Forgotten Stories of Mystery and Suspense from the Golden Age of Detection

Classic crime fiction's 'Indiana Jones' Tony Medawar unearths more unpublished and uncollected stories from the Golden Age of suspense, including John Bude, John Dickson Carr, Dorothy L. Sayers and Julian Symons.

The end of the First World War saw the rise of an insatiable public appetite for clever and thrilling mystery fiction and a new kind of hero – the modern crime writer. As the genre soared in popularity, so did the inventiveness of its best authors, ushering in a “Golden Age” of detective fiction – two decades of exemplary mystery writing: the era of the whodunit, the impossible crime and the locked-room mystery, with stories that have thrilled and baffled generations of readers.

The Golden Age still casts a long shadow, with many of the authors who were published at that time still hugely popular today. Aside from novels, they all wrote short fiction – stories, serials and plays – and although many have been republished in books over the last 100 years, Bodies from the Library collects the ones that are impossible to find: stories that appeared in a newspaper, magazine or an anthology that has long been out of print; ephemeral works such as plays not aired, staged or screened for decades; and unpublished stories that were absorbed into an author’s archive when they died . . .

Complete with fascinating biographies by Tony Medawar of all the featured authors, this latest volume in the annual Bodies from the Library series once again brings into the daylight the forgotten, the lost and the unknown, and is an indispensable collection for any bookshelf. ange, resulting in six very different tales from Peter Cheyney, Ethel Lina White, David Hume, Nicholas Blake, John Rhode and – in his only foray into writing detective fiction – the publisher himself, William Collins.

Review

‘An annual treat – almost like the summer version of a Christie for Christmas.’―Kate Jackson, author of The Pocket Detective and Cross Examining Crime

‘One of the best mixed anthologies I’ve come across … If you’re already a vintage crime fan, then this is one to grab; and if you’re new to the genre, then you’ll find this a very enjoyable way to introduce yourself to some of the greats. Highly recommended!’―FictionFanBlog

‘A veritable treasure trove of classic short stories’―Daily Mail

‘Tony Medawar triumphs again with this treasure trove of lost Golden Age gems.’―John Curran, author of The Hooded Gunman

‘In bringing to public awareness some of the forgotten, neglected, or simply unknown stories that the great and the good of the form produced, these collections have become a source of great excitement, and a must-read for even the most ardent student of the Golden Age.’―The Invisible Event

About the Author

Editor Tony Medawar is a detective fiction expert and researcher with a penchant for tracking down rare stories. In addition to the Bodies from the Library series, he has edited collections including While the Light Lasts (Agatha Christie), The Avenging Chance (Anthony Berkeley), The Spotted Cat (Christianna Brand), A Spot of Folly (Ruth Rendell) The 9.50 Up Express (Freeman Wills Crofts), and the book Murder, She Said: The Quotable Miss Marple.