The Penguin Book of Gaslight Crime: Con Artists, Burglars, Rogues, and Scoundrels from the Time of Sherlock Holmes

The Penguin Book of... (Penguin Classics)

by Michael Sims (Editor)

An exclusive collection—the first-ever gathering of rogues from the gaslight era, including Arsène Lupin, the inspiration for the new Netflix series Lupin, starring Omar Sy collected here for the first the best crime fiction from the gaslight era. All the legendary thieves are present-Arsène Lupin and A. J. Raffles, Colonel Clay and Simon Carne, Romney Pringle, Get Rich Quick Wallingford, and the Infallible Godahl-burgling London and Paris, conning New York and Ostend, laughing all the way to the bank. Also featured are stories by distinguished writers from outside the mystery and detective genres, including Sinclair Lewis, Arnold Bennett, H. G. Wells, and William Hope Hodgson.

Genres: Mystery, Short Stories, Fiction, Crime, Classics, Anthologies, 19th Century

274 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 21, 2009

About the author

Michael Sims is the author of the acclaimed "The Story of Charlotte's Web, Apollo's Fire: A Day on Earth in Nature and Imagination," "Adam's Navel: A Natural and Cultural History of the Human Form," and editor of "Dracula's Guest: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Vampire Stories" and "The Dead Witness: A Connoisseur's Collection of Victorian Detective Stories." He lives in western Pennsylvania.

Reviews

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forget Sherlock Holmes, if you can--Victorian literature produced some great criminals as well! A. J. Raffles, Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford, Simon Carne, Captain Gault, and many other scoundrels and ruffians tried their luck on the other side of the law, and many managed to make a very dishonest living out of it. American millionaires, watch out! English lords, lock up your paintings! Ladies everywhere, keep an eye on those diamonds!

I recently read all the Sherlock Holmes stories, and I was hungry for more--so I was delighted to discover this wicked little anthology from Penguin Classics. I figured this and The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime would make for some fun reading. Imagine my surprise when these stories turned out better than I expected--and imagine my disappointment when I realized most of the original collections from which these stories came were long out of print, or extremely difficult (or pricey) to find. Blast! No more stories for me? You're such a tease, Mr. Sims.

Now imagine my re-delight when a Goodreads friend did some searching for me, and discovered some of the stories available online. Now me, I'm a bit old-fashioned, e-books aren't my thing...but hey, free is free, and why sit around grumbling about paper-and-ink books I can't read when those books are right here in front of my face? And why should I just read them myself? Why not share them with everyone? Heck, why not include them in a review?

Huzzah! To the stories!

1) "The Episode of the Diamond Links" by Grant Allen, from An African Millionaire: Episodes in the Life of the Illustrious Colonel Clay (Project Gutenberg)
The millionaire Charles Vandrift and friends are traveling through Switzerland when they meet a very familiar face--but surely the dastardly Colonel Clay wouldn't be stupid enough to try robbing them twice...would he? (In fact, he does--twelve times in a row!) It's an amusing tale, but would probably be much better if read with the rest of the series. Which you can do! See above!

2) "The Duchess of Wiltshire's Diamonds" * by Guy Boothby, from >A Prince of Swindlers**
Simon Carne, gentleman-thief! Klimo, famous detective! Could they perhaps be the same person? Perhaps! The Duchess of Wiltshire's diamonds won't be the Duchess of Wiltshire's for very long!
*Gutenberg Australia, link includes several other Simon Carne stories.
**Google Books, includes additional stories.

3) "Nine Points of the Law" by E. W. Hornung, from Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman (Gutenberg)
Harry "Bunny" Manders was about to blow his brains out over a gambling debt, until his old school-chum A. J. Raffles, famous cricketer and popular London man-about-town, talked him out of it and offered to help him get the cash. So they robbed a jewelry store together, and thus began a long, and fairly successful, career in crime. Huzzah for Raffles!

