I always have a hard time reviewing story collections, no matter how much I enjoy them. Do you just want to take my word that readers who appreciate the Golden Age mystery classics will appreciate Resorting to Murder? No?  Well, then take editor Martin Edwards word for it.

There are fourteen stories in this anthology. Edwards, himself an award-winning crime writer, calls these “vintage stories written over a span of roughly half a century, and which have a backdrop of a holiday”. This is not a holiday as Americans think of it, Christmas or Thanksgiving. A holiday in this case is a trip or vacation, “enjoyable escapism” as Edwards says. Yet each story tells of a murder, “enjoyable escapism” for the reader who gets to watch a classic sleuth solve the crime in most of the stories. And, who better to kick off the anthology than Arthur Conan Doyle with the story of Sherlock Holmes’ case in Cornwall, “The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot”?

Edwards provides an introduction to each author and story. Some of the authors may be familiar to those who love older British mysteries. G.K. Chesterton and R. Austin Freeman have always been a couple of my favorites. And, somewhere or another I must have read Basil Thomson’s “The Vanishing of Mrs. Fraser” before. It’s just as fascinating as the first time I read it or something similar, the story of a young woman who leaves her ailing mother at a hotel, goes in search of help, and returns to find her mother gone, and the hotel staff denying everything. It’s a must-read.

The collection is part of the British Library Crime Classics series, edited by Edwards, and published in this country by Poisoned Pen Press. I have two mystery novels in the series, ones I haven’t had a chance to read yet. But, I’m looking forward to them.

Now that it’s summer, I’d recommend a trip back in time if you enjoy and appreciate the classic British mystery. Resorting to Murder will serve as an introduction to both well-known and lesser-known authors, and some stories you may not have seen elsewhere. Trust Martin Edwards to tell you the background of the stories and authors.

Martin Edwards’ website is www.martinedwardsbooks.com

Resorting to Murder edited by Martin Edwards. Poisoned Pen Press. 2015. ISBN 9781464203756 (paperback), 278p.

*****
FTC Full Disclosure -The publicist sent me a copy of the book, hoping I would review it.