Edited by the long-experienced and gifted anthologist Martin Edwards, this collection features 22 stories from members of the distinguished Crime Writers Association. Some of these authors are deceased, although others are relatively newer. All are accomplished. Perhaps it is trite to say, "something here for everyone, " but it is nonetheless applicable.

The Crime Writers Association is a venerable society founded in 1953 to support, promote and celebrate the overarching crime genre. While based in the UK, it also has many members from other nations. It is perhaps best known nowadays for awarding the prestigious CWA Dagger awards, honoring the year’s best crime writing.

Since 1956, the CWA has published anthologies of its members’ writings, with Martin Edwards taking over editing duties in 1996. This year’s anthology is meant to be a retrospective collecting previously anthologized short stories representative of the history of the genre, from Michael Gilbert’s 1956 classic case of British detection Money Is Honey to Mick Herron’s 2008 story of a spy’s last mission in All She Wrote. With twenty-two tales altogether, this is a rich overview of the way crime stories have evolved over the decades, reflecting changes in the attitudes of both readers and writers with the times.

Though not placed at the beginning of the anthology, John Dickson Carr’s Footprint In The Sky (1940) is the oldest story here, and one of the few early pieces to feature a police detective instead of a civilian sleuth. Cops only figure as crime-solvers in six of these entries, nowhere more delightfully than in Paula Gosling’s retro police procedural The Perfect Alibi (1991) or poignantly than in Kate Ellis’ Dagger-nominated Top Deck (2005). Perhaps the most unusual “detective” here is the canine protagonist of Michael Z Lewin’s The Hand That Feeds Me (1994) which was one of my favorite stories as well as a terrific example of the comparatively small animal sleuth subgenre.

Arguably the most popular crime subgenre today, the psychological thriller is first represented in these pages by Celia Fremlin’s The Woman Who Had Everything (1975). A curiously sexist entry from one of the pioneers of the domestic thriller, it tells the tale of a career-minded diplomat’s unhappy young wife, who will go to great lengths to get his attention:

QUOTE
Had she indeed mysterious powers inside her -- an untested courage of which, in ordinary life, she knew nothing?

The courage, maybe, <i>actually</i> to commit suicide? Or even, just possibly, the courage to face the consequences of loving an ambitious, highly strung man stretched almost beyond his limits by responsibilities and pressures such as he had never known?
END QUOTE

Contrast this with the dissatisfied housewife of Anthea Fraser’s The Turning Point (1993) who might not be the greatest life partner but is certainly a far more interesting protagonist. That both stories deal with women accidentally stumbling across espionage plots only serves to underscore how far society has come in its valuation of a married woman’s agency.

Another cringe-worthy product of its time is 1985’s Inspector Ghote and the Noted British Author by HRF Keating. While this at least has the benefit of being the first story here set outside of the Anglo-Saxon fastnesses of Great Britain and America, it was also written by a white man who’d published eight novels about the native Indian police force before ever setting foot in the country. Compare this attitude with Marjorie Eccles’ The Egyptian Garden, published a scant 17 years later, with its far more respectful treatment of native peoples and mores, as well as its critical gaze on both colonialism and chauvinism:

QUOTE
[Mrs Palmer had been] utterly dismayed at the tarmac road that now ran towards the once remote, silent and awesome Valley of the Kings, at the noisome phalanxes of waiting coaches with their engines kept running for the air-conditioning, the throngs of people from the cruise ships queuing up for tickets to visit the tombs of the Pharoahs, which were lit by electric light. Before the war, when her husband had taken her to view the antiquities, they had sailed across the Nile in a <i>felucca</i> from Luxor, and traversed the rocky descent and on to the Valley of the Queens and the Temple of Hatshepsut by donkey, accompanied only by a dragoman. The silence had been complete. Now, they might just as well be visiting a theme park, she said tartly.