So this is where it all began. I stumbled across The Amateur Cracksman earlier this year, and bought and read it on a whim--then searched frantically for the other stories. Raffles is the creation of E. W. Hornung, Doyle's brother-in-law (and I read Raffles before Holmes, oddly enough). In "Nine Points of the Law," from the first collection, Raffles and Bunny attempt to acquire a misbegotten painting the honest way, for once--but decide they would rather do it their way instead. It's a good one, and it makes me want to re-read the others.

See also:
-The Black Mask, or Raffles: Further Adventures of the Amateur Cracksman
-A Thief in the Night
-Mr. Justice Raffles (Novel)

4) "The Mystery of the Five Hundred Diamonds" by Robert Barr, from The Triumphs of Eugène Valmont (Gutenberg)
More diamonds, is it? So be it. But don't let the title fool you, because this is not about the triumphs of Eugène Valmont. This is the story of a theft--one which led to Eugène Valmont's dismissal from the French Government, no thanks to those durn Americans. One hopes Valmont's later adventures in London are more triumphant--I'm especially looking forward to reading "The Siamese Twin of a Bomb-Thrower".

5) "A Comedy on the Gold Coast" by Arnold Bennett, from The Loot of Cities: The Adventures of a Millionaire in Search of Joy (A Fantasia); and Other Stories (archive.org)
Cecil Thorold thinks he can manipulate the stock market and play matchmaker at the same time. Can he really? Oh, you have no idea...

6) "The Story of a Secret" by William Le Queux, from The Count's Chauffeur (Gutenberg)
George Ewart isn't just the Count Bindo di Ferraris' chauffeur, he's also the Count's partner in crime...if only he knew what that crime was. But there's definitely something going on, or else why is Ewart posing as the Count de Bourbriac? Why is he in Brussels with a woman pretending to be the Countess? And what's she doing with the handsome German fellow?

7) "The Chair of Philanthromathematics" by O. Henry, from The Gentle Grafter (Gutenberg)
"When a man swindles the public out of a certain amount he begins to get scared and wants to return part of it." But don't expect Jeff Peters and Andy Tucker to invest in anything honest! I didn't know O. Henry wrote about crooks and swindlers too, but he did write over fifty million stories (fact), and I suppose they couldn't all be about silly young couples who ruined Christmas by not communicating with each other. Good sample, but I want more.

8) "Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford" by George Randolph Chester, from Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford: A Cheerful Account of the Rise and Fall of an American Business Buccaneer (Gutenberg)
First two chapters of a novel, starring an expert con man. As a sample, not the best--but perhaps it works better when read with the whole novel.

See also:
-Young Wallingford

9) "Blind Man's Bluff" by Frederick Irving Anderson, from The Adventures of the Infallible Godahl (manybooks.net)
Who's the bigger thief, the Infallible Godahl or Malvino the Magician? Or something. This one was a bit weak, and I was tired when I read it.

10) "The Diamond Spy" by William Hope Hodgson, from Captain Gault: Being the Exceedingly Private Log of a Sea-Captain (openlibrary.org)
Gault, a sea-captain and thief (or smuggler? It's not entirely clear) outsmarts a spy/customs officer. Shame about the chickens.

11) "The Willow Walk" by Sinclair Lewis, from Selected Short Stories
Jasper Holt just embezzled $100,000 from his bank and vanished into thin air--and his stuffy religious brother insists on helping the investigation, if only he doesn't (cleverly) bore everyone to death first. It's the best acting job of Jasper Holt's life, until it gets the better of him. As the only story in which the criminal feels remorse and tries to make amends, it's a bit of a buzz-kill...but interesting nonetheless.
Note: I managed to find the e-book available from the University of Adelaide, but I'm not entirely sure the US copyright has expired yet, so I'm not sure it's safe to post a link. Any copyright law experts in the house?

12) "Four Square Jane" by Edgar Wallace, from Four Square Jane
Another story in which the eponymous thief does not appear--or does she? Someone is robbing the bloated rich and making charitable donations to hospitals, and she has her sights set on the uncharitable multi-millioaire Mr. Tresser's expensive art. But can she steal it from right under Chief Superindendent Peter Dawes' watch? You bet she can! From the Four Square Jane stories by the very prolific Edgar Wallace. Fun stuff, but no samples.

