Tag: mystery short stories

detective, Recommendsday

Book of the Week: Cyanide in the Sun

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We’ve reached the sixth Tuesday of 2026 and I’ve picked a British Library Crime Classic as Book of the Week. I haven’t quite made it to two months since the last time I picked a BLCC book, but given that I was disappointed by a couple of the things I read this week, I really had no other option…

Cyanide in the Sun is a collection of eighteen holiday-themed short stories. Among the authors are Christanna Brand, Anthony Berkley, Anthony Gilbert, Julian Symons and Michael Innes among others. I hadn’t read any of these before – which I think is because a lot of them were either published in newspapers or in hard to get collections. And the nature of newspaper stories means some of them are really quite short, but I enjoyed that about the collection – they were in and out and didn’t outstay their welcome if that makes sense. There are a few here that are really quite clever with nice twists that leave you surprised.

I find that short story collections can be a bit patchy – with the BLCC it can sometimes be because the stories aren’t as good as you want them to be, as opposed to there being something that’s been around a bit in them. But this is a good one with stories picked from some of the most successful of the recent BLCC authors. Here in the UK it’s definitely not the right time of year to be reading holiday stories if reading about sunshine and beaches when the weather outside is wet and cold gets you down, but personally I usefully find it a nice treat to be taken away from the worst of the weather. And last week was definitely in the worst of the weather category at times!

This one is in Kindle Unlimited at the moment, so it’s not on Kobo, but once it has rotated out of that it should be back on other ebook platforms. And of course it’s also available in paperback which you can get direct from the British Library bookshop where they have a three for two on the Crime Classics.

Happy Reading!

Recommendsday

Recommendsday: Short Stories

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Happy Wednesday everyone, this week I thought I’d do a whistle stop tour through some of the short stories and short story collections I’ve read recently.

The Ex-Wives Club by Sally Hepworth

I’m starting with my favourite – Sally Hepworth’s story about a celebrity chef and restaurateur who is found dead in his walk-in freezer the evening after his three ex-wives dine at his restaurant. There are plenty of reasons why each woman would have wanted him dead and the shifting perspective reveals the secrets that are below the surface. It’s only about 80 pages and very easy to read in one gulp. It’s part of the Alibis short story series, which is by authors of psychological suspense but this felt more like a domestic drama to me – the rest of the series definitely looks too scary for me though!

Sinister Spring by Agatha Christie

Another of the seasonal collection of Christie short stories, again featuring all the names you would hope for – Miss Marple, Poirot, Tommy and Tuppence and Parker Pyne. It’s got a good mix of stories and although I found some easier to solve than others, there are a couple of really good ones here. As with the other three seasons, this is rotating in and out of Kindle Unlimited, and if you spot it while it’s in, it’s worth a read.

Abscond by Abraham Verghese

And finally, a change of pace with a short story about an Indian American teenager in 1967 who is caught between the expectations of his parents that he will become a doctor and the fact that he is a tennis prodigy who wants to turn professional. Then, suddenly, everything changes. This is really beautifully written and packs a lot of emotional punch for something that is under 40 pages long. I haven’t read any Abraham Verghese before and I’m glad I picked this one up.

Happy Humpday!

detective, Forgotten books, mystery, Recommendsday

Recommendsday: BLCC round-up 2024 edition

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It’s been a while, but here I am, back with another post of some of the really good British Library Crime Classics I’ve read recently. And recently is a fairly elastic thing, because I started putting this together ages ago, and then some of the books that I was expecting to use in this ended up being Books of the Week instead!

Impact of Evidence by Carol Carnac

This is set in the Welsh borders where an elderly doctor known for his erratic driving has gone off the road and into the river – but when the police pull out the vehicle a second body is discovered in the back. Who is the mystery corpse, how did he get there and was the doctor responsible? This is another mystery centering on a tight knit community where everyone knows everyone else’s business and so clues can be picked up that way. Really good and atmospheric.

Excellent Intentions by Richard Hull

This is a murder mystery about the murder of a deeply unpopular man, who drops dead on a train to London. There are four suspects, and the story is told by intercutting the investigation by Inspector Fenby and judge sitting watching the prosecution at the trial – which he intends to be his last case before retirement – without telling you who the accused is until very late on. I really enjoyed reading it – I wasn’t sure who I thought the accused was going to turn out to be, and then I very much enjoyed how it all revealed itself and what the solution turned out to be.

The Measure of Malice Edited by Martin Edwards

A collection of murder mystery short stories all with some sort of scientific twist to them. There are some authors here I haven’t come across before along with some familiar names if you’ve read other BLCC titles and then two really big names in Conan Doyle and Dorothy L Sayers. Not being a Sherlock Holmes expert I can’t tell you if the story here is one of the better known ones, but I can say that the Sayers is a Wimsey that I have read before in one of the Wimsey short story collections, which probably isn’t a surprise, although it is a good one (even if I think bits of it clash with part of the first Paton Walsh continuation, but that’s a really nerdy point). All in all a good and varied selection.

And that’s it – and I can’t see that I’ll have read enough of these for another round of of BLCC before the end of the year, although who knows whether one will end up as a Book of the Week before then in the six weeks we have to go…

Happy Humpday everyone!