With this post I have finally completed my short story collection reading goal for 2024. Back in January I posted about my intention to read a short story collection each month in order to reduce my TBR pile and it has been a worthwhile plan as I have come across some great short stories in the process. Before the end of the year, I am going to do a roundup post, perhaps ranking the collections and/or picking out my favourite stories from the anthologies.
One difference with the structure of this British Library Crime Classics collection is that the stories are not in chronological order. Martin Edwards in his general introduction for the anthology writes that instead the stories were placed in an ‘order to emphasise that all-important element of variety between one story and the next.’ I liked this idea but I am not sure how well it worked with this particular theme, as Christmas mysteries tend to include a lot of thefts, false identities and Santas who are crooks or victims, which rather reduces the range of variety.
How do you like stories to be ordered in a collection? Or is this not important to you?
Story No. 1: ‘On the Irish Mail’ (1931) by Garnett Radcliffe
Radcliffe was an Irish author who ‘served in India on the North-West Frontier and with the RAF in South Arabia and Socotra, before becoming a civil servant. As a novelist and author of short stories, he ranged from detective stories – in the early 1930s he was a regular contributor to Detective Fiction Weekly – and adventure stories and thrillers (sometimes published under the name Stephen Travers) to sci-fi. During the 1950s, he contributed several stories to Weird Tales.’ I wonder do fiction writer diversify as much these days? Or is now more important to create a “brand” for yourself? This story was included in Great Short Stories of Mystery, Detection, Horror (1934), which was put together by Dorothy L. Sayers.
Dick Fenton is travelling home to see his parents in Dublin for Christmas. Due to work commitments, he has had to leave it until Christmas Eve before he can make the journey. His plan is to take the night mail train from Euston. In the train carriage, there are four other men from various walks of life. Thirty minutes into the trip one of the men opens a hand-grip and declares:
“Gentlemen,” said the big man, “I am sorry to interrupt you. Three of you are innocent men, but one of you is a crookster known as Jim Dawson. This bag was snatched this afternoon from the counter of Coulter’s Bank. It contained two hundred pounds. It has been proved that the robbery was the work of Jim Dawson. Any one of you may be Jim Dawson in disguise.”
But which one is Jim? And how will the innocent passengers prove their identities, so they don’t miss their boat. I think this is a nicely written tale, although the solution is easy to anticipate.
Story No. 2: ‘The Christmas Thief’ (1911) by Frank Howel Evans
This tale was first published in Chums, a newspaper for boys. Frank Howel Evans wrote for many other publications though such as Hutchinson’s Mystery Magazine and Murder Mysteries. He also wrote some of the Sexton Blake stories. Martin Edwards writes that:
‘[…] Evans is most widely remembered as the creator of Monsieur Jules Poiret, “late of the French Secret Service”, but based in Britain. Poiret came into being more than a decade before Agatha Christie created a rather better-known Belgian with a strikingly similar surname.’
However, Martin contends that there is a lack of ‘evidence and credibility’ for arguments that Christie ‘“stole” the concept of the character from Evans […]’
This tale begins with two down and outs in London, Harry Marchbanks and Thomas Harrop, who are struggling to survive after losing their jobs:
“Anyway, let’s get out of the Strand, where everybody seems to have plenty of money and the sight of the motor-cars and the warm coats makes me feel inclined to commit murder or bigamy or whatever they call it. But, seriously, old sport, we might pick up a dinner ticket for Christmas Day down there. there are a lot of charitable people about […]”
[…] the spirit of Christmas hung over everything, and the two lads, without a solitary penny in their pockets, tried to put a cheerful face on it and think that they were not next door to starvation.’
The opening shows a different side to Christmas, as the two men have not eaten for 24 hours, and they are set apart from the Christmas fun the other characters are enjoying. I wouldn’t say these characters are working-class, more just down on their luck lower-middle, but nevertheless, I did find this story interesting for the poverty it depicts. Did Christmas mysteries become more middle/upper class during the interwar “GAD” years? If I had to think of stories that involve poorer or more financially precarious characters, then my mind tends to remember earlier, pre-GAD, stories such as those in the Sexton Blake canon and Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle’. But my memory might be playing tricks on me.
Thomas and Harry decide to intervene in a fight, and they receive a small reward for their efforts, and are given an address by the victim. Not long afterwards they are approached by Chief Detective Inspector Fronde of Scotland Yard who has a professional interest in Monsieur Naumont, the mugging victim. Fronde states that Naumont is an imposter, who is trying to run a swindle on a large scale. But is this really the case? I think this story operates more as a thriller and has a “boys’ own adventure” feel to it.