“They’re a poor people. The tourist industry’s important to them, Ursula,” Moira reminded her gently.
END QUOTE

Changing attitudes towards sexuality are also well-represented here, with far more homophobes being buried than gays. Villains abound as viewpoint characters from Simon Brett’s The Nuggy Bar (1982) onwards, though they don’t always get away with murder. There is only one outright historical mystery here, The Egyptian Garden’s 1940s references notwithstanding: the clever if entirely fictional Sins Of Scarlet by Robert Barnard (2006). For the most part, the stories here could have been set at nearly any time in the 20th century after World War I and before the advent of the technology that made the cellphone ubiquitous -- there are, in fact, rather hilarious references to early mobile phones in Frances Fyfield’s Cold And Deep (1994). Technology does not otherwise play a crucial role in the proceedings, lending this collection a decidedly vintage air.

Mr Edwards has done a good job of selecting short stories that truly cover the breadth and depth of CWA writing in and about the 20th century, showing how times have changed without papering over the flaws of previous decades. While these stories have all appeared in other collections, none of them have been anthologized to death, resulting in a book that should provide hours of entertainment and discovery for fans of mysteries and especially those with British roots and overtones.

Many Hugely Enjoyable, Some Clear Gems......
A wonderful anthology brought to us by the Crime Writers’ Association and edited by Martin Edwards. A celebration of members’ work, compiled from the 1950’s onwards. As an avid reader of crime fiction from the Golden Age this immediately appealed and I love the concept - there are many hugely enjoyable tales here, some clear gems and some impressive names. As one would expect, a mixed bag, mostly wholly entertaining.

I am a big fan of the golden age of mystery novels, so I jumped at the chance to read a collection of short stories reminding me of that time. ‘Vintage Crime’, edited by Martin Edwards, let me wallow in the genre for a few hours. The short story is perfect for tales of crime and mystery and I was impressed by the selection chosen for this book. The stories captured the feel of the times and there’s something to be said for going back to an era when the mystery story was at its pinnacle. I particularly liked ‘The Service Flat’ by Bill Knox and ‘Footprint in the Sky’ by John Dickson Carr. An enjoyable read.

I was given this ARC for review.

I confess, I wasn’t very careful, reading the synopsis for Vintage Crime. It does state “The book brings together stories from the mid-1950s until the twenty-first century by great names of the past, great names of the present” but I didn’t really assimilate the words. I just assumed, from the name, that it was a collection of old short stories, perhaps stretching as far as the 1960s. My mistake!

However, I am delighted that I made the mistake. I would probably have said “I don’t read modern crime fiction because there’s so much material from the Golden Age that I haven’t read yet.” And I would have missed the opportunity to read some cracking stories. The anthology is edited by the excellent Martin Edwards (no relation to me, as far as I know) and includes a brilliant story of his: Melusine.

There is humour: Money is Honey by Michael Gilbert opens the book and grabbed my attention on the first page when the lawyer is going up his client’s drive and sees a fox looking at him from the undergrowth. “The fox grinned, crossed the drive, and disappeared silently.”

There are only a few stories by authors that I have read before: apart from Edwards and Gilbert, I’ve read Julian Symons, John Dickson Carr, HRF Keating, Simon Brett and Frances Fyfield. However, the more recent stories are emphatically the equal of any Golden Age stories and my philosophy of only reading pre-1970 books was silly and prejudiced. Melusine may have been published in 2003, but it wouldn’t have been out of place sixty years earlier. Almost all the stories have a twist and, although some of them are foreseeable, many are not – and they are all beautifully done. The stories are timeless and I commend them to anyone with an interest in crime or detective fiction.

#VintageCrime #NetGalley

It took me ages to read this collection, I think for one negative and one positive reason (and, thankfully, the negative has probably already been rectified by the publisher during the publication process).

I tend to read short stories in between novels - often characters from a really good book stay with me, and I don't want to take them with me into my next read. Well-written short stories have to be attention grabbing, because they don't have the time of a full novel to be "slow-burners." They also have to have snappy endings so that they are memorable. So they are *great* ways to cleanse the mind. Because of this, my preferred way is to store them on my (ancient) kindle and dip in and out until eventually I have read the whole collection. Unfortunately, the ARC configuration didn't work for the contents listing on my kindle, so I had to do a lot of scrolling, which made me deprioritise reading stories from this collection. (Note: it was fine on the kindle app on my iPad, which is why I'm sure it's not an issue that will carry over into the final, published version).

