail, and then the detective steps in and points out the one place they haven't looked. I don't really like “The Purloined Letter,” but its imitators are worse. However! This one is very well-paced, the characterization is funny, and it's fairly clued as a mystery.
“Murder a la Carte” by Jean-Toussaint Samat (France, 1931) is a lecture rather than a mystery, but the ending at least is a little unnerving.
“A Cold Night's Clearing” by Keikichi Osaka (Japan, 1936) is an extremely grim impossible crime story. The detective is kind of a non-entity, but I have no other complaints.
“The Mystery of the Green Room” by Pierre Very (France,1936) is the best story in the collection. It is an homage to the classic locked room novel The Mystery of the Yellow Room (and spoils it, by the way) and a deliberate inversion of it; instead of a locked room nobody could leave, there's an open room anybody could enter … so why did the thief not do so and take the jewels there? Pacy and funny, it is to be greatly lamented that this author isn't more widely translated.
“Kippers” by John Flanders (Belgium, no date given) is brief and shocking, what “The Kennel” wanted to be.
“The Lipstick and the Teacup” by Havank (Netherlands, 1957) is brief and almost totally unremarkable. Literally, none of the suspects speak or have motives—one of them doesn't even have a name, he's “the servant!” They are suspects because they “have no alibis” and were acquaintances of the dead man? Unremarkable detection as well.
“The Puzzle of the Broken Watch” by Maria Elvira Bermudez (Mexico, 1960) is kind of flat as a mystery (by its publication in 1960, a broken watch to reveal the time of a crime is a distinctly creaky device), but skates by on local color and some charming writing.
My top five, not necessarily in order:
“A Sensible Course of Action”
“The Stage Box Murder”
“The Venom of the Tarantula”
“A Cold Night's Clearing”
“The Mystery of the Green Room”
I normally like Edwards's chronological approach, but with so many traditions being represented, I think that arranging them by continent or region might have been more to the point. The stories are the main thing, though. Trying to keep my impressions as brief as possible ...
“The Swedish Match” by Anton Chekhov (Russia, 1883) is predictable and interminable. Something you sometimes see in genre anthologies like this is the editor selecting stories that aren't really appropriate, or are clearly worse than the rest, because they're by “legitimate authors” and (the editor thinks) helps legitimize the genre. My opinion is that genre fiction does not need to be legitimized, and editors who do this are merely showing their insecurities. Edwards rarely falls into this trap, but does here.
“A Sensible Course of Action” by Palle Rosenkrantz (Denmark, 1909) is cynical and ambiguous, and doesn't overstay its welcome.
“Strange Tracks” by Balduin Groller (Hungary, 1911) is pretty dire. Its opening (which describes the detective's lengthy morning routine after he has been called to a murder scene “with all possible speed”) is so self-evidently ridiculous that I initially assumed it would be a parody, but it doesn't commit to that. It's more that it's aping the Holmes formula, and realizes that Holmes is eccentric, so Dagobert must be eccentric as well. He merely comes across as ridiculous, and the finale which is presumably meant to shock us, is merely silly.
“The Kennel” by Maurice Level (France, 1920) is certainly unpleasant, but I guessed what was going to happen by the end of the second page. While Edwards suggests that the author may be “due a revival,” I would suggest that conte cruel is inherently limited and not very interesting in its mono-focus; read “The Torture of Hope” if you must and then move on to better things.
“Footprints in the Snow” by Maurice Leblanc (France, 1923) is what I might call charming in its naivety; very few modern mystery readers are going to be taken in, but it's ten minutes of pleasant enough reading.
“The Return of Lord Kingwood” by Ivans (Netherlands, 1926) is fine. Sometimes it's hard to say much else. The detective is fine, the writing is fine, the case is on the obvious side.
“The Stage Box Murder” by Paul Rosenhayn (Germany, 1929) is pretty great. It's told in a series of letters, unusual for the genre, and while the reveal is obvious, it's still very good; a much more famous British writer would get a lot of credit for the sane trick.
“The Spider” by Koga Saburo (Japan, 1930) is a bit of grotesquerie that manages to both over-explain the trick, and present it in a way that makes it seem totally unbelievable. Detached from its genre failings, its ending is pretty vivid.
“The Venom of the Tarantula” by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay (Bengal, 1933) is the most overtly Holmesian story in this collection. I was prepared to not like it because it's a “find the thing” story, where people look for a missing thing (often a will or similar document, here drugs) in exhausting detail, and then the detective steps in and points out the one place they haven't looked. I don't really like “The Purloined Letter,” but its imitators are worse. However! This one is very well-paced, the characterization is funny, and it's fairly clued as a mystery.
“Murder a la Carte” by Jean-Toussaint Samat (France, 1931) is a lecture rather than a mystery, but the ending at least is a little unnerving.
“A Cold Night's Clearing” by Keikichi Osaka (Japan, 1936) is an extremely grim impossible crime story. The detective is kind of a non-entity, but I have no other complaints.