Story No. 3: ‘The Christmas Spirit’ (1964) by Anthony Gilbert
The first publication of this story was in the Christmas issue of the Illustrated London News. The narrator bumps into an old RAF colleague named Charlie Sedley, after a 16-year gap. Charlie is now the landlord of a pub in a remote area. The narrator and his wife end up spending Christmas at the pub, which has a ghostly legend attached to it, involving the disappearance of the original owner’s wife. In some ways this is a ghost story that gets out of hand and the resolution necessitates a great deal of explaining to the reader.
Story No. 4: ‘Among Those Present was Santa Claus’ (1952) by Vincent Cornier
This story was originally published in the Huddersfield Examiner and begins with the tail-end of a children’s Christmas party being hosted by Lord Betwode. Hired for the occasion is a retired police officer called Mr Burnicle, who now performs as Father Christmas, to stave off loneliness. Lord Betwode also wants Mr Burnicle to use skills from his previous employment to get to the bottom of a series of thefts that have taken place at Lord Betwode’s home in the Cotswolds during the course of the year. The reader is then told that:
‘“Inspired” by the year-long problem of the thefts, Lord Betwode had staged a “burglary” for after-dinner entertainment. Burnicle was to play Santa Claus and give each guest his or her present. Then, with lights lowered, one of the younger members of the party had to stage a melodramatic “burglary”. The “victims” had to identify the “thief”… If so – Mr. Burglar paid forfeit. If not – if Mr. Burglar got away with it – the “victims” had to pay his car licence for a year and look pleasant about it, too.”
It is during this later event that Mr Burnicle discovers the real thief. The solution relies on information we are not privy to, but the story is nicely told.
Story No. 5: ‘Gold, Frankincense, and Murder’ (1995) by Catherine Aird
This story was included in the anthology, A Classic Christmas Crime, which was edited by Tim Heald, and it is a first for the British Library Crime Classics series, in that it was written by an author who was still alive at the time of the anthology being published. [Sadly, Aird passed away a couple of days ago].
Henry Tyler works at the Foreign Office and the story commences with him phoning his sister, trying to wiggle out of going to hers for Christmas. Naturally, he fails, but the conversation is an excellent opportunity for some gentle humour:
“Ah, the children,” said the doting uncle, “And what is it that they want Father Christmas to bring this year?”
“Edward wants a model railway engine for his set.”
“Does he indeed?”
“A Hornby LMS red engine called ‘Princess Elizabeth’,” said Wendy Witherington readily. “it’s a 4-6-2.”
Henry made a note, marvelling that his sister, who seemed totally unable to differentiate between the Baltic and the Balkans – and quite probably the Balearics as well – had the details of a child’s model train absolutely at her fingertips.
“And Jennifer?” he asked.
Wendy sighed. “The Good Ship Lollipop. Oh, and when you come, Henry, you’d better be able to explain to her how it is that while she could see Shirley Temple at the pictures – we took her last week – Shirley Temple couldn’t see her.”
Henry, who had devoted a great deal of time in the last ten days trying to explain to a Minister in His Majesty’s Government exactly what Monsieur Pierre Laval might have in mind for the best future of France, said he would do his best.’
Another fun example is when Henry is asked how he will avoid lying if he gets asked by the children if he was the one dressed up as Santa Claus:
“I shall hope,” replied Henry, “to remain true to the traditions of the Foreign Service and give an answer that is at one and the same time absolutely correct and totally meaningless…”
The crime in this story comes in the form of poisoned mince pies, at the end of a festive get together. Several guests are poorly, but only one dies. I enjoyed Aird’s writing style, although I think readers will be able to piece the solution together quite quickly.
Story No. 6: ‘Secrets in the Snow’ (1942) by J. Jefferson Farjeon
Farjeon became much more well-known once his novel Mystery in White (1937) was reprinted, and Martin notes that the setup of ‘Secrets in the Snow’ ‘owes something to’ that novel. The story kicks off with two passengers (on a coach) deciding to finish their journey on foot due to snow drifts blocking the road, as they were meant to be getting off at the next stop. The pair are ill-assorted as the man is very uncommunicative and doesn’t want Janet around. He hints that it would be dangerous to follow him, but Janet ignores his warning. Stranger danger matters not a jot when you have a house party to attend!
Janet manages to lose sight of him, although she notices a new set of footprints, and she ends up at a house where she encounters a yokel who claims to be the caretaker. Yet something is not quite adding up. Janet plunges headfirst into danger wholesale and retail in this story. The solution is expected, but I found the final sombre note of the tale interesting, as the author doesn’t opt for the full-on jolly ending.
