Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits (Mammoth Book of S.) (v. 3) [Paperback]

Mike Ashley (Author)

Book Description

Series: Mammoth Book of S. | Publication Date: June 23, 2005

The third new collection of historical murder and mystery stories A brilliant new collection of thirty stories of mystery and intrigue spread over three thousand years, from Ancient Egypt to spies on the Titanic. Selected by bestselling editor Mike Ashley, the stories include brand new contributions as well as rare reprints, from writers such as Ian Rankin, Lynda Robinson, Sharan Newman, Gail Frazer, Gillian Linscott and Peter Tremayne. Among the characters featured are the Queen of Sheba, Attila the Hun, Hildegarde of Bingen, Geoffrey Chaucer, Henry the Navigator and Benjamin Franklin. And with settings as far-ranging as Botany Bay and ancient Pisa, New Amsterdam and old Edinburgh, ancient Greece and the court of Kublai Khan.

Editorial Reviews

Review

" 'Reveals the strength and ingenuity of this sub-section of the whodunnit genre... Great fun.' Good Book Guide 'This splendid anthology of nineteen enigmatic mysteries will enthrall and enchant all devotees and newcomers to this genre.' Ralph Travis, Crime Time"

About the Author

Mike Ashley is editor of previous volumes of The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits, as well as The Mammoth Book of Roaring Twenties Whodunnits and The Mammoth Book of Roman Whodunnits.

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Robinson Publishing; Revised edition (June 23, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1845290046
• ISBN-13: 978-1845290047
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,269,721 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some good stories made this worth reading, January 27, 2008

By 

M. Ottati "Rosario's Reading Journal (http://... (Liverpool, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits (Mammoth Book of S.) (v. 3) (Paperback)

In this collection of historical mysteries, the settings vary wildly. From Ancient times to 1912, and from Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa to North America. I think the only ones not represented are Latin America and Antarctica

And just as the locales and the time periods vary wildly, so does the quality of the stories.

At the beginning, I got worried because I noticed that in every single one of the stories the crime-solving seemed unbelievable and forced, especially the introduction of the detectives. Say, someone was asked to solve a crime because they were foreigners and therefore either impartial (His Master's Servant, by Philip Boast) or trained in logic (The Judgement of the Gods, by Rob Reginald). Hmmm, really? In all of these the setting was fascinating and well done, but I wasn't that impressed by the stories themselves.

Things got better when I got to Ancient Rome. I loved Cupid's Arrow, by Marilyn Todd. This story is part of an ongoing series about Claudia Seferius, a former prostitute who married a rich old man and is now herself very rich and a widow. Claudia is a fantastic character, and the references to past events, as well as a relationship with an aristocratic "policeman" (sorry, can't remember the term used for him here, but that's what he was), with whom she seems to have quite a bit of history, left me wild to read the rest of her books.

I also liked The Spiteful Shadow, by Peter Tremayne. It's set in Celtic Ireland, and features Sister Fidelma, who I understand has had quite a few other adventures. It was a neat little mystery, with a young woman who hears voices and is accused of having murdered someone because those voices told her to.

Which other stories were good? I liked The Witching Hour, by Martin Edwards, about a trial for witchcraft and a clerk determined to prove the accused's innocence. And I also enjoyed The Abolitionist, by Lynda S. Robinson, set in Virginia at the eve of the American Civil War. It's about the murder of the son of a socially prominent family, a man who's an abolitionist and insists on confronting slave owners about the evil of their ways. This was one of the very few stories in which I felt a true sense of tragedy, and the ending was fantastic.

And that was it, the rest were either bad or mediocre. For some, the setting compensated for mysteries that were not quite good enough, like The Serpent's Back, exploring the underbelly of 18th century Edinburgh, or Botanist at Bay, in Australia at the time Botany Bay was a penal colony.

A few I couldn't finish. For instance, The Dutchman and the Wrongful Heir, by Maan Meyers. In this case, the fascinating setting, in 17th century New Amsterdam (now New York), right after it passed from Dutch to English control, didn't compensate for a majorly boring story. Also Footprints, by Jeffery Farnol, which I abandoned as unreadable after a couple of pages in which I cringed every time the main character opened his mouth because the dialect was just painful to read.

Quite a lot of stories I didn't like at all, like If Serpents Envious, by Clayton Emery. This one's set in Colonial America and concerns two slaves accused of murdering their master. Every single character in the story was evil and unpleasant and horrible, except for the detective.

And there were a few bad stories right after this one, so maybe I should conclude that historical American settings don't do much for me. The Uninvited Guest, by Edward Hoch and Benjamin's Trap, by Richard Moquist were mysteries so humdrum that I felt I'd completely wasted the time I spent reading them. As for the story by Melville Davisson Post featuring Uncle Abner, I intensely disliked the judgemental bent of the detective. The Abolitionist is the only exception. I also disliked The Gentleman on the Titanic, by John Lutz, where the intrigues and counterintrigues of British and German agents become mind-numbingly boring.

Something I noticed and that I don't like at all is having real historical characters as detectives. Mary Reed and Eric Mayer use Herodotus, Cherith Baldry has Geoffrey Chaucer, Sarah Hoyt features Henry the Navigator (a Portuguese prince) and Benjamin Franklin detects in Richard Moquist's story. And in each of those stories, having this particular historical figure as the detective added absolutely nothing. It was just a gimmick, and gimmicks piss me off.

How about having a real historical figure in the story, but not as the detective? Well, I can like it or not, depends on the story and on whether it adds something. In Jean Davidson's Death in the Desert, we had the Queen of Sheba, and that was key to constructing the background of the story. In The Jester and the Mathematician, by Alan R. Gordon, OTOH, having mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci there was pointless, and it made the story feel silly.

So, I'm giving the whole collection three stars, but I appreciated discovering a few authors I'll be reading again.