The Oxford Book of English Detective Stories

by Patricia Craig

Overview

The scene: a sleeping car on the North-Western express, somewhere between Preston and Carlisle. The weapon: a small-caliber revolver. The victims: two young newlyweds, with little money and no known enemies. The puzzle: everyone in the car has an alibi, and no one was seen to leave. Here are all the ingredients for another gripping detective story.
The Oxford Book of English Detective Stories gathers 33 engrossing tales of crime, ranging from the birth of the genre to the present day. Arthur Conan Doyle, G.K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Margery Allingham, P.D. James, Ruth Rendell, Robert Barnard, and Simon Brett—all the giants of English mystery are here, as well as Christianna Brand, Ngaio Marsh, Michael Innes, Reginald Hill, Nicholas Blake, Michael Underwood, and many more. Editor Patricia Craig treats us to Sherlock Holmes, indefatigably tracking the details of the theft of Colonel Ross's prize horse, Silver Blaze, and the murder of its trainer. In "The Oracle of the Dog," G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown sits calmly in his study, solving at a distance the perplexing murder of Colonel Druce: was it the foreign Dr. Valentine, the foppish lawyer Traill, or Floyd, the exuberant American secretary? P.D. James sends Chief Superindentant Dalgliesh on the trail of a mysterious death from some seventy years before—a case with a final, darkly ironic twist. And Robert Barnard grimly lampoons English academe in "The Oxford Way of Death." In addition to this dazzling array of stories, Craig provides a concise introduction which surveys the origins and development of this enduring genre.
Ingenious, gothic, morbid, satirical—the English detective story ranks among the most dynamic and gripping fiction. In The Oxford Book of English Detective Stories, Patricia Craig presents some of the best ever written, in an absorbing tour of the world of crime, detection, and retribution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780192141873
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/30/1990
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	576
Product dimensions:	8.82(w) x 5.78(h) x 1.44(d)

About the Author

Patricia Craig is a freelance critic, reviewer, and writer. Her books include, with Mary Codogan, You're a Brick, Angela! and The Lady Investigates.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	ix
	The Stir Outside the Cafe Royal	1
	Silver Blaze	6
	The Mysterious Visitor	29
	The Case of Laker, Absconded	47
	The Oracle of the Dog	68
	The Genuine Tabard	87
	The Dead Leaves	101
	The Mystery of the Sleeping-Car Express	138
	The Purple Line	159
	Solved by Inspection	167
	The Henpecked Murderer	177
	Superintendent Wilson's Holiday	199
	The Witness for the Prosecution	225
	The Avenging Chance	243
	Murder at Pentecost	259
	Death on the Air	269
	Miss Burnside's Dilemma	294
	Daisy Bell	305
	Three is a Lucky Number	318
	The Assassins' Club	327
	The House in Goblin Wood	335
	The Furies	354
	The Hornets' Nest	361
	The Murderer	384
	The Killing of Michael Finnegan	394
	Murder at St Oswald's	410
	Great Aunt Allie's Flypapers	424
	Baker Dies	443
	A Dangerous Thing	449
	Thornapple	464
	The Oxford Way of Death	493
	Bring Back the Cat!	506
	How's Your Mother?	533
	Acknowledgements	547
	Biographical Notes	550

Editorial Reviews

Beginning with the Conan Doyle era, this collection moves chronologically past Christie and Sayers to P. D. James and the present moment. Most of the 33 stories follow the Sherlock Holmes formula: a plethora of clues and a solution by ratiocination. No hard-boiled detectives or seedy characters can be found because, as Craig ( The Lady Investigates ) informs us in her introduction, such types never took root in the English detective story--British readers evidently prefer the urbanity of the drawing-room settings roamed by upper-class sleuths. The puzzles posed by locked rooms are thus solved in ``The Oracle of the Dog'' by G. K. Chesterton. Unexplained deaths are explained--delightfully--in Freeman Wills Crofts's ``The Mystery of the Sleeping-Car Express.'' A few perpetrators get away with their crimes, as in Robert Barnard's ``The Oxford Way of Death'' and in Cyril Hare's ``Miss Burnside's Dilemma,'' but most are brought to justice. The detective story, as Craig observes, is an optimistic genre; there is always, by tradition, a solution, and therein lies our pleasure. This anthology is chock-full of deductive reasoning, whimsy and that remarkable gift of the British: understatement. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

YA-- Thirty-three short stories by such popular English detective writers as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy L. Sayers, P. D. James, and Simon Brett. YAs will be attracted by the content of the stories, length of individual selections, and the writing styles. Each selection is absorbing and provides the element of tension needed to sustain interest. The book could be read for pleasure, and it will complement classes in comparative literature, English, and creative writing.

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