FORGOTTEN BOOK: GREAT SHORT STORIES OF DETECTION, MYSTERY AND HORROR, THIRD SERIES (1934)

Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror, Third Series edited by Dorothy L. Sayers


In the third and final anthology in this series Sayers presents another doorstop (1069 pages!) collection of great stories, many of them unjustly forgotten.  In the US these anthologies were published as The Omnibus of Crime (First through Third Series) with somewhat different contents.

The line-up:

DETECTION AND MYSTERY

• "The Perfect Murder" by Stacy Aumonier (from The Strand Magazine, 1926)
• "Stain!" by Alex. Barber (from The Story-Teller, 1931)
• "The Bullett" by J. J. Bell (from The Strand Magazine, 1926)
• "The Mystery of the Child's Toy" by Leslie Charteris (from Boodle, Hodder & Stoughton, 1934)
• "Poker-Face" by Carl Clauson (from The Strand Magazine, 1926)
• "The Level Crossing" by Freeman Wills Croft (from The Cornhill Magazine, 1933)
• "The Brown Sandwich" by St. John Ervine (from The Story-Teller, 1933)
• "The Judge Corroborates" by J. S. Fletcher (from The Malachite Jar, Collins, 1930)
• "The Echo of a Mutiny" by R. Austin Freeman (from The Singing Bone, Hodder & Stoughton, 1912)
• "The Perfect Crime" by Ormond Grenville (from Pearson's Magazine, 1932)
• "No Man's Hour" by Laurence Kirk (from The Passing Show, 1933)
• "Blind Justice" by Ethelreda Lewis (from The Strand Magazine, 1928)
• "Saxophone Solo" by G. R. Malloch (from Cassell's Magazine, 1931)
• "Wilful Murder" by H. A. Manhood (from Apples by Night, 1932)
• "Member of the Jury" by John Millard (from The Story-Teller, 1933)
• "The Blue Trout" by Basil Mitchell (from Pearson's Magazine, 1933)
• "A Sleeping Draught" by Anthony Parsons (from The Strand Magazine, 1929)
• "Wet Paint" by Robert E. Pinkerton (from Pearson's Magazine, 1932)
• "The Wrong Hand" by Melville Davisson Post (from Uncle Abner, D. Appleton-Century Co., 1918)
• "On the Irish Mail" by Garnet Radcliffe (from The Windsor Magazine, 1931)
• "Risk" by Margery Sharp (from The Strand Magazine, 1933)
• "Leading Light" by Frederick Skerry (from The Strand Magazine, 1931)
• "The Leak" by Harold Steevens (from The Strand Magazine, 1928)
• "The Missing Undergraduate" by Henry Wade (from Policeman's Lot, Constable, 1933)
• "Buttons" by E. M. Winch (from Pearson's Magazine, 1933)
• "Inquest" by Loel Yeo (from The Strand Magazine, 1932)
• "A Busman's Holiday" by Francis Brett Young (from The Cage Bird and Other Stories, Heinemann, 1933)

STORIES OF MYSTERY AND HORROR

• "The 19 Club" by A. J. Alan (from A. J. Alan's Second Book, Hutchinson, 1932)
• "Sombrero" by Martin Armstrong (from The Fiery Dive and Other Stories, Gollancz, 1929)
• "Lord Mount Prospect" by John Betjeman (from The London Mercury, 1929)
• "The Wendigo" by Algernon Blackwood (from The Lost Valley, Nash & Grayson, 1910 [Grayson & Grayson])
• "A Song in the House" by Ann Bridge (from The Cornhill Magazine, 1933)
• "Couching at the Door" by D. K. Broster (from The Cornhill Magazine, 1933)
• "The Dumb Wife" by Thomas Burke (from Whispering Windows, 1921)
• "The Bargain" by A. M. Burrage (original to this anthology)
• "Arabesque:  The Mouse" by A. E. Coppard (from Adam and Eve and Pinch Me, Jonathan Cape, 1921)
• "The Mistaken Fury" by Oswald Couldrey (from The Mistaken Fury and Other Lapses, Blackwell, 1914)
• "Sophy Mason Comes Back" by E. L. Delafield (from Time and Tide, 1930)
• "Our Distant Cousins" by Lord Dunsany (from The Travel Tales of Mr. Joseph Jorkens, Putnam, 1931)
• "A Jungle Graduate" by James Francis Dwyer (from The Story-Teller, 1932)
• "The Scoop" by Leonora Gregory (from The Passing Show, 1933)
• "The House of Desolation" by Alan Griff (from The Cornhill Magazine, 1934)
• "The Island" by L. P. Hartley (from Night Fears, Putnam, 1924)
• "Double Demon" by William Fryer Harvey (from Moods and Tenses, Blackwell, 1933)
• "The Book" by Margaret Irwin (from The London Mercury, 1930)
• "The Interruption" by W. W. Jacobs (from Sea Whispers, Hodder & Stoughton, 1926)
• "The Diary of Mr. Poynter" by M. R. James (from A Thin Ghost and Others, Arnold, 1919)
• " 'You'll Come to the Tree in the End' " by Cyril Landon (from The Novel Magazine, 1931)
• "Time-Fuse" by John Metcalfe (from Judas and Other Stories, Constable, 1931)
• "Decay" by J. C. Moore (from King Carnival, Dent, 1933)
• "Stowaway" by Claire D. Pollexfen (from The Story-Teller, 1931)
•  "A Pair of Hands" by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (from Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts, Cassell, 1910; Dent [Duchy Edition], 1928)
• "The Hill" by R.Ellis Roberts (from The Other End, Palmer, 1923)
• "The Pattern" by Naomi Royde-Smith (from Madame Julia's Tale, Gollancz, 1932)
• "What Can a Dead Man Do?" by Herbert Shaw (from The Strand Magazine, 1928)
• "The Virtuoso" by Vincent Sheean (from The Story-Teller, 1933)
• "No Ships Pass" by Lady Eleanor Smith (from The Story-Teller, 1932)
• "The Idol with Hands of Clay" by Sir Frederick Treves (from The Elephant Man, Cassell. 1923)
• "The Frontier Guards" by H. Russell Wakefield (from Imagine a Man in a Box, Philip Allan, 1931; also published in Ghost Stories, Jonathan Cape, 1932)
• "The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham" by H. G. Wells (from The Idler, 1896; Collected Edition:  Dent, 1927)
• "Witch-Trot Pond" by Ben Ames Williams (from The Story-Teller, 1931)
• "Anniversary" by Clarence Winchester (from The Story-Teller, 1932)

On her blog this week, Patti Abbott asked what constitutes a mystery.  For Sayers, the lines are blurred.  This anthology covers the mystery story from multiple directions, from crime and detection to both real and supernatural horrors.  Many of the authors are still well-known today and most were very popular in their time.  (There are a few I'm unfamiliar with.)  Some of the stories are tarnished by age but most hold up very well.  For fans of the Golden Age of Detection (that is, the years between World Wars I and II) there is a lot here to enjoy.  (BTW, Martin Edwards has a new book out, The Golden Age of Detection, which is highly recommended.)   For fans of the weird tale, there is some pretty scary stuff.

In short, there is something here for almost every taste, solid tales that range from good to great.  All three of Sayers' anthologies (and their American counterparts) will provide hours of pleasure.

Recommended.