Good show, wot!

Many thanks to Richard--he was kind enough to find me some stories when I was too lazy to look myself, and I managed to find most of the stories from this anthology too. Look for a similar review (with too many links) of the Victorian Women collection sometime soon--I haven't found all of those stories yet, but I'm trying. And next year...well, I believe I have more than enough reading material to satisfy my Victorian lit addiction. So, onward 2012!

[Julio Bernad · Rating 3 out of 5]

La aportación que la editorial Siruela está haciendo recuperando a autores clásicos del género policíaco es inestimable. Todos conocemos a Sherlock Holmes o el padre Brown, incluso algunos representantes del continente como Rouletabille han conseguido ocupar su lugar en su anaquel correspondiente. Pero estos detectives no son más que la punta de un iceberg de un género muy popular durante la época victoriana y eduardiana, momento en que la figura del detective comienza a mutar, ora convertido en el flemático y metódico esclarecedor de misterios burgués ora en el hombre de acción impávido que desenfunda antes el revolver que el bloc de notas.

Pero hay una figura aún más desconocida de esta clase de literatura popular, una representada exclusivamente por un hombre, y no por méritos propios sino por ser el antagonista principal del detective de Baker Street, que, por cierto, solo apareció en un relato. Hablo ni más ni menos que del Napoleón del Crimen, el profesor James Moriarty, epítome del genio del mal en la sombra, calculador y ubicuo. De nuevo, Moriarty no es sino uno entre muchos, pues no pocos autores policiacos decidieron poner su ingenio al servicio de las más bajas pasiones y crear un buen puñado de villanos memorables. Esta antología rinde homenaje a esos estafadores, ladrones de guante blanco, contrabandistas ocasionales y tahúres profesionales de orígenes tanto aristócratas como plebeyos, y deja claro el por qué estos personajes no han sobrevivido al paso del tiempo.

La mayoría de las historias contenidas en esta antología son protagonizadas por ladrones y estafadores. Los hay más o menos inspirados, pero la mayoría comparten metodología delictiva, a saber, el recurso del disfraz logrado, la usurpación de identidad y la desaparición total. Cuando todos los relatos terminan por seguir la misma estructura, la única manera de valorarlos es atendiéndonos a sus diferencias y particularidades o a la prosa del autor. Y, siendo honestos, casi ninguno de los autores aquí presentes le llegan a la suela de los zapatos a Arthur Conan Doyle o G.K. Chesterton.

Los relatos incluidos son los siguientes:
El episodio de los gemelos de diamante de Grant Allen (****): El coronel Clay, ladrón de guante blanco, ha convertido al matrimonio millonario protagonista en el blanco de todos sus hurtos. En esta ocasión, la pareja está sobre aviso, pero aún así logrará, gracias a una sutil mascarada, hacerse con los diamantes que tanto deseaba la mujer.

Los diamantes de la duquesa de Wiltshire de Guy Boothby (***): De nuevo diamantes, de nuevo el disfraz para afanárselos. La estructura ya empieza a repetirse pero aún no es molesta. Aquí el ladrón, el rico Simon Crane, logra hacerse con sus ansiados diamantes valiéndose de la debilidad de su víctima por la artesanía india, de la que él es experto, y de una cajita trucada.

La posesión es lo que cuenta de E. W. Hornung (***): Ruffles y Bunny, el reverso tenebroso de Sherlock Holmes y John Watson creados por el cuñado de quién diera vida a la ínclita dupla, no tienen un duro. Por suerte alguien les encarga robar un cuadro a cambio de la suma de 2000 libras.

El misterio de los quinientos diamantes de Robert Barr (***): el ya retirado comisario Valmont relata cómo le robaron en su cara unos valiosísimos diamantes durante una subasta pública.

Una comedia en la Costa Dorada de Arnold Bennett (****): no todos los criminales son personas mezquinas e interesadas en las propiedades ajenas, o al menos no lo son todo el rato. Si no admirar el ejemplo de Cecil Thorold, el joven estafador millonario, que utiliza su flexible moral para lograr que la heredera de un potentado pueda casarse con su misérrimo pretendiente.