“The Mystery of the Green Room” by Pierre Very (France,1936) is the best story in the collection. It is an homage to the classic locked room novel The Mystery of the Yellow Room (and spoils it, by the way) and a deliberate inversion of it; instead of a locked room nobody could leave, there's an open room anybody could enter … so why did the thief not do so and take the jewels there? Pacy and funny, it is to be greatly lamented that this author isn't more widely translated.
“Kippers” by John Flanders (Belgium, no date given) is brief and shocking, what “The Kennel” wanted to be.
“The Lipstick and the Teacup” by Havank (Netherlands, 1957) is brief and almost totally unremarkable. Literally, none of the suspects speak or have motives—one of them doesn't even have a name, he's “the servant!” They are suspects because they “have no alibis” and were acquaintances of the dead man? Unremarkable detection as well.
“The Puzzle of the Broken Watch” by Maria Elvira Bermudez (Mexico, 1960) is kind of flat as a mystery (by its publication in 1960, a broken watch to reveal the time of a crime is a distinctly creaky device), but skates by on local color and some charming writing.
My top five, not necessarily in order:
“A Sensible Course of Action”
“The Stage Box Murder”
“The Venom of the Tarantula”
“A Cold Night's Clearing”
“The Mystery of the Green Room”
July 20, 2024
Normally, I am wary of anthologies, for while they often contain gems, they also carry weaker stories whose flaws become apparent against their stronger neighbours. Fortunately, this one is mostly brilliant, the selection of authors and their translated (by different translators) stories quite wide-ranging. Even the weaker tales here mostly suffer only from a translation problem: the translator in wanting to keep to the essence of the original writing forgets to cater to the target audience of the translation. Also, thank you Martin Edwards for the useful story introductions which allowed me to read the stories without wasting time searching the internet for needed contexts and framing devices.
Here is a really subjective ranking of the stories, for I actually took useless notes after reading each of them (might contain spoilers, so read at your own peril):
Here is a really subjective ranking of the stories, for I actually took useless notes after reading each of them (might contain spoilers, so read at your own peril):
December 13, 2018
There are fifteen stories in this collection of vintage crime fiction in translation, written by authors from Hungary, Japan, Denmark, India, Germany, Mexico, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia and France. Some are detective stories in the same tradition of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, or in the same style as Agatha Christie; there are ‘locked room’ mysteries and stories mixing mystery and horror. Martin Edwards has prefaced each one with a brief biographical note, which I found useful as, unsurprisingly, the authors were all new to me, with the exception of Anton Chekhov (although I haven’t read any of his works).
Edwards presents the stories in approximately the chronological order of their publication from 1883 to 1960 and notes that these authors were writing in the same styles at much the same time as Agatha Christie and other Golden Age crime fiction writers.
When I began reading I was disappointed as I didn’t enjoy the first few stories. Short story collections are often a mixed bag and some stories are better than others, so after putting the book aside for a while I carried on reading. Some are very short and are predictable and really easy to see where they will end, but others are much more satisfying.
The ones that appealed to me the most are (in the order I read them):
The Spider (1930) by Koga Saburo who founded the Mystery Writers of Japan in 1947. His work was very popular in Japan and he wrote in the traditionalist style, favouring the puzzle element of a mystery. Edwards writes that it ‘is a pleasing fusion of macabre fiction and the classic detective puzzle‘, which explains why I like it. It’s set in a bizarre laboratory in a nine metre high round tower in which a professor is carrying out research on spiders. One night another professor visited him and fell to his death from the tower having been bitten by a poisonous spider. The circumstances of his death, however are not at all straightforward and are most ingenious. Probably my favourite story.
Murder a la Carte (1931) by Jean-Toussaint Samat, born in the Camargue, a journalist and writer of crime and adventure novels. This story is about a case of poisoning, but poisoning with a difference. A guest at a dinner party explains how to get away with murder – by using a non-poisonous substance. It’s one of the shorter stories that I did find satisfying.
The Venom of the Tarantula (1933) by Sharadindu Bandyopadhya from Bengal, educated in Calcutta, whose crime writing is similar to that of Arthur Conan Doyle. A writer called Ajit and detective Byomkesh Bakshi join forces to investigate what is an apparently ‘impossible crime’ featuring an ingenious poisoning. Nandadulalbabu is a hypochondriac who is writing fiction using black and red ink. He is addicted to venomous ‘spider juice’, extracted from tarantulas. His family have prevented him from getting the juice but somehow he is able to trick them and is still getting his fix. Although I was able to work out the solution it’s still a satisfying and interesting story.
The Mystery of the Green Room (1936) by Pierre Véry from France. This story is dedicated to the memory of Gaston Leroux, and plays on the events in his story, The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1907), which I haven’t read, another ‘locked room’ whodunnit. I enjoyed this one , particularly where the private investigator points out to the detective the similarities between the yellow room mystery to this one, the green room mystery – this is an ‘open-room’ mystery as opposed to a ‘locked-room’ puzzle.