The more positive reason it took me so long to read this collection is that they contain a wide range of authors - so, as you can imagine, I blasted through the well-known ones quite quickly and then took longer over the lesser-known ones. This was *great* as it allowed me to really appreciate them when I did.

Of course, when I say "well-known," I suppose what I really mean is "authors who are well-known *to me*," and my biggest "discovery" was actually Liza Cody, who, of course, is a multi-award winner from the CWA, and whose work I *had* seen without realising, although on the TV. Now I am looking forward to actually reading the Anna Lee series of books - Wikipedia says that the programmes were based "loosely" on Cody's books. In any case, I really enjoyed her writing style and wry humour in 'In Those Days,' and it made me want to read more.

Other stories I loved were 'The Egyptian Garden' by Marjorie Eccles, 'Interior with Corpse' by Peter Lovesey and 'Top Deck' by Kate Ellis. It's hard to write about short stories individually without giving spoilers, so I'll just say that why I liked these so much were that I felt straight into the world they wanted to create, which is both a necessity and an incredibly difficult feat to achieve in short form.

As an anthology, this really can't be faulted. I love Martin Edwards's work as an editor, and this is another prime example of how good he is. As always, I feel better educated about the genre after finishing reading (finally, with the prompting of publication date approaching and events being advertised on Twitter)!

A great compilation of stories I haven’t seen before, including a very good John Dickson Carr.
Anyone who likes Golden Agr mysteries will enjoy this.

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this book in return for a fair and honest review.

As a rule, I don't enjoy short stories as much as novels, because there's so much less room for character development and more complicated plots. Countering this, of course, is that if you're not enjoying a particular story, it will be finished quickly!

In this case, the stories were mainly what I would call "puzzle stories" - that is, a set of circumstances that has to be resolved in order to find out what happened. Think Agatha Christie. I happen to enjoy this type of mystery, so these stories were right up my alley!

Another interesting thing about this collection was that a number of stories were told from a first person perspective of the evil-doer. I always find those fascinating, because, try as I might, I generally find myself rooting for whoever is telling the story, even as I remind myself that "no, this is the villain, I shouldn't be rooting for them."

Many of the authors here are quite familiar, at least by name, even if I haven't read anything by them before - Michael Gilbert, Julian Symons, John Dickson Carr, Simon Brett, and so on. However, I was quite delighted to find stories by authors I had not read before, to get a chance to sample their work, and now to add them to my list of authors to look for. That's always a treat!

This book is not for those who want involved, twisty, psychological profiles - it's a gentler type of book. But if you like"golden age" mysteries, with puzzles to figure out, you'll enjoy this book. I certainly did!

Vintage Crime is an anthology of twenty-two short stories from the Crime Writers’ Association. They vary in age, length and content, a bit like the authors. The earliest published is from 1940; the most recent, 2008. The earlier stories are, understandably, more deductive in nature, relying less on trace evidence that later stories.

A variety of plots and formats are featured, including: a condolence letter to the surviving brother of a murdered woman; a PI who discovers treason; a Bombay detective lumbered with an irritating, inquisitive British novelist; a man, picked out of a line-up, who has too many alibis; and roadworks uncovering a thirty-year-old murder.

Especially clever or well plotted are: Simon Brett’s The Nuggy Bar, in which a widower’s plans to acquire his step-daughter’s fortune using a cleaning product development and launch manual; The Hand That Feeds Me by Michael Z. Lewin, in which a dog ensures three murderers will be held responsible; The Woman Who Loved Elizabeth David by Andrew Taylor, in which a new widow takes action when she discovers signs of marital infidelity.

Other excellent offerings are: Interior with Corpse by Peter Lovesey, where a Scene-of-Crime painting points to a fifty-year-old murder; Top Deck by Kate Ellis, whose young man aspiring to police work will be forced to face up; in All She Wrote, Mick Herron gives the report of a novice spy on a first assignment, with a nasty final twist.

Overall, the collection is a mixed bag: most stories are quite good; some are exceptional; as would be expected with a crime collection, there are plenty of twists and red herrings, and some outstanding detective work. Twenty-two little doses of crime fiction bound to appeal to fans of the genre.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Flame Tree Press.

