Rosemary Herbert

Notwithstanding the poor quality of the printing (as described in the LT review by Rybie2), this book represents a superior collection of short stories by prominent writers in the crime genre. In 1929, Dorothy L. Sayers edited a landmark anthology titled "The Omnibus of Crime". Needless to say, crime fiction and mystery writing have changed over the decades. This 2005 collection, edited by Tony Hillerman and Rosemary Herbert, contains 27 works, mostly short stories plus one (Raymond Chandler’s “Red Wind”) that borders on length of a novelette. Most of the stories date from the 1980s and beyond; however, one dates to 1924 (Dashiell Hammet’s “The Girl with the Silver Eyes”) and another to 1938 (“Red Wind”).

The authors represented are nearly a who’s- who of crime writers, as shown by the list below. The list presents the stories and their authors, with my personal reaction (on a scale of 1 to 5*). Stories that especially stand out, in my opinion, are Frederic Brown’s “The Wench Is Dead,” Patricia Highsmith’s “Woodrow Wilson's Necktie,” Ruth Rendell’s “Loopy,” James Crumley’s “Hostages”, Elmore Leonard’s “When the Women Come Out to Dance”, and Ian Rankin’s “The Hanged Man” – plus (of course) Chandler’s “The Red Wind” that has been reprinted several times over the years.

Dorothy L. Sayers: The Man Who Knew How 4*
Dashiell Hammett: The Girl with the Silver Eyes 3*
Frederic Brown: The Wench Is Dead 5*
Ross Macdonald: Gone Girl 2*
Margaret Millar: The Couple Next Door 3.5*
Dorothy Salisbury Davis: By the Scruff of the Soul 2*
Julian Symons: Flowers That Bloom in the Spring 3*
Patricia Highsmith: Woodrow Wilson's Necktie 4.5*
Ruth Rendell: Loopy 4.5*
P.D. James: Great Aunt Allie's Fly Papers 1.5*
Tony Hillerman: First Lead Gasser 1*
Tony Hillerman: Chee's Witch 3*
Donald E. Westlake: Breathe Deep 3*
John Mortimer: Rumpole and the Bubble Reputation 2*
Sue Grafton: A Poison That Leaves No Trace 3.5*
Sara Paretsky: Photo Finish 3.5*
Peter Lovesey: The Crime of Miss Oyster Brown 3*
Michael Malone: Red Clay 2.5*
Ed McBain: Barking at Butterflies 2.5*
Dennis Lehane: Running Out of Dog (didn’t read due to theme of cruelty to animals)
James Crumley: Hostages 4*
Elmore Leonard: When the Women Come Out to Dance 4*
Ian Rankin: The Hanged Man 4*
Catherine Aird: The Holly and the Poison Ivy 1*
Jeffery Deaver: Copycat 2.5*
Alexander McCall Smith: He Loved to Go for Drives with His Father 2.5*… (mehr)

I bought this book because the contents looked wonderful, as an omnibus of great crime fiction by a host of top-notch writers. Unfortunately, the book has been printed with extremely small type, making it a chore to read. What's more, the book has been bound cheaply and poorly; the text runs so close to the inner binding that one has to struggle to hold the book open enough to read. Even the cover is badly done; the print runs over the edge of the book. I had hoped that my copy was a cheap printing of a more adequate product, but I can find no evidence of such. And this is an "Oxford Press" book! What a disappointment. I'm giving it away, unread.… (mehr)