Reviews

Bodies from the Library: Lost Classic Stories by Masters of the Golden Age by Tony Medawar

claudia_is_reading's review against another edition

3.75

As with every anthology, there are stories here that I liked and stories that I didn't. They are varied and cover a broad spectrum of mystery tales, although some are awfully outdated (racism, misogyny and xenophobe show their ugly face). 

I liked the introductions and, mainly, the short biographic notes at the end because, in some cases, at least for me, some of these authors were unknown. 

All in all, an entertaining book.

ladulcinella's review against another edition

4.0

A collection of short detective stories from some of the masters of the genre. I really enjoyed reading them. Nothing wrong with a good old mystery. Of course not all the stories are of the same excellence, but I was pleasantly surprised by the overall quality. For fans of the genre: it includes an unknown story by Agatha Christie.

mon_ique's review

3.0

Overall, quite happy with this find.
My favorite stories were The Man With the Twisted Thumb (I so want to read more about these characters... love the jump scares in this ironically) and The Rum Punch was quite well written. Anthony Berkley and Christianna Brand are authors I've never heard of and would love to read more of.

Before Insulin was definitely an interesting taste of that early idea of a scam plot. Linckes' Great Case was also pretty great!
The Euthanasia of Hillarie's Aunt was so darkly ironic... In fact, add to that The Fool and the Perfect Murder, and The Starting Handle Murder.

zoe_1701's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

cam_omile's review

3.0

3.5

bev_reads_mysteries's review against another edition

4.0

A delightful anthology of short stories and screenplays from the Golden Age of Detection--stories that have either never been published before or only once upon a time in newspapers or magazines. Of particular interest (to me) are the earliest detective story by Georgette Heyer, and stories by A. A. Milne, Arthur W. Upfield, and Vincent Cornier. It was wonderful to have more to read by Heyer and Milne (I thought I had read all their work) and Vincent Cornier was a brand-new author for me. I will say that I had feelings of deja vu with the stories by John Rhode and Agatha Christie--even though these have supposedly never been collected before, I definitely had the feeling that I had read these. The Anthony Berkeley story reminded me of Christie's thrillers with young couples (the Beresfords and Bobby Owens & Lady Frances [Frankie] Derwent...etc.). A lot of fun. Overall, an enjoyable collection and I look forward to reading the second and third anthologies.

First posted on my blog--with story synopses: My Reader's Block.

juliesplotsandpages's review

3.0

Fascinating! Some really interesting stories! I discovered some new authors that I want to check out, too. If I remember correctly, I was a little disappointed by Georgette Heyer's story, since I adore her. But still a fun collection of stories all the way around.

angela_king's review against another edition

mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

maggywaggy's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

3.5

halellery's review against another edition

3.0

It's a book of short stories - classic detective stories from some of the great criminal authors. All good and well, except that short stories aren't my cup of tea. I don't know why I keep doing this to myself.