John Flanders, born in Ghent was one of the pen-names of Jean-Raymond-Marie De Kremer. He wrote imaginative and fantastical stories and Kippers, originally written in Flemish is one of his many short stories. It’s one of the shortest stories in the book and entertained me in a very different way – it is not a puzzle or even really a mystery story, but is focused on one of Flanders’ fictional preoccupations with food and drink and as the title indicates it is a story about
Kippers, delectable, salmony kippers, smoky as a chimney, dripping with fat, one for each of us, of course, the real thing.
Even Bertie the cabin boy got one.
A sinister tale about a shipwrecked crew on a desert island that ends in horror.
My thanks to the publishers, Poisoned Pen Press, for my review copy via NetGalley.
Edwards presents the stories in approximately the chronological order of their publication from 1883 to 1960 and notes that these authors were writing in the same styles at much the same time as Agatha Christie and other Golden Age crime fiction writers.
When I began reading I was disappointed as I didn’t enjoy the first few stories. Short story collections are often a mixed bag and some stories are better than others, so after putting the book aside for a while I carried on reading. Some are very short and are predictable and really easy to see where they will end, but others are much more satisfying.
The ones that appealed to me the most are (in the order I read them):
The Spider (1930) by Koga Saburo who founded the Mystery Writers of Japan in 1947. His work was very popular in Japan and he wrote in the traditionalist style, favouring the puzzle element of a mystery. Edwards writes that it ‘is a pleasing fusion of macabre fiction and the classic detective puzzle‘, which explains why I like it. It’s set in a bizarre laboratory in a nine metre high round tower in which a professor is carrying out research on spiders. One night another professor visited him and fell to his death from the tower having been bitten by a poisonous spider. The circumstances of his death, however are not at all straightforward and are most ingenious. Probably my favourite story.
Murder a la Carte (1931) by Jean-Toussaint Samat, born in the Camargue, a journalist and writer of crime and adventure novels. This story is about a case of poisoning, but poisoning with a difference. A guest at a dinner party explains how to get away with murder – by using a non-poisonous substance. It’s one of the shorter stories that I did find satisfying.
The Venom of the Tarantula (1933) by Sharadindu Bandyopadhya from Bengal, educated in Calcutta, whose crime writing is similar to that of Arthur Conan Doyle. A writer called Ajit and detective Byomkesh Bakshi join forces to investigate what is an apparently ‘impossible crime’ featuring an ingenious poisoning. Nandadulalbabu is a hypochondriac who is writing fiction using black and red ink. He is addicted to venomous ‘spider juice’, extracted from tarantulas. His family have prevented him from getting the juice but somehow he is able to trick them and is still getting his fix. Although I was able to work out the solution it’s still a satisfying and interesting story.
The Mystery of the Green Room (1936) by Pierre Véry from France. This story is dedicated to the memory of Gaston Leroux, and plays on the events in his story, The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1907), which I haven’t read, another ‘locked room’ whodunnit. I enjoyed this one , particularly where the private investigator points out to the detective the similarities between the yellow room mystery to this one, the green room mystery – this is an ‘open-room’ mystery as opposed to a ‘locked-room’ puzzle.
John Flanders, born in Ghent was one of the pen-names of Jean-Raymond-Marie De Kremer. He wrote imaginative and fantastical stories and Kippers, originally written in Flemish is one of his many short stories. It’s one of the shortest stories in the book and entertained me in a very different way – it is not a puzzle or even really a mystery story, but is focused on one of Flanders’ fictional preoccupations with food and drink and as the title indicates it is a story about
Kippers, delectable, salmony kippers, smoky as a chimney, dripping with fat, one for each of us, of course, the real thing.
Even Bertie the cabin boy got one.
A sinister tale about a shipwrecked crew on a desert island that ends in horror.
My thanks to the publishers, Poisoned Pen Press, for my review copy via NetGalley.
March 1, 2018
Foreign Bodies
Martin Edwards
Poisoned Pen Press, March 6, 2018
261 pages, ebook, paperback
Collection, Foreign, Short Stories
✮✮✮✮
I was provided an e-ARC of this book by Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley. This is my honest review for which I receive no compensation of any type.
The cover is what drew me to this book initially. The wonderful use of the complementary color scheme and the mysterious feeling of the picture. You’d think it should be romantic, and yet the couple is draped in mystery. They don’t quite seem to belong together. The man appears to be an older type of gentleman and is all tucked up with his walking stick and cigar all held close. Rather looks quite high class and yet there is something about his face that makes him seem not quite so polished as I’m sure his shoes are. The woman appears to be young and fashionable. She stands a bit away from the man, at a distance, almost as if reluctantly meeting with him. Perhaps this is fanciful of me, but when I look at this cover that’s what I see.
