4 out of 5 stars.
I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley for an open and honest review.
As a huge fan of crime fiction and its myriad of sub-genres, I have to say I was thrilled when Poisoned Pen Press allowed me to read this book. The golden age of crime is aptly named and it was wonderful to read ‘new’ stories from some known authors as well as be introduced to others.
This is a great read and something I would indeed take on holiday, or even have as a winter standby to read by the fire. It is a fantastic compilation of crime fiction short stories and I really enjoyed most of them. As I didn’t enjoy all – more down to my fickle preferences than the author’s skill – I couldn’t give the book the full 5 out of 5 stars. But, as said, this wasn’t due to the stories being bad; I simply didn’t enjoy them as much as I did others. But as about 85% of the stories were highly enjoyable reads, I really can’t say anything negative about this book. It really is a wonderful collection of some old tales and I am very thankful to know there are people out there like Poisoned Pen Press preserving and sharing these stories.
I highly recommend this book, will now be seeing if I can find more stories by some of the authors it has introduced me to and look forward to seeing more ‘golden oldies’ brought back to mainstream reading by this publishing house. I will definitely be keeping my eye out for more!
If you are a fan of crime fiction from the mid-nineteenth century through to the nineteen fifties (this golden age of which I speak) then you will enjoy this book. And I hope you are introduced to some ‘new’ authors through it too.
Janis's Journal 