brianlokker's review against another edition
3.0
This is truly a BIG book. It contains 59 stories by my count (not 60, as the Goodreads description states) arranged in 10 loosely themed categories. The wide range of authors whose stories appear in the collection includes, in no particular order, Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, Ellis Peters, John D. MacDonald, Damon Runyon, Arthur Conan Doyle, Donald E. Westlake, Mary Higgins Clark, G. K. Chesterton, O. Henry, and many more.
Not surprisingly, the quality is uneven, or maybe more to the point, some appealed to me more than others. (My 3-star rating may be a little low. It should probably be more like 3.5.) A few of my favorites:
“A Wreath for Marley,” by Max Allan Collins—a clever and humorous updating of the classic Ebenezer Scrooge story to Christmas Eve 1942, with the ghost of Christmas Yet to Come bearing an uncanny resemblance to Elvis.
“The 74th Tale,” by Jonathan Santlofer—in which a disturbed young man buys a copy of The Complete Poems and Tales of Edgar Allan Poe at the collection editor Otto Penzler’s Mysterious Bookshop and is inspired to copy one of Poe’s stories. (Another story, “The Killer Christian,” by Andrew Klavan, also has a tie-in to the Mysterious Bookshop.)
“All Through the House,” by Ed McBain—the 87th Precinct is the setting of the birth of a Christmas baby to a destitute young woman named Maria and her husband José, in a modern retelling of the original Christmas story.
Every reader will no doubt have his or her favorites. You may not like them all, but I’d be willing to bet that you’ll find at least a few that you’ll enjoy.
Not surprisingly, the quality is uneven, or maybe more to the point, some appealed to me more than others. (My 3-star rating may be a little low. It should probably be more like 3.5.) A few of my favorites:
“A Wreath for Marley,” by Max Allan Collins—a clever and humorous updating of the classic Ebenezer Scrooge story to Christmas Eve 1942, with the ghost of Christmas Yet to Come bearing an uncanny resemblance to Elvis.
“The 74th Tale,” by Jonathan Santlofer—in which a disturbed young man buys a copy of The Complete Poems and Tales of Edgar Allan Poe at the collection editor Otto Penzler’s Mysterious Bookshop and is inspired to copy one of Poe’s stories. (Another story, “The Killer Christian,” by Andrew Klavan, also has a tie-in to the Mysterious Bookshop.)
“All Through the House,” by Ed McBain—the 87th Precinct is the setting of the birth of a Christmas baby to a destitute young woman named Maria and her husband José, in a modern retelling of the original Christmas story.
Every reader will no doubt have his or her favorites. You may not like them all, but I’d be willing to bet that you’ll find at least a few that you’ll enjoy.
caribbeangirlreading's review
3.0
I only read the four short stories "required" by book club. They all took place at Christmastime but none had Christmas spirit. They were also too short to be satisfying.
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