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

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Every Christmas I treat myself to anthologies of murder mysteries from the Golden Age (sometimes beyond) and this proved to be a very solid and entertaining example of said type. The Michael Innes story is also great - less wordy than his full-length Appleby novels, and very clever. 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. What you do get though is ten early to mid-twentieth century, male centric murder tales with a tenuous link to winter. The sub-title "Ten Classic Crime Stories" gives it away that Cecily Gayford put these stories together.

The seasonal murder book market is flooded and there’s a whiff of barrel scraping here but, despite that, some major authors are included.Some of the stories are also in other collections - I really like The Mystery of Felwyn Tunnel by L. T. Meade and Robert Eustace, possibly the standout story here for me, but I remembered it fairly well from reading it somewhere else, possibly in one of the British Library collections. Sleuths on the Scent by Dorothy Sayers - in which the solution hinged on the detective and reader on observed details. Though the stories are certainly classics, some of them haven't quite maintained their appeal and intrigue into our modern times.

Some of the other stories are less good and I didn't really like the Father Brown story that's included at all. Off the Tile by Ianthe Jerrold - a good story that I came across in another anthology: Crimson Snow: Winter Mysteries. I had read the four longest entries before but was quite happy to read them all again ; the remaining six very short stories were fine. All of these classic stories have their merit, but I think the seasonal theme is sometimes stretched a little too far, with one of the stories set in late October – cold though the featured lonely signal box no doubt is! There's no overall introduction, there's no introduction to any of the individual stories, it's just the stories.My favourites in this were the Sherlock Holmes (which I've read many times), The Chopham Affair, and Haunted House, but my absolute favourite was The Mystery of Felwyn Tunnel, which is very like The Signalman by Charles Dickens, a story that I love. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Unbelievably, this is the seventh seasonal collection in this series of cosy crime short stories edited by Cecily Gayford. Perhaps a bit more than just the title and author, even just the date first published (even the credits at the back of the book only mentions 4 of the stories and no dates), would have been the icing on the cake.

This collection of short winter chills boasts tales from GK Chesterton, Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy L Sayers and more. Perfect to dip in and out of between other festivities and I am building my collection of this joyous series!Loved the plots and characters, such of which would not look out of place on a television adaptation now. Following the workings of the great mind of Sherlock Holmes is always enjoyable, and here we have The Adventure of Abbey Grange, a satisfactory case that allows Holmes to display his superiority and magnanimity, and Dr Watson his common sense and general dullness. Haunted House by Gladys Mitchell - in which a woman's murder on a snowy night in her supposed haunted house is resolved to be all too human.