There are fifteen short stories in this book written originally in various foreign languages, now translated into English. Some of these have been translated into English before, but for most, this is their first time being read by an English-speaking audience. As I have commented before in other reviews, foreign writers do write differently than American writers. There is an austerity about their writing that American writers simply can’t achieve. And they combine it with perfect, crisp diction that Americans simply don’t speak, even well-educated ones. This all comes through in the writing of foreign stories, and I found it in these stories.
I read them all and made notes on each as I went. I hadn’t decided how to review the book when I started it because I didn’t really know what I was getting into. As I read, I found myself still wondering how I would review this book of dark stories. I can’t classify them as mysteries because they aren’t all mysteries. There is a mix of types of stories in here. Some of them so short that I couldn’t figure out what they were. Some of them so ugly that I couldn’t figure out why they were written. Some of them quite entertaining. In the end, I liked about 50% of the stories in here, with about half of those being quite good. There was about 25% of the whole that was very dark and I found rather off-putting, with a few really too ugly for me to ever want to see again. The title was no clue of any sort, either. You would think that something called The Venom of the Tarantula would be rather dark, while something called The Kennel would be okay. When instead, The Venom of the Tarantula was very entertaining, and The Kennel was an extremely ugly story with its only redeeming quality being its briefness. A couple of others that I really liked were, The Puzzle of the Broken Watch, The Lipstick and the Teacup, The Mystery of the Green Room, The Return of Lord Kingwood, and The Swedish Match. These were well-written and had either very clever characters or a great twist to them that created very satisfying reading. The Spider was creepy and twisted. The Cold Night’s Clearing was very sad and depressing, and Kippers was just ugly. I want you to keep in mind that I read a lot of women’s literature and romance, fantasy and paranormal fiction and don’t like horror at all. For those of you who like the darker types of literature, this compilation of stories may be much more appealing and your percentages totally different from mine.
Recommended.
Martin Edwards
Poisoned Pen Press, March 6, 2018
261 pages, ebook, paperback
Collection, Foreign, Short Stories
✮✮✮✮
I was provided an e-ARC of this book by Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley. This is my honest review for which I receive no compensation of any type.
The cover is what drew me to this book initially. The wonderful use of the complementary color scheme and the mysterious feeling of the picture. You’d think it should be romantic, and yet the couple is draped in mystery. They don’t quite seem to belong together. The man appears to be an older type of gentleman and is all tucked up with his walking stick and cigar all held close. Rather looks quite high class and yet there is something about his face that makes him seem not quite so polished as I’m sure his shoes are. The woman appears to be young and fashionable. She stands a bit away from the man, at a distance, almost as if reluctantly meeting with him. Perhaps this is fanciful of me, but when I look at this cover that’s what I see.
There are fifteen short stories in this book written originally in various foreign languages, now translated into English. Some of these have been translated into English before, but for most, this is their first time being read by an English-speaking audience. As I have commented before in other reviews, foreign writers do write differently than American writers. There is an austerity about their writing that American writers simply can’t achieve. And they combine it with perfect, crisp diction that Americans simply don’t speak, even well-educated ones. This all comes through in the writing of foreign stories, and I found it in these stories.
I read them all and made notes on each as I went. I hadn’t decided how to review the book when I started it because I didn’t really know what I was getting into. As I read, I found myself still wondering how I would review this book of dark stories. I can’t classify them as mysteries because they aren’t all mysteries. There is a mix of types of stories in here. Some of them so short that I couldn’t figure out what they were. Some of them so ugly that I couldn’t figure out why they were written. Some of them quite entertaining. In the end, I liked about 50% of the stories in here, with about half of those being quite good. There was about 25% of the whole that was very dark and I found rather off-putting, with a few really too ugly for me to ever want to see again. The title was no clue of any sort, either. You would think that something called The Venom of the Tarantula would be rather dark, while something called The Kennel would be okay. When instead, The Venom of the Tarantula was very entertaining, and The Kennel was an extremely ugly story with its only redeeming quality being its briefness. A couple of others that I really liked were, The Puzzle of the Broken Watch, The Lipstick and the Teacup, The Mystery of the Green Room, The Return of Lord Kingwood, and The Swedish Match. These were well-written and had either very clever characters or a great twist to them that created very satisfying reading. The Spider was creepy and twisted. The Cold Night’s Clearing was very sad and depressing, and Kippers was just ugly. I want you to keep in mind that I read a lot of women’s literature and romance, fantasy and paranormal fiction and don’t like horror at all. For those of you who like the darker types of literature, this compilation of stories may be much more appealing and your percentages totally different from mine.
Recommended.
January 3, 2018
A coronet of the guards is murdered, his body absent from the crime scene. A Countess pleads with Hungarian police to protect her from her revenge seeking brother-in-law. A bed-ridden man manages to procure drugs even though he has no visitors. These are some of the stories to feature in the new collection of translated classic crime short stories.
This is a varied collection and as with most collated works, some of the stories were more appealing than others. There are some that remain in the memory, others that are recalled when the book is picked up again. The stories vary in length and tone, the authors nationalties cover the globe.
