Crimson Snow is a collection of British vintage mystery stories that are set around the festive season. The stories have been assembled by well known author Martin Edwards, who also adds a short note about each author. There are eleven stories altogether and as in most short story collections some appealed to me more than others.

Although I didn’t dislike any of the stories, I particularly enjoyed “The Man With the Sack” by Margery Allingham, a story which featured Albert Campion, “Christmas Eve” a play written as a tribute to Arthur Conan Doyle featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson was also very pleasing and two of the longer stories, “Death in December” by Victor Gunn and “The Carol Singers” by Josephine Bell were intriguing and atmospheric.

I have read a number of the authors in this book previously, but there were a few are were new to me and that I will now be on the lookout for. Crimson Snow was an excellent read for this time of the year as there was plenty of crisp snow, holiday descriptions and some very intriguing crime stories. ( )

Some of the stories in this collection were more heartbreaking than in Edwards' other collections, but they're all excellent.

Note: I received a digital review copy of this book through NetGalley. ( )

‘’But seated in the holly-decked apartment before a noble fire which roared bravely up the wide chimney we cared nothing for the frozen world out of doors. We laughed and talked, sang sings and recalled adventures, until somewhere about ten o’clock we fell into a ghostly vein quite in keeping with the goblin-haunted season.’’

The Ghost’s Touch (Fergus Hume): A doctor narrates the incidents that took place in an English country house haunted by a tragic ghost. But it is ambition and greed that we should fear, not visitors from the other side…

The Chopham Affair (Edgar Wallace): Gold-diggers, womanizers, lawyers and murder.

The Man With the Sack (Margery Allingham): Albert Campion reluctantly accepts an invitation to spend Christmas with a less than agreeable company, motivated by the pleas of the daughter of the family. When Sheila’s fear turns to reality, it is up to him to set things straight.

Christmas Eve (S.C.Roberts): Rather a toned-down version of Sherlock but entertaining nonetheless.

Death in December (Victor Gunn): The cantankerous - and all-around brilliant- Bill ‘Ironsides’ Cromwell offers his services when a frightening apparition becomes a very, very real murder.

Murder at Christmas (Christopher Bush): A Christmas mystery of golf, accents and how to incorporate holly into your festive decorations…

Off the Tiles (Ianthe Jerrold): An artist falls from the roof of her house. Inspector Quy doesn’t believe it was an accident and the list of suspects is short but tricky. A clever little mystery.

Mr. Cork’s Secret (Macdonald Hastings): A murder disrupts the plans of a successful hotelier for grandiose Christmas and the arrival of a glamorous couple with their famous jewels seems impossible. However, it is the arrival of the famous Montague Cork that will reveal a vile plan. An exciting story with a healthy dose of Cornish mystery.

The Santa Claus Club (Julian Symons): A Santa Claus club and an interpretation of A Christmas Carol hide quite a lot of secrets…

Deep and Crisps and Even (Michael Gilbert): Detective Sergeant Petrella joins a carol-singing party and a Christmas puzzle comes his way. Also, there must be an awful lot of Protheroes in the British Isles. I come across one every other story…

The Carol Singers (Josephine Bell): A tragic death takes place on Christmas Eve. The victim is an elderly lady and the horrible incident wreaks havoc in the local community. As a side note, I surely am right not to open the door to carol singers. Ever!

And that’s it for this year’s Christmas collections. It’s been jolly fun, indeed!

‘’The snow lay deep on North London that December. People were busy buying Christmas presents, laying in unusual quantities of food and drink, hanging holly over pictures and mistletoe in the front hall, devising excuses to prevent their in-laws coming to stay, and generally behaving exactly like everybody else all over the civilized world - except Scotland where, as is well known, is celebrated a curious deviationist festival known as Hogmanay.
Crime followed the seasonal pattern. A little shop-lifting in the crowded shops by day. A marked increase in brawling as the public houses stayed open for an extra half-hour to celebrate the season of goodwill; and the ever-present problem of people who went away and left their houses unguarded and at the mercy of housebreakers, who recognise no close season.’’

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/ ( )

Eleven Christmas Mystery Shorts
Review of the Poisoned Pen Press paperback (2017) of the British Library Crime Classics original (2016)

[3.65 average, rounded up to 4]
I've made it a tradition in recent years to read a seasonally themed British Library Crime Classic mystery or anthology every Christmas time. I have even found translations of them in my heritage language of Estonian to add some variety. Crimson Snow is another themed anthology by Martin Edwards, following on his previous collection of Silent Nights: Christmas Mysteries (2015). I enjoyed this one just as much, especially for the discovery of several writers and investigators previously unknown to me.

