Murder in the Falling Snow: Ten Classic Crime Stories (Vintage Murders)

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Perfect to dip in and out of between other festivities and I am building my collection of this joyous series!

But for shivers down the spine, the opener Haunted House by Gladys Mitchell is well worth reading by candlelight before turning in on Christmas Eve. Austin Freeman - in which a woman is murdered and finding her killer may hinge on finding a cat, a dog and a monkey. Well I just inhale short stories at Christmas, there is just something about cold winter nights, curled up in front of the fire, solving murders from the sofa! This series of books, being a collection of murder stories by well known authors, is a regular Christmas present for my wife. I liked the vast majority of this collection and there are some authors in here that I will definitely read from again.In The Mystery of Felwyn Tunnel by LT Meade and Robert Eustace, our narrator investigates the mysterious deaths of two signalmen on a remote section of the mountainous Welsh railway. I also liked the Sayers story starring her lesser-known detective, commercial traveller Montague Egg, and the Sherlock Holmes story, though I'd read both of these before. There is no information given about the authors or the background to the stories, and some authors are better known than others, e. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

The Chesterton was a bit boring and since most of the action was set in South America, seemed a weird inclusion. It begins with the description of the cushy and immoral life of an international gigolo and ends with justice being dealt out on a cold, snowy Christmas Eve in freezing London. T. Meade and Robert Eustace - a very good story in which murder is suspected near a train tunnel in winter but the solution is completely natural. I would have like a little biographical section about each author and some mention as to why each story was chosen. The Chopham Affair by Edgar Wallace - in which a blackmailer of ladies meets his end on a snowy night by a roadside with a fantastic twist in the end.

An enjoyable quick read, it's just 182 pages, the stories all work, some better than others, of course.

Some of the stories are a little obscure, but I really enjoyed The Chopham Affair, The Adventure of the Abbey Grange and The Mystery of Felwyn Tunnel. These are mainly set in the last century but I love the old fashioned settings, the way people spoke, the simplicity of life and the hardship of it before the health service, before the welfare state.Outstanding is The Chopham Affair by Edgar Wallace, in which a smooth-talking conman finally picks the wrong mark. The Adventure of Abbey Grange' by Conan Doyle - Sherlock Holmes chooses to play judge and jury, after his detective work is done . The Mystery of Fellwyn Tunnel' by L T Meade and Robert Eustace - a railway signalman dies in mysterious and ghostly circumstances, but scientific investigator John Bell is not convinced . A pretty ragtag selection, all told, with only Conan Doyle’s ‘The Adventure of the Abbey Grange’ and Edgar Wallace’s sneakily structured ‘The Clapham Affair’ truly standing out.