Vintage Crime is a new anthology of vintage crime fiction from the Crime Writers Association edited by Martin Edwards. Due out 27th Aug 2020 from Flame Tree Press, it's 256 pages and will be available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

The CWA has produced numerous collections of members' works in the past, and this one is no exception. The difference here is that the works are chosen from the association's founding in 1953 to more or less the present day. The earliest story is copyright 1940 (John Dickson Carr's Footprints in the Sky), the newest 2008 (All She Wrote by Nick Harron). The authors represented are a mixed lot, many are instantly recognizable to everyone, some less familiar (and a few with whom I was previously completely unfamiliar).

One reason I prefer collections and anthologies is that short fiction is really challenging. It's spare and the author doesn't have a wealth of wordage to develop characters or the plotting. Well written short fiction is a delight. I also love anthologies because if one story doesn't really grab me, there's another story just a few pages away. Attributions and publication info are included at the end of the book along with short contributor bios.

For me, one of the biggest draws of these anthologies is the erudite and always interesting introductions by editor Martin Edwards. Mr. Edwards has a prodigious knowledge of the genre and writes engagingly and well.

Well written, this entry and the CWA anthologies as a whole are well worth seeking out. This would make a superlative selection for readers of the genre as well as an introduction to classic crime fiction from mid-20th century onward. I love that these collections have some very well known names from the genre alongside lesser known but worthy authors.

This would also make a fine selection for commute reading or short interludes.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I've always loved detective stories. Growing up, they were almost all I read. When I found a detective fiction class in college, I leapt at the chance to take it, to find new detectives to follow beyond Poe's creations and Christie's Poirot. There's just something so comforting in following the twists of a puzzle a piece at a time. As I got older, faithful Poirot was still by my side, but my crime solving tastes got a little darker. Instead of just wanting to catch the culprit, I wanted to know why they did what they did, and frequently the only stories revealing that in enough depth were written from their point of view. So, those were what I sought out and eventually began to write for myself.

Reading the Crime Writers' Association's Vintage Crime felt a little like retracing the path of my own love for crime stories. With stories spanning from the '50s to the 2000s, it's a unique opportunity to trace the development of detective fiction across the decades. The opening story, "Money is Honey" by Michael Gilbert, took me back to the cozy armchair mysteries I read on crisp nights, accompanied by firelight and cocoa. A family mystery, an insomniac detective, and incriminating bee stings…it all felt very comfortably Wilkie Collins-esque. The second story, "Strolling in the Square One Day" by Julian Symons, catapults us forward to the '50s, into the land of PI's, sultry, dangerous women, and murder most foul. Even with my comparatively small exposure to stories of this tone, I know detective noir when I see it, and "Square" is a strong show of its type.
The third offering, Bill Knox's "The Service Flat," is where things really begin to pick up speed and heighten tension. The first with a cliffhanger ending, it tells of a woman with Hitchcockian levels of paranoia who believes someone is invading her flat while she's away. One of my favorite stories on offer, it twists and turns on itself just when you think you've got it figured out, and then leaves you hanging breathlessly on a mystery it never resolves.

Vintage Crime is more than just detectives digging their way to the bottom of a question, however. Almost before we realize it's happening we are thrust into unique perspectives not often given -  as with Michael Z. Lewin's stand-out story, "Hand that Feeds Me," which appears to be from the POV of a dog - and into the depths of killers' minds. Lust, greed, envy, rage, Vintage Crime covers all the expected murder motivations, and offers some surprising twists to boot, presented in a range of formats.

Some of my favorite stand out stories with innovative formats and perspectives include: "In Too Deep" by Liza Cody, a letter to the brother of a dead woman, recounting the circumstances of his sister's death, though the how of it is never made clear; "The Nuggy Bar" by Simon Brett, the story of a man out to get his wife's fortune, told in the format of his product marketing bible; "Interior, with Corpse" by Peter Lovesey, a brilliant murder mystery plot with clues hidden in a painting A comfortable mix of the familiar and the modern, Vintage Crime proves crime stories have as much variety and lasting power as any other strain of horror fiction, and is sure to have something for everyone.