There is one name that will be recognisable amongst many in the collection which have passed by English speaking readers. I can finally say I have read something by Anton Chekov as the first story of the collection, The Swedish Match, is by the man himself.
There is an art to writing a good short story, particularly evident in a crime or mystery story. The author has few words to play with, must quickly set the scene, lay out all of the suspects, leave enough red herrings and reveal the culprit, all in the space of what would amount to a couple of chapters in a novel.
Some stories stand out more than others. Particular favourites include Footprints in the Snow by Maurice Leblanc, The Spider by Koga Saburo, The Venom of the Tarantula by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay and The Puzzle of the Broken Watch by Maria Elvira Bermudez.
There are obvious influences from crime-writing stalwarts. Both Footprints in the Snow and The Venom of the Tarantula have shades of Holmes and Watson about them, for example, as does The Return of Lord Kingwood. Be sure to read the introductions to each author by Martin Edwards which provide an interesting overview of the writer, and which often note influences.
These are stories written before the advent of forensic evidence and fingerprints. It was detection and sometimes pure, old-fashioned luck, that solved the case. Many of them are puzzle murders, where logical thinking wins the day. When reading the stories it is easy to imagine the wonder and entertainment they created for contemporary readers. The twists have to be more logical, yet unforseen, though some, as in The Spider, would have appeared almost fantastical.
An interesting collection and a great introduction to translated fiction from the past. I’ll be looking out for more work by many of these authors should they become available.
This is a varied collection and as with most collated works, some of the stories were more appealing than others. There are some that remain in the memory, others that are recalled when the book is picked up again. The stories vary in length and tone, the authors nationalties cover the globe.
There is one name that will be recognisable amongst many in the collection which have passed by English speaking readers. I can finally say I have read something by Anton Chekov as the first story of the collection, The Swedish Match, is by the man himself.
There is an art to writing a good short story, particularly evident in a crime or mystery story. The author has few words to play with, must quickly set the scene, lay out all of the suspects, leave enough red herrings and reveal the culprit, all in the space of what would amount to a couple of chapters in a novel.
Some stories stand out more than others. Particular favourites include Footprints in the Snow by Maurice Leblanc, The Spider by Koga Saburo, The Venom of the Tarantula by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay and The Puzzle of the Broken Watch by Maria Elvira Bermudez.
There are obvious influences from crime-writing stalwarts. Both Footprints in the Snow and The Venom of the Tarantula have shades of Holmes and Watson about them, for example, as does The Return of Lord Kingwood. Be sure to read the introductions to each author by Martin Edwards which provide an interesting overview of the writer, and which often note influences.
These are stories written before the advent of forensic evidence and fingerprints. It was detection and sometimes pure, old-fashioned luck, that solved the case. Many of them are puzzle murders, where logical thinking wins the day. When reading the stories it is easy to imagine the wonder and entertainment they created for contemporary readers. The twists have to be more logical, yet unforseen, though some, as in The Spider, would have appeared almost fantastical.
An interesting collection and a great introduction to translated fiction from the past. I’ll be looking out for more work by many of these authors should they become available.
July 6, 2018
I wasn't overly looking forward to reading this anthology of short crime fiction stories (listed below) from authors who wrote and published their stories in a foreign language. Many of which were never until now even translated into English. The reason for this is that I am an avid fan of British classic crime and wondered why the British Library have ventured down this path as there are many hundreds of excellent English short stories that are just waiting to be found and re-issued. I have tried to be open minded with this collection and at first I was NOT rewarded - within the first 5 stories I only enjoyed one - A Sensible Course of Action. Two of the first five stories are by authors I have read before (Chekhov & Leblanc) - I found bewildering, exasperating and frankly very lazy authors e.g. in the Footprints story someone comes along at the end with all the solutions - all detective work done off stage and this says to me that the author was simply lazy. However I did persist with the remaining stories and was pleasantly surprised as from story six onwards - most of them are well written (translated) and are enjoyable to very enjoyable to read. Such a contrast was not expected - it made me wonder why on earth the collator of theses stories included such duff stories and put them all at the beginning of this volume? Many of the later stories have plot devices and storylines that are similar to Conan Doyle and Christie - and are easy to read - and don't for instance have the cultural differences in humour that are lost in translation like the Chekhov and Leblanc stories. My advice is to read A Sensible Course of Action and then start reading again from The Return of Lord Kingwood. I would give this book 7 out of 10 as readers like myself will feel frustrated with some of the earlier stories. If you are new to reading anthologies of crime short stories published by the British Library then I recommend reading Miraculous Mysteries which is by far the best.
