The CrimeWriters' Association Vintage Crime - edited by Martin Edwards

 

Description

Vintage Crime is a CWA anthology with a difference, celebrating members’ work over the years. The book will gather stories from the mid-1950s until the twenty-first century by great names of the past, great names of the present together with a few hidden treasures by less familiar writers. The first CWA anthology, Butcher’s Dozen, appeared in 1956, and was co-edited by Julian Symons, Michael Gilbert, and Josephine Bell. The anthology has been edited by Martin Edwards since 1996, and has yielded many award-winning and nominated stories in the UK and overseas.

This new edition includes an array of incredible and award-winning authors: Robert Barnard, Simon Brett, Liza Cody, Mat Coward, John Dickson Carr, Marjorie Eccles, Martin Edwards, Kate Ellis, Anthea Fraser, Celia Fremlin, Frances Fyfield, Michael Gilbert, Paula Gosling, Lesley Grant-Adamson, HRF Keating, Bill Knox, Peter Lovesey, Mick Herron, Michael Z. Lewin, Susan Moody, Julian Symons and Andrew Taylor.

Delighted to be on the book tour for this wonderful collection of vintage crime stories.

Review

First of all I'm going to say that I have absolutely loved this collection. Depending on your age your idea of "vintage" may vary, for me I was thinking up to the 1950s. This book in fact contains stories from 1940 to 2008.

My favourite was "The Nuggy Bar" by Simon Brett written in 1982.  I had no clue from the title what it would entail. It was an ironic tale and reminded me so much of the Ellery Queen stories I enjoyed as a teenager, already being vintage by the time I read them. A clever story not only in the way it was written but in the use of an unusual mechanism of the character using his "top salesman" techniques to plan a murder!

I also enjoyed the stories set in the earlier part of the last century, especially for their simplicity of setting by modern day standards. No computers, apps or mobile phones, the pace of those stories felt so timeless and soothing even if murder was involved. Another favourite was The Perfect Albi where a seasoned American cop takes a rookie under his wing. The storytelling was just perfect and I felt myself settling into reading it as if the cop had been right there with me,  telling me the story face to face.

Beautifully edited by Martin Edwards who also has a story in the book he has written. At the back of the book is a biography of the writers together with the a sources section giving the dates of when the stories were written. There is no indication as you read the stories when they are set or written and I found I liked that aspect of the collection. 

Each story is just the right length for you to be able to dip in and out of the book between reading other books, or just to satisfy a reading urge when time is short.  I will certainly be revisiting this book over and over again. 

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Random Things Tours and Flame Tree Press for an advance reading copy to review.