I would like to thank Flame Tree Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to review an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

I feel the same everytime I read a collection of short story books. I usually have some stories I like and some not so much. These are stories made me think of watching cold case shows with my mom. They are very classic crimes. Stories about killing family members for money in a will, black mail for money and more. Everyone is always looking for something and are willing to kill for it. While I enjoyed some of these stories, I don’t think they fit into the stories I like to read more. I think this collection will be prefect for a true crime lover and reader. 2/5 ⭐️ stars from me but i think it’s because I have more of a taste for the new psychology thrillers in the crime genre. Someone else could pick this up and love it immensely but it just wasn’t for me.

Vintage Crime is a fantastic group of short stories from English authors. One example - Egyptian Garden by Marjorie Eccles - cozy mystery author who has a number of series. The stories are all interesting and a way to find new authors. I have never been disappointed by any book with Martin Edwards as Editor. Nothing dramatic, but well written and enjoyable books.

At first glance, this book looks very interesting as I love a good mystery. However the stories included in the collection are extremely dull.

Vintage Crime is a selection of short stories from some of the best known crime writers.

As I find with all collections of short stories there are some which are more enjoyable than others and this is the case here however overall it is a decent selection of stories

Recommended

Usually I love this type of book, the chance to read short crime stories rather than a long, sometimes complicated full length thriller. This time however, it was a bit of a struggle with only one or two of the entries holding my attention.

In some of the stories the language grates a little but, other than that, there weren't any obvious problems with the writing it just felt as if I was missing something with this book. Hopefully others will enjoy it but, unfortunately, it wasn't for me.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an unbiased review but can't personally recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for an e-galley of this collection.

This anthology edited by Martin Edwards comes down to a so-so three star rating from me because there were quite a few stories included that either didn't appeal to me at all or were total skips. I cannot seem to get through an entire H.R.F. Keating Inspector Ghote story to save my life and the one here (Inspector Ghote and the Noted British Author) didn't break my record. Total skip because it just didn't appeal to me. There was one other story, The Perfect Alibi by Paula Gosling that I skipped to the end of. The remaining twenty stories were a mixture of light to moderate enjoyment with no stand-out story. I have to confess to being surprised. I read pretty much any collection Martin Edwards edits and have usually had great success with the anthologies he puts together. This one didn't do much for me so maybe this one is just a one-off and all will be well with the next collection.

An excellent example, well many excellent examples, of the evolution of crime writing as crime moved from vintage to current. The short, well written stories by some of the best authors of our times are perfect when you are looking for something new and/or different from the usual serial killers. As the crime genre moved from solving the crime through clues and hard work to phycological thrillers that make you sleep with the light on, the classic novels have been left behind. Find yourself a corner and jump into these, you won't regret it.

Vintage Crime is a mixed bag of stories from different eras which gives an interesting slant on style of mystery crime writing and the changes that have happened within this genre. Martin Edwards has lovingly put together a collection that shows the ebbs and flows.

All the short stories are very well written and some will excel for each reader more than others and this is more down to personal tastes. All the stories within are exceptional and it was interesting to see the change in context, writing style and over all procedures taking place whilst solving crimes. Personally, I did enjoy the older stories but as for style, I tended to warm more towards the stories that were written around the 40’s and after.

Overall, there are a lot of gems to cherish and it is good that some of these stories are being published again as many, I assume, probably have been lost or not seen the light of day unless you are a hardened fan to crime fiction. Each story is the right length to enjoy in one sitting and does drive you forward to read the next one in line.

Excellently put together, and overall an enjoyable reader that shows many different styles which keeps the genre well and truly alive.

The new Crime Writers' Association anthology Vintage Crime presents its contents more or less chronologically in order of publication, inviting the reader to look for topical and stylistic patterns as the stories and their authors push through the decades. In his introduction, editor Martin Edwards explains that the collection starts with the Association's founding in 1953 and continues into the early 21st century, "demonstrat[ing] the evolution of the crime short story during the CWA's existence." Upon finishing the anthology and reflecting on exactly what evolution I had witnessed, I suspect there were simply not enough species under the microscope to make any conclusive Darwinian assessments, even with the generous 22 stories featured here.