Historia de un secreto de William Le Queux (***): el chofer del estafador conde Bindo di Ferraris deberá actuar de marido de una cocotte en una pantomima ideada por su señor para engañar a un diplomático alemán.

La cátedra de Filantromatemáticas de O. Henry (**): dos estafadores profesionales han dado un buen golpe, pero se sienten vacios, como si debieran algo al mundo. Es por ello que deciden convertirse en filántropos e invertir todo el caudal obtenido por medios ilícitos en una obra social, una escuela en el medio oeste americano. Obviamente, las intenciones desinteresadas duran lo que tarda el dinero en agotarse.

Fortuna-Rápida Wallingford de George Randolph Chester (**): el estafador Wallingford enseña a su amigo una importante lección: que cuando uno se dispone a desplumar a un primo con la excusa de un negocio ventajoso hay que parecer un verdadero hombre de negocios.

La gallina ciega de Frederick Irving Anderson (***): recientemente ha llegado a la ciudad el gran Malvino, el famoso prestidigitador ciego que se dedica a desvalijar a su audiencia en directo. Godahl, el protagonista, y también sisador en sus ratos libres, se entrevistará con el mago para advertirle de la encerrona que han planeado los ricos que han contratado sus servicios para un espectáculo privado.

El espía de diamantes de William Hope Hodgson (****): el capitán Gault, harto de un espía de contrabandos que no deja de fisgonear en su nave, idea un plan para hacerlo caer en desgracia, un plan que consiste en un montón de diamantes falsos, unas bolitas de pan y unas gallina de Guinea.

El paseo de los sauces de Sinclair Lewis (***): Jasper Holt, afable y ejemplar cajero de banco, pone al servicio del crimen sus dotes actorales creando una segunda identidad diametralmente distinta a la suya. Así nace su gemelo John Holt, un ermitaño y fanático religioso que vive encerrado para escribir una gran obra de teología y solo sale de casa para acudir a las reuniones de su secta. Cuando Jasper Holt da el golpe y adopta la identidad de su hermano, su actuación del método será tan convincente y creíble que pronto su verdadera identidad se tambaleará.

Jane Cuatro Cuadros de Edgar Wallace (***): Jane Cuatro Cuadros es una Robin Hood moderna que roba a los ricos que desvergonzadamente hacen ostentación de su riqueza para dárselo a los pobres en forma de donaciones benéficas. Su siguiente blanco será el cuadro de un nuevo rico, expuesto de manera pública en su museo privado.

[La gata lectora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Los relatos de detectives publicados por series en revistas gozaron de mucha popularidad en la época victoriana.

En este volumen se reúnen relatos de distintos escritores afamados de la época pero que centrados en los villanos.

Estos villanos que nos vamos a encontrar no son los típicos personajes de maldad infinita que hieren a mala fe o asesinan, sino personas astutas, timadores, ladrones por aburrimiento, o incluso por justicia social.

Cada relato viene con una pequeña introducción sobre el autor y el personaje estrella del mismo. Las historias se caracterizan por ser ingeniosas y entretenidas.

Perfecto para leer combinado con otros libros, un relato cada día, sin prisa, para entretenerse y sonreír viendo como los protagonistas consiguen burlar a la justicia.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book approaches the detective story from a different angle - the perspective of the villain. I found the quality of the included stories rather uneven, and many were hampered by the fact that these were parts of larger works or a middle work from an established series. In those cases, the stories felt rather incomplete and simply did not stand on their own. My favorite story by far was "The Willow Walk" by Sinclair Lewis. An amazing piece of writing, it was thoroughly engrossing from start to finish. Unlike most of the stories, which present a crime and its solution like nothing more than an intricate puzzle, Lewis' story makes some very substantial observations of human nature. The crime itself is simply a means to exploring the nature of the individual and this elevates the story far beyond crime fiction. If you are particularly enamored of crime/mystery stories of the gaslight era, you may enjoy this book. But if you are looking for more than clever twists and surprises, I'd suggest simply getting your hands on "The Willow Walk" alone.