The Swedish Match - Anton Chekhov
A Sensible Course of Action - Palle Rosenkrantz
Strange Tracks - Balduin Groller
The Kennel - Maurice Level
Footprints in the Snow - Maurice Leblanc
The Return of Lord Kingwood - Ivans
The Stage Box Murder - Paul Rosenhayn
The Spider - Koga Saburo
The Venom of the Tarantula - Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay
Murdera la Carte - Jean-Toussaint Samat
The Cold Night's Clearing - Keikichi Osaka
The Mystery of the Green Room - Pierre Very
Kippers - John Flanders
The Lipstick and the Teacup - Havank
The Puzzle of the Broken Watch - Maria Elvira Bermudez
The Swedish Match - Anton Chekhov
A Sensible Course of Action - Palle Rosenkrantz
Strange Tracks - Balduin Groller
The Kennel - Maurice Level
Footprints in the Snow - Maurice Leblanc
The Return of Lord Kingwood - Ivans
The Stage Box Murder - Paul Rosenhayn
The Spider - Koga Saburo
The Venom of the Tarantula - Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay
Murdera la Carte - Jean-Toussaint Samat
The Cold Night's Clearing - Keikichi Osaka
The Mystery of the Green Room - Pierre Very
Kippers - John Flanders
The Lipstick and the Teacup - Havank
The Puzzle of the Broken Watch - Maria Elvira Bermudez
January 29, 2018
"Foreign Bodies" is a nice collection of vintage crime stories from across the globe. I have never thought of the pervasive impact of the golden age detective era that inspired authors from other parts of the world to create something for their own cultures. Besides Anton Chekhov and Maurice Leblanc, I have never heard of the rest of the writers introduced in this collection. Not surprisingly, Martin Edwards has, once again, brought his readers few unexpected gems otherwise would be unknown to the English speaking community.
I myself in particular love the two Japanese stories for they give the usual eerie and frightening chill that are unique to the culture. The French pieces are, as always, composed with grace and elegance. Some of the stories presented are barely anything close to "mysteries" but they give different perspectives about crimes. I do not deny the fact few pieces are less than impressive but overall an interesting mix of what I call the international flavors.
The British Library Crime Classic seldom disappoints me and "Foreign Bodies" is of no exception. My appreciation to Poisoned Pen Press for providing me the opportunity for an early preview via Netgallery. A must-read for fans who adore vintage crime stories for its solid contents; and a must-own copy for books collectors because of the eye-catching cover art.
I myself in particular love the two Japanese stories for they give the usual eerie and frightening chill that are unique to the culture. The French pieces are, as always, composed with grace and elegance. Some of the stories presented are barely anything close to "mysteries" but they give different perspectives about crimes. I do not deny the fact few pieces are less than impressive but overall an interesting mix of what I call the international flavors.
The British Library Crime Classic seldom disappoints me and "Foreign Bodies" is of no exception. My appreciation to Poisoned Pen Press for providing me the opportunity for an early preview via Netgallery. A must-read for fans who adore vintage crime stories for its solid contents; and a must-own copy for books collectors because of the eye-catching cover art.
July 19, 2018
Ok, I didn't like this book at first, the first two stories were incredibly boring in my eyes, but it got better afterwards! The stories were fun, ridiculous, and honestly for most you could smell the killer from a mile away, but they were enjoyable. And that's the most important thing to me. I discovered lots of authors I had never heard of, even some from my own country!
This book is full of men, though, there was only 1 female author, which I found a shame, as there are tons of great women writers, but that doesn't take away from the stories, as they were really fun.
Something I am really confused about, however, is the lack of the Netherlands in this book. I bought this book because it claimed to have at least 1 story set in the Netherlands, but there wasn't? At all??? Yes, there was 1 story written by a Dutch author, but it doesn't take place in the Netherlands, it takes place in Paris. So now I'm really confused, does the person who put this book together, not know that the Netherlands and France aren't the same thing, or are they just (quite honestly) lying on this book? It doesn't affect my rating of the book, but it just really annoyed me, as that was the main selling point for me.
All in all, it was enjoyable, and I'm really glad I kept on reading instead of DNF'ing it!
This book is full of men, though, there was only 1 female author, which I found a shame, as there are tons of great women writers, but that doesn't take away from the stories, as they were really fun.
Something I am really confused about, however, is the lack of the Netherlands in this book. I bought this book because it claimed to have at least 1 story set in the Netherlands, but there wasn't? At all??? Yes, there was 1 story written by a Dutch author, but it doesn't take place in the Netherlands, it takes place in Paris. So now I'm really confused, does the person who put this book together, not know that the Netherlands and France aren't the same thing, or are they just (quite honestly) lying on this book? It doesn't affect my rating of the book, but it just really annoyed me, as that was the main selling point for me.
All in all, it was enjoyable, and I'm really glad I kept on reading instead of DNF'ing it!
February 4, 2022
3.5 stars rounded up. It's always nice to be reminded that fiction exists outside the English-speaking world, and that quite a bit of it is really good. For all that the so-called Golden Age of Detective Stories was defined by the English-speaking world, quite a few authors in Europe and Asia were also writing excellent stories during this time, but unfortunately few were translated into English during the author's lifetime. I'm glad this has changed in the decades since, because one doesn't have to write in English to write a good story. This collection presents 15 stories that were originally published in the author's native language. Most are translated here for the first time.
