Looking Forward to Volume 4

The first collection blew me away. I was (somewhat) disappointed by the second. Now I just enjoy these for what they are: collections of curios and occasional treasures; odds and ends that maybe even their authors felt were not worth preserving—or that they simply forgot in the torrent of fiction that made up the Golden Age of Detection. The whole process reminds me of beachcombing. That said, don’t imagine for a moment that you won’t enjoy yourself. Here you’ll find the first (and, I have no doubt, only) Agatha Christie that I was able to figure out before the last sentence. Here lurks one of those strange, dream-like tales Dorothy Sayers sometimes turned out when not writing about Lord Peter or Montague Egg. Another curio—a time capsule, really—Anthony Berkley’s brief Second World War yarn warns against the danger of loose lips. Christopher Bush’s “The Hampstead Murder” satisfies, even if (or maybe because) you can see the end before you get there. And Joseph Cummings’ “The Scarecrow Murders” achieves some authentic creepiness. The first real treasure is John Dixon Carr’s “Grand Guignol”. A master of the impossible crime, this exceeds all expectations; let’s hope for more recordings of Carr’s many novels and stories. The second treasure is a series of six brief tales by six different authors, all working from the same premise: “One night, a man picked up an orange in the street; this saved his life”, the best (for my money) by John Rhode. If that doesn’t tickle your fancy, maybe this book isn’t your particular cup of Oolong. Philip Bretherton turns in his usual excellent performance. Though somewhat taken aback by his American accents, the stories were too intriguing for that to pose more than a temporary barrier to enjoyment.

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