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a pretty fun collection of old crime stories. What I enjoy about Sims' selection is that he focuses on roguish, almost heroic thieves and conmen. He avoids anybody who kills to get lots of money, on the basis that that's much to easy and not interesting to read about. Instead, the collection of men and one woman in this book use disguises, social engineering, trick objects, and other forms of subterfuge to earn their keep. Also, while some of the criminals are out purely for material gain, others have more noble motives. One man manipulates the stock market to raise funds for a friend to marry, while another harasses a diamond magnate over and over again to gain justice for his evils. Of course, while I like reading stories where the protagonists are heroes on the right side of the law, what really decides my favorite of these stories is the ones with the cleverest cons and schemes. "The Duchess of Wiltshire's Diamonds" features a man who pretends to be a Sherlock Holmes style detective while using a special mechanism in a jewel box to steal priceless diamonds. "A Comedy on the Gold Coast" involves kidnapping and spreading rumors, while my absolute favorite story, and the one non-series one, "The Willow Walk" involves a man inventing his own brother. "The Willow Walk" is especially fun because it's a bit more literary than the others and sees the con artist himself succumbing wholly to the false persona involved in his con. The other thing that's fun about this collection is that almost all of the stories here are parts of longer series, which means that for the characters I enjoyed reading about, I can go and find books filled with their adventures, something I quite look forward to doing. As with the other anthologies by Michael Sims I've read, this is a great collection of rather obscure but quite good stories, and I encourage fans of crime fiction and late Victorian literature to check this book out.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has both a lively introduction and a clever premise. Gaslight meaning scams and swindlers rather than guns and knives, before forensic technology ushered in the modern criminology techniques, so 1890-1920. Crime as of course it's manipulation of greed and easy marks. A dozen stories, mostly by those little memorialized a century at least later, but Sinclair Lewis, Arnold Bennett, and O. Henry too.

But after the first couple of entries, my enthusiasm dimmed. I prefer con artist tales to mysteries, and thrillers to police procedurals, yet the airy quality of their telling, the high roller atmosphere, the casinos and hotels, failed to sweep me away. Perhaps reminded of my own financial precarity in this current division between the elite and us chumps, first-class vs. coach, increasingly two-tier society.

Others may enjoy these stories. But I never got into Father Brown or Sherlock Holmes, much as I tried. Therefore, readers attuned to late Victorian and Edwardian banter, Old World clubbishness, flirtation by fake nobles, and doublecrossing may leap into this anthology. Maybe retry when I win the lottery.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fun collection of twelve stories where the protagonist is a crook, all from 1890-1920. Back then even if the story was enjoyable, the authors were chided for making the crook a hero, or even likable. Kind of like the production code era of Hollywood, where criminals were not allowed to get away with their crimes. Many of the criminals here are gentleman thieves, and the last one is a woman, which was quite enjoyable.

There's a range of quality here. I think my favorite was Cecil Thorold, and I really liked Simon Carne and A.J. Raffles. Four Square Jane was also good. The story by Sinclair Lewis was too long and the psychological angle put a damper on the caper aspect of it. Most of the rest were just okay.

I recommend this for a pleasant escape and perhaps to find some new series to read.

[Darlene Messenger · Rating 4 out of 5]

What comes to mind when you hear the word gaslight? Do you think as a psychiatrist? Or do you think Victorian age? I prefer Penguin editions of books for their introductions and this one, written by Michael Sims, is informative and highly interesting to a vintage crime aficionado.
This wee collection of crime stories focus on a small subgenre of caper crimes. Not a murder among them. Burglar, con artists, swindlers and confidence criminals abound in this book! Most of these date back to the 1800's and all are a delightful romp through the era with many likeable perpetrators and detectives. I recommend highly this book for its uniquely criminal descriptions of an era and dastardly deeds of avarice.

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't planning to read another one of these Sims-edited Penguin anthologies, but the opportunity presented itself, and I'm glad I took it. This collection centers on the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th. These are capers, not murder mysteries. I'd read two or three of them before.

The quality is high for the most part, with perhaps 1-1.5 stinkers in the lot. Highlights included Grant Allen and O. Henry's short stories. And I'll be kind and note that the editor's intros were far less worried about woke concerns than the other volumes. What a relief!