Story No. 7: ‘Who Killed Father Christmas? (1980) by Patricia Moyes
Moyes’ story first appeared in Whodunnit? and it is centred on an undergraduate named Mr Borrowdale, who is working at Barnum and Thrums toy department store during the Christmas holidays. He sees it as a little beneath him:
‘Gone, I fear, are the days when undergraduates were the gilded youth of England. We all have to work our passages these days, and sometimes it means selling toys.’
He is not popular with some of the other staff members, such as Miss MacArthur. Several staff including these two are keen to use their staff discount to buy one of the teddy bears from the new stock.
The store has hired a Santa Claus, yet today his roommate is standing in for him. There is also an unusual customer request for Santa, as instead of one of the cheaper gifts being handed out, one customer has paid to have one of the teddy bears given to their daughter when they visit Santa later that day. Generous parent or is something fishy going on? Unfortunately, the first customer discovers that Santa has been stabbed. Was the roommate the intended victim or killed erroneously? The ending is a little sudden and there is one clue which I don’t think is developed enough to be fair.
Story No. 8: ‘Death at Christmas’ (1959) by Glyn Daniel
Martin came across this story when he was ‘researching material for the British Library Crime Classics anthology Crimes of Cymru’ and he found it in a collection called Welsh Short Stories (1959), which was edited by George Ewart Evans.
The mystery is told in the first person by an academic named Dilwyn Rees, which was also a penname for Glyn Daniel, who was also an academic… I enjoyed the opening of the tale, as it does a good job of sounding intriguing, suggesting that the story that follows is unsettling in that it is hard to know what truly happened last Christmas.
Christmas night last year saw Dilwyn and five other colleagues dining at their college. The narrator and Peter Dickson leave the others playing bridge. Peter is a widow, whose wife died, on Christmas Day, two years ago, in a car accident that they were both in. He is planning on returning home, despite the danger of the snow. Peter tells Dilwyn about the crash and what happened last Christmas, involving a ghostly presence. Dilwyn is left on edge and is shocked to learn on Boxing Day that Peter had died the night before when he got home. I would say this is a genre slipping story.
Story No. 9: ‘Scotland Yard’s Christmas’ (1957) by John Dickson Carr
I was interested to learn about some of the background to this story in Martin’s introduction:
‘It was first published in Weekend, December 25-29 1957, as “Detective’s Day Off”, but we are using Carr’s original title […] Douglas G. Greene has said the story does: “have a number of distinctly Carrian touches, including an attempt to solve a puzzle propounded to him years earlier by […] Clayton Rawson – how can a person disappear from a telephone booth that is constantly under observation? I suspect that the publishers cut Carr’s typescript drastically; especially the solution, which (most unlike Carr’s work) is short and unclear.” Green has explained that the story had only been reprinted twice since its first appearance – by Jack Adrian in Crime at Christmas and by Greene himself in Merrivale, March, and Murder. Intriguingly both editors felt it necessary to add paragraphs to the original printed story to clear up the solution.’
It is Greene’s version that is used in this anthology. Detective Superintendent Robert Pollard is taking his fiancée Elsa Rawson and her nephew to a toy fair at Toyland in Omnium, an Oxford Street department store. He is distracted because he is worrying about a case at work where ‘two people, at exactly the same moment, but in completely different parts of London’ disappeared at the same time when they were under observation from the police. The two people are thieves, The Colonel and Shorty, who are involved in the theft of £20,000 worth of uncut diamonds. The Colonel disappeared in a telephone box at the Omnium and Shorty did something similar in a woman’s dress shop.
Like with Clayton Rawson’s exploration of a similar theme in ‘Off the Face of the Earth’ (1949), Carr’s solution did not really convince me. It’s hard to say specifically, without spoilers, but there is one part of the solution which should not have surprised Pollard, as his police witnesses should have known this particular fact about one of the suspects beforehand and told him about it.
Story No. 10: ‘The Bird of Dawning’ (1956) by Michael Gilbert
This short story contains a character that we first see in Gilbert’s novel, Smallbone Deceased (1952). This character is a lawyer named Henry Montacute Bohun and ‘The Bird of Dawning’ first appeared in the National and English Review. John Craven has been elected to parliament and has gone to visit Bohun. John is concerned by reports about his constituency party agent, Captain Miller, who it is rumoured is embezzling party funds. The key figures are getting invited to Sir Hubert Vambrill’s Christmas party and John wants Bohun to join them, to help him figure out whether Captain Miller is crooked or not. Yet by the second day of the party, death has struck. I found the choice of killer surprising, although I think the reader can guess some aspects of the case. The tale concludes with some memorable lines from a character who only has a small role, but their dialogue is delightfully tart.