As with any short story collection, it's going to be a mixed bag, and this one didn't start off too well for me. However, the middle set of stories were quite fun and interesting, and the collection ended on a high note, hence rounding up my final rating. I especially enjoyed the stories from the Asian authors - it reminds me that I really need to find more Japanese crime fiction!
My favorites of this collection:
Footprints in the Snow - Maurice Leblanc (France)
The Return of Lord Kingwood - Ivans (Netherlands)
The Stage Box Murder - Paul Rosenhayn (Germany)
The Spider - Koga Saburo (Japan)
The Puzzle of the Broken Watch - Maria Elvira Bermudez (Mexico)
As with any short story collection, it's going to be a mixed bag, and this one didn't start off too well for me. However, the middle set of stories were quite fun and interesting, and the collection ended on a high note, hence rounding up my final rating. I especially enjoyed the stories from the Asian authors - it reminds me that I really need to find more Japanese crime fiction!
My favorites of this collection:
Footprints in the Snow - Maurice Leblanc (France)
The Return of Lord Kingwood - Ivans (Netherlands)
The Stage Box Murder - Paul Rosenhayn (Germany)
The Spider - Koga Saburo (Japan)
The Puzzle of the Broken Watch - Maria Elvira Bermudez (Mexico)
July 16, 2022
These are for the most part enjoyable and interesting, though they have the inherent problem I nearly always find with short-story mystery works: the format is not sufficiently long enough to adequately hide or delay the solution. Some of these works, for example, were fairly obvious from the opening pages (especially Paul Rosenhayn's "The Stage Box Murder"). Similarly, some suffer from the lack of sufficient time to lay the groundwork so that the denouement is truly based on what had been laid before the reader's feet, and not simply a quick "aha!" moment that could never have been reasonably predicted (like Pierre Very's "The Mystery of the Green Room").
That out of the way, some of the stories made quite an impression, including Anton Chekhov's "The Swedish Match", which defies the genre in one central way which I won't spoil here, and presents a thoroughly Russian portrait of characters. I also liked Jean-Toussaint Samat's "Murder a la Carte" and Keikichi Osaka's "The Cold Night's Clearing", which seems more human and less focused on mere clever puzzling.
Most of all, of course, this is a valuable collection simply to show the world-wide breadth of the classic detective fiction genre, especially where so little has ever been translated into English. Thank you Martin Edwards for the wonderful British Library Crime Classics series!
That out of the way, some of the stories made quite an impression, including Anton Chekhov's "The Swedish Match", which defies the genre in one central way which I won't spoil here, and presents a thoroughly Russian portrait of characters. I also liked Jean-Toussaint Samat's "Murder a la Carte" and Keikichi Osaka's "The Cold Night's Clearing", which seems more human and less focused on mere clever puzzling.
Most of all, of course, this is a valuable collection simply to show the world-wide breadth of the classic detective fiction genre, especially where so little has ever been translated into English. Thank you Martin Edwards for the wonderful British Library Crime Classics series!
March 29, 2021
2.5 stars. If I’d realized that Martin Edwards was involved (I rated his The Golden Age of Murder a 2-star mess), then I wouldn’t have read this book from the library. This anthology consists of English translations of 15 short stories from non-English detective/mystery authors from 1884-1964. The short stories and mostly from the Golden Age of Murder era, plus are mostly “locked room” or impossible crime puzzles. As another reviewer stated, the early-half of the collection aren’t even that good! Plus I found many of the selections were online for free, so the value-added from this anthology is limited. The editor’s forward about each author was pf mixed quality too, often lacking the date of the story or the language translated from...helpful when Martin Edwards provided those insights, along with the writer’s pen name(s) and the protagonist(s) the writer brought to fame. I would have liked a broader scope than locked-room stories from the 1930s, but that’s what you get here basically. Google and you can find many short story collections (in the English) elsewhere for the authors in this anthology. Maybe a better path to go, plus I’d also recommend the short stories / detective novels of Czech-born author Joseph Skvorecky (Sins of Father Knox, Lt. Boruvka writings,etc.).
March 16, 2022
Something a bit different from the British Library series, as Martin Edwards ventures beyond the bounds of Britain to gather a smorgasbord of crime fiction in translation - some translated into English here for the first time. All of these authors were new to me, apart from Anton Chekhov and Maurice Leblanc, and it was a joy to be introduced to them. It's also definitely one of the stronger and more interesting short story collections that Edwards has edited.