Perhaps not a highly consequential volume, but quite entertaining and, just as importantly, representative of the genre.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Individual stories rated from 2.5 to 4
Overall rating 4

Imo this is a very good short story collection.
Yes some of the stories are very slight, plot wise, but I found all of them well written and easy to read which considering their age a surprise.
A couple of them were just okay whilst the rest were better than average.
A couple had some interesting twists in them which although nowadays have probably been encountered already by readers at the time of original publication were probably a surprise.
A couple of the stories are part of collections where each story builds on the previous one and I might try to track a copy down to see how they work out.

Overall a solid collection I thought and well worth a read for those who like early mysteries or detective stories.

[MH · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable introduction to a variety of criminal adventurers - mostly masters of disguise, mostly stealing heavily guarded diamond necklaces - who appeared largely in The Strand or The Saturday Evening Post at the turn of the twentieth century. There's a great Sinclair Lewis story about an elaborate theft and its consequences to the conscience, but most of these entries are about light-hearted rogues who have a series of larcenous escapades and I'm looking forward to hunting up more stories of Grant Allen's Colonel Clay and William Hope Hodgson's Captain Gault, Robert Barr's Valmont and Arnold Bennett's Simon Carne.

[Annie B · Rating 4 out of 5]

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[Hanknooney · Rating 4 out of 5]

i bought this at that famous bookstore in copenhagan and rate it so high only because that was a good memory.

[Annie Bee · Rating 4 out of 5]

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[Alexa Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting Book, this was a Birthday gift from an old Boyfriend who was in to who done it books. But this book is more of a look at the way the poeple see things in the eyes of the person who did it. Than the eyes of the person looking for who done it, if you know what I mean.

[rabbitprincess · Rating 3 out of 5]

* * * 1/2

Overall an enjoyable collection to while away a few days with on the bus. Michael Sims has assembled an interesting group of con men, thieves and rogues who would have been contemporaries of Sherlock Holmes. Each story is by a different author and comes with an introduction by Sims explaining why he included the story and putting it in context with the author's other works. I really appreciated these introductions, as well as the notes for further reading.

Of the stories themselves, my favourite was probably the Sinclair Lewis story "The Willow Walk", which was a fascinating character study. I also liked Edgar Wallace's "Four Square Jane" and nearly laughed out loud at the conclusion of "The Episode of the Diamond Links." I also nearly laughed out loud at William Le Queux's contribution, "The Story of a Secret", but that could be because I find him funny in and of himself. The story was pretty good though. It was also interesting to finally read a story about Raffles ("Nine Points of the Law"), but the introduction made me grumpy because Sims compared Raffles and his partner/biographer Bunny to Holmes and Watson, with Bunny and Watson being "dim-witted". Watson is not dim-witted; Holmes is just so smart he blows everyone else out of the water! But that was a minor gripe and did not affect my enjoyment of the story itself.

Since these are short stories and many rely on clever twists at the end, I can't really say too much about them. Most have a breezy feel to them, even as their protagonists merrily rob their way to financial security. Basically, if you like the stories of Sherlock Holmes, you'll probably like this collection. The cover is great, too. Very nicely done.

[Cleo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, how I loved this volume of short mystery stories. Each of them were witty and funny. All of the stories but one aren't detective stories; they're from the point of view of the criminal; which was interesting. As the title suggests, there are all manner of criminals: gentlemen thieves, rogues, con men, burglars etc. No murderers though, and the thieves get away with their crimes. The stories are all pretty suspenseful; not super suspenseful as they're written in an older style, but intriguing enough to make you want to finish each story in one go. The volume begins with "The Episode of the Diamond Links" by Grant Allen, and concludes with "Four Square Jane" by Edgar Wallace (the only story here featuring a female, and one of my favorites too.) I'm planning to read The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime soon as well. Their is a short 1 1/2 page bio-note on each author before their story, and an introduction by Michael Sims, though I confess I just skimmed over the bio-notes and didn't read the introduction at all.