Story No. 11: ‘The Christmas Train’ (1933) by Will Scott
Will Scott (1893-1964) was a prolific author from Yorkshire who wrote across genres and age groups. According to Martin:
‘He wrote three novels about the corpulent and conceited (but talented) detective Theodore Disher, who features in his 1930 play The Limping Man […] Like J. Jefferson Farjeon, Scott created a character who was a tramp, known as “Giglamps” who appears in a collection of short stories which takes its title from his nickname; Giglamps sometimes acts as detective but occasionally ventures towards the windy side of the law. Another recurrent character was Jeremiah Jones […] presented rather in the tradition of A. J. Raffles and Simon Templar. Jones features in this story, which first appeared in Passing Show on 23 December 1933.’
Jeremiah Jones is planning to relieve Hadlow Cribb of the jewels (worth £40,000) he is carrying, whilst he travels by train to Friars Topliss, where he intends on staying for Christmas. The task is made more difficult by the fact Cribb has Scotland Yard protection. Yet Jones does not find it so, as he soon gets this protection replaced by an officer who is dimmer and more malleable. It was interesting to see Cribb using himself as a decoy and the way he treats other criminals.
Story No. 12: ‘The Grey Monk’ (1934) by Gerald Verner
‘The Grey Monk’ originally came out in The Leader and it features two of Verner’s series characters, Robert Budd and his colleague Sergeant Leek. I have not read any of Verner’s novels yet, but I have read the odd short story, as well as his biography, Plots and Gunpowder: A Personal Biography of Thriller Writer Gerald Verner (2021) by Chris Verner.
Robert Budd and Sergeant Leek have to put their Christmas plans on hold as the butler of the financer, Sir Isaac Levin, was shot during the night. Levin’s property has a ghostly legend attached to it and according to eyewitnesses the butler was shot by a figure dressed like a monk, when he went to investigate the abbey ruins for an intruder. I felt some of the humour between Budd and Leek was rather forced and the solution to the mystery comes out of nowhere, based on information the reader does not have access to.
Story No. 13: ‘Who Suspects the Postman?’ (1958) by Michael Innes
If you read that title and thought of a certain G. K. Chesterton story, then you’re not alone, but I like how Innes’ story interacts with the earlier mystery, as it does so in an unexpected and subtle way. Innes’ tale was originally published in the Evening Standard. It was reprinted under a different name, but I feel this later title is a bit of a spoiler.
During a children’s Christmas party at Partington House, Lord Partington’s Whang vase is stolen. Innes’ series sleuth, Appleby, investigates. The solution is rather told to you, which is a shame as there are aspects of it that I really appreciated.
Story No. 14: ‘Herlock Sholmes’ Christmas Case’ (1916) by Peter Todd
Todd was one of the pennames for Charles Hamilton. Like other authors in this anthology he wrote a lot, including the children’s stories featuring Billy Bunter. Todd penned many Sherlock Holmes stories, and this particular one was first published in The Magnet. I think this is my first experience of a Holmes parody by Todd, and I have to admit that I found it rather painful to read, it was so cringeworthy. The Watson character in this parody is just too stupid to be believed, being unable to work out how the Holmes parody could figure out it was Christmas Eve (he basically just used a calendar). The main case in the story involves helping the Duke of Hookeywalker find his missing pawn ticket. The solution is nice enough, as it fits the character of the duke. However, the investigating for this mystery takes place off the page.
Story No. 15: ‘A Present for Two’ (1958-1959) by Ellis Peters
This is a bibliomystery which ‘originally appeared in Everywoman in two parts, from December 1958 to January 1959.’ Sara Boyne is the secretary of the Shelvedon Teachers’ Christmas Committee. Each year the committee organises a party for the local kids at the castle on Christmas Eve. Gifts for the kids are hung on the Christmas tree in the open courtyard overnight. They are proud that none have ever been stolen – although I do wonder how soggy they get? On the day of the party, it is discovered that the museum, which is part of the castle, has been broken in to during the night and a rare and valuable manuscript has gone missing. It is suggested that this was a professional job and is part of a wider group of national art and antiques robberies. A man was found in a different part of the castle, who claims he doesn’t remember how he got there. The manuscript is not on his person, but is he still involved somehow? I think the hiding place of the stolen item is signalled early on and in some ways the emphasis of the plot is on how Sara retrieves the manuscript and saves the day, as events take a dramatic turn when a child gets kidnapped. Car chases and gun shots are all part of this tale, and Sara is not afraid of running headfirst into danger. This is useful as it does happen a fair bit. I like the child character in this story and overall the mystery was engaging even if it was predictable in places.
If you have read this collection, did you have a favourite story? You can find out mine in my next post.
Rating: 4/5
See also: JJ at The Invisible Event has also reviewed this anthology.