7 stories stood out:
1. The Kennel by Maurice Level (France) - A macabre piece of melodrama with a neat twist
2. Footprints in the Snow by Maurice Leblanc (France) - An enjoyable Lupin story
3. The Stage Box Murder by Paul Rosenhayn (Germany) - A clever mystery retold through the medium of letter-writing
4. The Venom of the Tarantula by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay (India) - A classic puzzle featuring a Holmes-Watson style duo
5. The Cold Night's Clearing by Keikichi Osaka (Japan) - A good "tracks in the snow" mystery, with a dark edge
6. The Mystery of the Green Room by Pierre Very (France) - A homage to Gaston Leroux, with a twist on the locked-room format
7. Kippers by John Flanders (Belgium) - A playfully macabre, very short story
7 stories stood out:
1. The Kennel by Maurice Level (France) - A macabre piece of melodrama with a neat twist
2. Footprints in the Snow by Maurice Leblanc (France) - An enjoyable Lupin story
3. The Stage Box Murder by Paul Rosenhayn (Germany) - A clever mystery retold through the medium of letter-writing
4. The Venom of the Tarantula by Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay (India) - A classic puzzle featuring a Holmes-Watson style duo
5. The Cold Night's Clearing by Keikichi Osaka (Japan) - A good "tracks in the snow" mystery, with a dark edge
6. The Mystery of the Green Room by Pierre Very (France) - A homage to Gaston Leroux, with a twist on the locked-room format
7. Kippers by John Flanders (Belgium) - A playfully macabre, very short story
February 11, 2018
Foreign Bodies is a lovely collection of vintage crime stories from authors around the world. The stories are from the Golden Age of crime writers,most are unknown to me, and some have only been recently translated.
This collection gives an interesting insight into the art of detective work and how this genre is tackled worldwide. Logical thinking wins the day,and detection is sometimes down to old fashioned luck,as these stories predate fingerprints and forensic knowledge . The appeal is for all,but then,the middle and upper classes were probably the target readers.
I was pleased that the locked room mystery made a welcome return,and I found the two Japanese stories to be quite eerie and chilling in their oriental manner. I loved the following stories,' The Spider' ( I'm even more scared of them now!) and Footprints in the Snow ( reminds me of Holmes and Watson) . Some stories were clunky and wooden,difficult to get involved in,others invited you in and trap you in their evil designs.
I love the Art Deco cover of this collection! It screams of class,money and the excitement of foreign adventures. A worthy addition to the classic crime collection.
This collection gives an interesting insight into the art of detective work and how this genre is tackled worldwide. Logical thinking wins the day,and detection is sometimes down to old fashioned luck,as these stories predate fingerprints and forensic knowledge . The appeal is for all,but then,the middle and upper classes were probably the target readers.
I was pleased that the locked room mystery made a welcome return,and I found the two Japanese stories to be quite eerie and chilling in their oriental manner. I loved the following stories,' The Spider' ( I'm even more scared of them now!) and Footprints in the Snow ( reminds me of Holmes and Watson) . Some stories were clunky and wooden,difficult to get involved in,others invited you in and trap you in their evil designs.
I love the Art Deco cover of this collection! It screams of class,money and the excitement of foreign adventures. A worthy addition to the classic crime collection.
February 27, 2018
A wonderful collection of mysteries written during the 20th. century, from a varied selection of countries.
Chekhov had to be in there of course and the selection of not so well known authors ( to me any way) was a refreshing change from the (sometimes) run of the mill stories from UK and America.
I enjoy very much this varied collection of stories from the "Golden Age" of writings and hope that The British Library and Poison Pen Press long continue to bring them to us.
Very highly recommended.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Poison Pen Press via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review, which I am very happy to give.
Chekhov had to be in there of course and the selection of not so well known authors ( to me any way) was a refreshing change from the (sometimes) run of the mill stories from UK and America.
I enjoy very much this varied collection of stories from the "Golden Age" of writings and hope that The British Library and Poison Pen Press long continue to bring them to us.
Very highly recommended.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Poison Pen Press via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review, which I am very happy to give.
January 13, 2018
Bodies best left buried.
This was an interesting read. Certainly some of the writers show promise but in general theymake us very grateful for the more famous American and British writers with whom we are familiar. I am not tempted to seek out other works of the authors mentioned but equally I did not find it a waste of time. A few stories were quite ingenious and amusing but in general they seemed poor attempts at imitating those of greater and just fame. This anthology, to me, showed the vital difference between amateur and professional writers.
This was an interesting read. Certainly some of the writers show promise but in general theymake us very grateful for the more famous American and British writers with whom we are familiar. I am not tempted to seek out other works of the authors mentioned but equally I did not find it a waste of time. A few stories were quite ingenious and amusing but in general they seemed poor attempts at imitating those of greater and just fame. This anthology, to me, showed the vital difference between amateur and professional writers.
April 8, 2018
Surprisingly, this entry in the British Library Crime Classics consists of stories from outside the English-speaking world, most from the early to mid twentieth century. Most are in new translations; some have never been translated before. There are two stories by Japanese authors, one from an Indian author, and one by a Mexican author (who is also the only woman represented). The rest were drawn mostly from France, Germany, and the Low Countries. All were unfamiliar to me, and most were quite enjoyable.
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