I thought it was odd that many of the stories had little or no details about their first publication dates, usually this series is very thorough about that sort of background information.

See poster at https://i.pinimg.com/564x/ef/09/9c/ef099ce9b89d1469fb2ef15492741a54.jpg
St. Moritz, Switzerland tourism poster, source of the cover image for "Crimson Snow: Winter Mysteries" (where a slight reddish tint has been added to the picture). Image sourced from Pinterest

1. The Ghost's Touch [None = No original publication date or source is provided] *** by Fergus Hume (1859-1932). An army doctor spends Christmas with his Australian friend at a family homestead in England. This combines a ghost story with a mystery.

2 The Chopham Affair [None] **** by Edgar Wallace (1875-1932). A blackmailer is found dead along with another man and the police think they know the solution to the crime. A lawyer assists the police with their enquiries, but knows more than he is saying.

3. The Man With the Sack **** [First appeared in the Strand Magazine in 1936, and then later in the short story collection "Mr Campion: Criminologist" (1937)] by Margery Allingham (1904-1966). Allingham's regular investigator Albert Campion attends a Christmas party where a theft of household objects and jewels occurs and Santa Claus is one of the suspects.

4. Christmas Eve **** [none] by S.C. Roberts (1887-1966). A Sherlock Holmes pastiche written as a theatrical play. It hits all the right notes by capturing the characteristic banter between Holmes and Watson as well as adding some seasonal charity and cheer.

5. Death in December ***** [from "Ironsides Sees Red" (1943)] by Victor Gunn (1889-1965). Novella length at 75 pages. Features Gunn's regular detective, the cantankerous Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Bill "Ironsides" Cromwell and his assistant Sergeant Johnny Lister. This is a combined ghost and mystery story like No. 1, but the extended length here allows for more immersion in the 'isolated by a snowstorm in an old house/castle in the countryside' atmosphere. The crotchety "Old Iron" Cromwell was a new fave discovery for me. I wonder if I can track down any of the other books.

6. Murder at Christmas *** [none] by Christopher Bush (1885-1973). Bush's regular investigator Ludovic Travers goes on a Christmas vacation for golfing with his Chief Constable friend while his wife takes care of a sick aunt. The murder of a swindler soon follows. This provokes the question: They golf in England around Christmas time?

7. Off the Tiles *** [London Mystery Magazine (1950s)] by Ianthe Jerrold (1898-1977). Is it an accident or murder when a woman falls off a roof while walking along its gutter. Inspector James Quy and P.C. Baker investigate.

8. Mr. Cork's Secret **** [Lilliput Magazine (date unspecified)] by MacDonald Hastings (1909-1982). Hastings' regular sleuth, the insurance investigator Montague Cork, arrives at a London hotel on Christmas Eve just in time for a jewelry heist and a murder. First published as a mystery contest for the readers to answer what key information Cork withholds from disclosing at the end of the story, with the answer published months later. In this case, the author's answer and the 2 winning reader's answers are given at the back of the book.

9. The Santa Claus Club *** [none] by Julian Symons (1912-1994). A murder occurs during a festive meal with an assembled group of Santa Claus Club members and their guests. Symons' private investigator Francis Quarles is on hand to solve the crime immediately. This one was great on atmosphere, but ended too abruptly to be completely satisfactory.

10. Deep and Crisp and Even *** [none] by Michael Gilbert (1912-2006). Detective Sergeant Patrick Petrella joins a group of carolers before Christmas and thinks he has spotted a house burglar inside one of the various homes that they visit.

11. The Carol Singers ***** [none] by Josephine Bell (1897-1987). A single elderly woman is robbed and murdered by a vicious group of carolers. Pieces of her jewellery go missing by a separate circuitous route but the police are finally able to solve the case. This one was excellent for its societal view and insight into single elderly people during the holiday season.

Trivia and Link
The British Library Crime Classic series are reprints of forgotten titles mostly from the 1920's & 1930's, which the series describes as the "Golden Age of Crime". They are up to over 100 titles now (as of late 2021) and you can see a list at the British Library Shop (for North America they are reprinted by the publisher Poisoned Pen Press). There is also a British Library Crime Classics Goodreads Listopia. ( )

A collection of old crime stories (eleven) set during the winter season. Most of these I enjoyed reading, a couple not so much, but overall an enjoyable read by authors I mostly had not heard of before.
A NetGalley Book ( )