Reviews

A Very Murderous Christmas: Ten Classic Crime Stories for the Festive Season by Cecily Gayford

mike_brough's review against another edition

4.0

One of the better Christmas Crime collections.

emdreading's review against another edition

3.0

3.5, enjoyable, cozy Christmas read

gertrudethemoonstone's review

funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

charlottesometimes's review against another edition

lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.75

kitschbitsch's review

dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

niamhsewell's review

3.25

☃️ The Man with the Sack by Margery Allingham - 4 stars

☃️ The Adventure of the Red Widow by Arthur Conan Doyle - 5 stars

☃️ Camberwell Crackers by Anthony Horowitz - 3 stars

☃️ The Flying Stars by G.K. Chesterton - 3 stars

☃️ A Problem in White by Nicholas Blake - 3 stars

☃️ Loopy by Ruth Rendell - 3 stars

☃️ Morse’s Greatest Mystery by Colin Dexter -  2 stars

☃️ The Jar of Ginger by Gladys Mitchell - 3 stars

☃️ Rumpole and the Old Familiar Faces by John Mortimer - 2 stars

☃️ The Problem of Santa’s Lighthouse by Edward Hoch - 3 stars

helloitslauren_'s review

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed the short stories; apart from Loopy which I felt wasn't anything to do with Christmas.

bookrobin's review

4.0

Really enjoyable read. The stories gave a nice taster of different classic murder mystery writers styles, I'm definately going to search for more of their work after this.

thecommonswings's review

3.0

A lot more hit and miss than the previous Christmas crime collection, mainly because all three modern attempts at the form are absolute stinkers: Colin Dexter’s central idea here is a great one but the Morse story feels like it’s his notes for a proper tale that he submitted in a panic, with most of the story just a précis; Rendell’s contribution feels like a scanty idea for a Vine novel that she realised would’ve been terrible so instead turns it into a terrible short story instead; Horowitz is the worst, with a thin joke of a story trying desperately to feel like a classic crime story but instead sounding like a jocular uncle laughing in a really strained way at you at a Christmas party to cover the fact he’s going through a bitter divorce (plus a really, really weird joke about Estonians that just dribbles out)

All the others? Absolutely great. Blake’s story is a nice touch with a puzzle for the reader; the Allingham story is a bit more conventional than the one in Murder for Christmas but still allows Campion to shine at his best; the Hoch story threatens to get very, very weird but at the last minute just about saves itself despite a decidedly dodgy motive... it just reminds you that the golden age writers were better at short stories because there was a regular audience to hone your skills with them. That’s pretty much gone now (unlike horror, which has a significantly smaller but still thriving short form world tootling along nicely) and it really tells when the modern writers try and apply it

holly_mc's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0