Michael Sims’s The Penguin Book of Murder Mysteries (2023) is an anthology of 19th Century mystery stories. Some of the authors may be familiar to you: Ellen Glasgow and Charles W. Chesnutt for example. Others will be new to you as they were to me.
My favorite stories are “The Statement of Jared Johnson,” “The Case of the Pool of Blood in the Pastor’s Study,” and “An Intangible Clue.” In “The Statement of Jared Johnson,” Geraldine Bonner presents a mystifying death of a woman with the janitor of the building, Jared Johnson, accused of her murder. The resolution is clever and a bit surprising.
The story with the best title in The Penguin Book of Murder Mysteries is “The Case of the Pool of Blood in the Pastor’s Study” by Auguste Groner. Auguste Groner (1850-1929) started her writing career by publishing historical fiction and children’s books. But she moved on to inventing Josef Muller, the hero of the first series of police detective stories in the German language. In “The Case of the Pool of Blood in the Pastor’s Study” Muller investigates a pool of blood…but no body.
You might remember Anna Katharine Green from her novel The Leavenworth Case. Green also wrote stories about Violet Strange, a wealthy and moody New York City socialite who is drawn to cases that puzzle the police. In “An Intangible Clue,” Strange connects two dissimilar events to solve a murder.
Michael Sims provides detailed introductions to each story in The Penguin Book of Murder Mysteries providing information on the writers and putting their stories in context. If you’re a fan of 19th Century mystery stories, you’ll love The Penguin Book of Murder Mysteries. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction by Michael Sims — vii
A Note on the Text — xvii
The hand and word / by Gerald Griffin — 5
Guilty or not guilty? / by Thomas Waters (pseud.) — 41
Hanged by the neck / by Charles Martel (pseud.) — 61
The dead child’s leg / by James McLevy — 75
The judgement of conscience / by Andrew Forrester, Jr. (pseud.) — 91
The red room / by Mary Fortune — 123
Negative evidence / by Richard Dowling — 153
The sheriff’s children / by Charles W. Chestnut — 169
The murder at Troyte’s hill / by C.L. Pirkis — 193
The statement of Jared Johnson / by Geraldine Bonner — 221
A point in morals / by Elle Glasgow — 239
The case of the pool of blood in the pastor’s study / Auguste Groner — 255
An intangible clue / by Anna Katharine Green — 303
Acknowledgments — 325
I’ve read the better-known, and particularly US, contemporaries in cf, but might’ve read one story or two by the couple here whose names ring faint bells. Seon Manley and GoGo Lewis did some cf along with horror anthologies that focused on women writers that I took in in my early literate years, for example.
Todd, Michael Sims collects some stories and writers I’ve never heard of. You have to be a fan of 19th Century mystery stories for maximum enjoyment of THE PENGUIN BOOK OF MURDER MYSTERIES.
I don’t have my list with me here, but last year I read another of Sims’s edited Victorian short story collections, maybe (?) THE {PENGUIN BOOK OF VICTORIAN WOMEN IN CRIME. Will put this on the list, as occasionally I do like to read these older stories, especially in the short form.
In fact, now that I think of it after looking at the contents, this might be the one I read!
Jeff, Michael Sims has a couple other Penguin anthologies available. I’m impressed by his detailed introductions. Just as good as Martin Edwards!
Jeff, just by serendipity, I was reading an essay by Michael Sims where he was in the hospital and being treated for juvenile arthritis. He was wheel chair bound and discovered Sherlock Holmes while he was convalescing.
OK, I checked last year’s book and I did indeed read this right after Christmas.
So, never mind. Why I remembered – in college, I did a long paper on Ellen Glasgow, which entailed my reading most of her available books, including a memoir, short stories, and many of her novels. So when I saw her name, I remembered it was in the book
Jeff, Ellen Glasgow is an underrated writer. She did write some crime fiction in addition to her more conventional fiction.
I’m sure I’ll never run across a copy! My old friend Tough Jim Gaston liked these kinds of stories but he’s gone now! I will say that that’s the cheapest, cheesiest cover I’ve ever seen!
Bob, contemporary book covers lack the panache of book cover artwork of the 1960-1990s.