The Penguin Book of Murder Mysteries

Starred review from September 25, 2023
Anthologist Sims (The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime) looks well beyond the usual suspects in this stellar collection of 13 classic stories from lesser-known authors. The standout is “The Case of the Pool of Blood in the Pastor’s Study” by Auguste Groner (1850–1929), who published her detective fiction under a male pseudonym. In it, Groner’s regular sleuth, Joseph Muller of the Imperial Austrian Police, is consulted after a giant bloodstain is found at a rectory in the Carpathian Mountains. The amount of blood signals that someone—probably the rectory’s missing pastor—was murdered, but no body is found, and there are no signs that a corpse has been removed. Another standout is “Negative Evidence” by Irish writer Richard Dowling (1846–1898), set in England and believed to be the first mystery story to use a photograph as a clue. Throughout, Sims’s choices, which showcase his encyclopedic knowledge of mystery fiction, range from good to great, and place welcome focus on the historic contributions of women to the genre. Even the most well-read mystery fans have good reason to check this out.