There is ample evidence to make some unsurprising genre generalizations, though. Once past the Second World War and into the 1950s, writer and reader appetites for clever Golden Age detective puzzles, once voracious, were on the wane. The earliest published story in Vintage Crime, and not coincidentally the one that reflects the foot most firmly on GAD ground, is "Footprint in the Sky" by John Dickson Carr. Another early story, Michael Gilbert's "Money is Honey" also features some old-school clueing, but after the first four entries, there's less interest in the body in the library than the body in the bed, and how the ensuing jealousy or spurning of a lover or spouse will lead to murder or death.

As such, the most elemental change to track in the field of crime fiction as represented by the tales is the transition from the mystery puzzle to the psychological crime story. Whether this change is a welcome or unwanted one depends on the reader, of course. But it is no accident that Story Number Five, "The Woman Who Had Everything" by Celia Fremlin, is all about Getting Inside the Protagonist's Noggin. Quoth the Fremlin:

"He never thought about anything else any more, at home or away: a far cry from those golden holidays in the first years of their marriage, when he'd sit or lie beside her hour after hour, rubbing oil on her brown body, murmuring into her ear nonsense to make her laugh or endearments to make her glow – face down on the hot sand – with secret joy."

Will Maggie's suicide attempt finally bestir husband Rodney's love for her once more? (This is not a spoiler; this is the plot of the story.) Other pieces take a similar approach, such as "Turning Point" by Anthea Fraser, which evokes sympathy for a woman contemplating an affair as escape from a loveless marriage. There's nothing wrong with trying to align the reader emotionally with key characters; not doing so was a valid criticism of much classic mystery fiction, where suspects and detective were pushed around clinically like pieces on a chessboard. But when the crime aspect replaces the mystery aspect, then the writing succeeds or fails based on personal interest instead of puzzle ingenuity. And not every story in Vintage Crime felt satisfying, but here are the ones I (subjectively) single out as most memorable:

"The Nuggy Bar" by Simon Brett – fans of Brett's theater-set Charles Paris series already know of his dry wit and darkly comic view of life and death. Here we have a great satiric send-up involving a middle manager for a cleaning product company and his decision to plan a murder literally by the book – in this case, using a handbook of business precepts meant to shepherd the shaping and launch of a new product.

"The Hand That Feeds Me" by Michael Z. Lewin – a gimmick, but a good one whose brevity doesn't overstay its premise. A stray dog (who narrates) delivers an unconventional justice to avenge the death of a homeless stranger who was kind to him.

"Cold and Deep" by Frances Fyfield – puppies don't fare well at all, but this slow-but-smoldering tale sets up a confrontation between an earnest young woman and her sadistic in-law that builds to a satisfying, haunting climax.

"Interior, with Corpse" by Peter Lovesey – one of only a few post-1950 stories in the mix that gives a nod to sleuthing and detection, and the premise is delicious: a very detailed rendering of a crime scene shows up in an art gallery as part of a deceased painter's collection. The problem is that the picture's setting is recognizably the home of an esteemed retired fighter pilot and the dead woman looks eerily like someone who disappeared from the village decades ago.

And Martin Edwards provides "Melusine", an uncomfortably dystopian tale of a plague ravaging Britain's livestock. As the protagonist kills diseased sheep and cattle in countless numbers, he wonders just how close his wife and his drinking buddy have become.

Other honorable mentions: The H.R.F. Keating story "Inspector Ghote and the Noted British Author" follows his likeable Indian inspector as he contends with an irritating Western celebrity as a guest; "The Egyptian Garden" by Marjorie Eccles sketches a bittersweet friendship between a socialite living in Egypt and her young and bright servant; and Mick Herron provides a 21st-century character twist within "All She Wrote," a 2008 story that subverts expectations but feels more technical than immediate.

With such variety, it's a good bet that readers will find something, or a number of somethings, to like here. As the car commercials say, actual mileage may vary. Vintage Crime will be released in the U.S. on August 11 by Flame Tree Press. I received an advanced reading copy of this title via NetGalley in order to provide an honest review.