So, yes, this was a marvelous, though slender, volume of amazing short mysteries, each with their own style and distinctive twists. I liked the cover too; the hand is surreptitiously stealing the Penguin logo. A clever, simple cover that fits the contents well.

www.novareviews.blogspot.com

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sims has done an amazing job assembling these stories of criminal capers from the gaslight era (love the cover, with the gloved gent's hand in the act of swiping the Penguin logo). The introductions are informative, inspiring and invaluable.

Fascinating to see this vein of fiction that arose in response to the glittering wealth of the Gilded Age (many of the rich people in these stories are Americans). But Victorian charm isn't quite enough to sustain the collection. And it may have been a bit much to have 4 stories with "Diamonds" in the title.

Standout stories by: Grant Allen, Guy Boothby, Arnold Bennett, O. Henry (of course), Sinclair Lewis (!), and Edgar Wallace - but that's half the collection, with no stinkers. A pretty good average.

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may the more perfectly respect it"- G.K. Chesterton.

That quote perfectly sums up the twelve delightful mystery stories from the Victorian and Edwardian eras contained in this volume.

This is a collection that takes the reader back to a time when criminals used wit and ingenuity rather than weapons, and crime fighters resembled none other than Sherlock Holmes himself.

The most popular mystery writers from this period are represented as well as those who normally didn't write mysteries such as O. Henry and Sinclair Lewis.

Each story has an informative introduction by the editor, Michael Sims.

Recommended for all mystery buffs.

[Jon Touchstone · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am still in the middle of this one. It involves gaslight era detective stories, i.e. ones that take both take place in and evoke the atmosphere of the time of Sherlock Holmes, but from the point of view of the criminals instead of the detectives. It's not bad, but I prefer to root for the detectives. I am not sure if I will finish this one, as I started a new Lord Peter Wimsey that I like much better.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great little book of turn of the century crime fiction. Not only are there light (but not cozy!) crime fics, but there's some humor and twists as well. What really stood out for me in this anthology were the author introductions -- all too often in anthologies they just get to the short stories and you're on your own. Each story here had a little author bio with sidenotes, connections, and information about their other works.

[Daniel Kilkelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of short stories highlights a number of well written episodes of unique anti-heroes created in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This book allows readers to explore the creative response to heroes such as Sherlock Holmes as created by Doyle and enabling readers to identify with multiple authors in minute doses, whereby one can decide which characters and authors ought to be further pursued through additional reading.

[Maharsh Shah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would have ideally liked to give it a 4 star rating. The only reason I give it a 5 is because of the horizons this one opens up. If you like quaint, old world settings peppered with heists, and crime look no more. The greatest thing about the book is the introductions it offers to great writers (before each of their short stories). This book became my gateway to other outstanding writers such as Grant Allen and Guy Boothby. I strongly recommend this book of delectable crime stories.

[Americanogig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great little book on crime fiction from the turn of last century through the 20s. No murders and most of the criminals are anti-heroic, Robin Hood types. Very amusing and lots of twist-turns to keep you interested. The atmosphere in each story was exceptional!

[Maren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic anthology of short crime fiction from the era of Sherlock Holmes. What makes the stories unique is that they are from the perspective of the criminals. A nice introduction to other authors of the era who may be less well known than Conan Doyle.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is always interesting to contrast similar styles of stories from the same period of time and these are an amusing little set of Victorian crime stories.

I find however, that I prefer to be on the detective side of the story than the criminal.

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good. Although the intro says something about these being little known & mostly uncollected and I've read several of these short stories before. Also...I must be too law-abiding; I much prefer being on the side of Sherlock Holmes to Raffles. Three and a half stars.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first story is a gem, but it's downhill from there. It is refreshing, however, to immerse oneself in diction that's intelligent and vocabulary that's just a little more precise than our contemporary language.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it for the introduction by Michael Sims, provided several atmospheric pieces that conjured up turn-of-the-century London and the thieves and detectives that entertained audiences after Doyle killed Sherlock.

[Catherine Siemann · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subtitled describes it best. Victorian and Edwardian and diverting, though necessarily fluffy.