Once again it’s that time of year when blogger Kate at Cross Examining Crime hosts the Reprint of the Year Award – and I’m happy to be taking part again with my first nomination! You can check out Kate’s blog for more information about the award, but meantime, let’s get going with my first choice!

The book I’ve chosen is one I was very excited about reading, and it’s another themed collection in the excellent Britishi Library Crime Classics range: “Crimes of Cymru”, edited as always by Martin Edwards. Wales is a country dear to my heart, and I’ve spent many happy visits there, so this book was always going to appeal to me.

As I mentioned at the time, Cymru “features authors from, and also writing about, the country in question; this approach allows for a good selection of authors and stories, and makes the reading even more enjoyable. The mysteries are presented chronologically, running from 1909 to the 1908s, and the list of writers featured is an interesting one. There are well-known names such as Roald Dahl, Ethel Lina White, Christianna Brand and Carter Dickson, all of whom would be a draw; but there are also many new to me, like Frank Howel Evans, Rhys Davies and Berkely Mather, so plenty to explore!

What’s impressive about this collection is the sheer variety of stories on display. Yes, this is a ‘crime classic’ but that term does encompass a wide range of different subjects and styles, and although these anthologies are always diverse, this one is particularly so. The book opens with a revelation from Martin Edwards as he introduces the Frank Howel Evans story; amazingly, there were precursors to Poirot, which I hadn’t been aware of before, and this story in particular was wonderfull clever.

The book has a lovely balance of traditional, Holmesian tales and more modern psychological stories, as well as featuring some shorter, punchy and slightly humorous tales. Then there are locked-room stories, and the works also range in period from the opening story from Frank Howel Evans to the final one from Michael Gilbert, and this provides much variety in tone. With such a strong anthology, it’s always difficult to pick out favourites but I’ll mention a few I particularly enjoyed! Water Running Out by Ethel Lina White is a deliciously clever and dark little tale about the problems of an unpleasant aunt blighting the life of some Welsh youngsters. Francis Brett Young’s Busman’s Holiday has a lovely twist at the end, as does Lucky Escape by Berkely Mather, a very short, sharp and clever story which certainly challenges your view of who is victim and who is not…

The Carter Dickson, Error at Daybreak, was a real treat, the author providing a wonderful variant on the locked-room mystery, with Colonel March (one of his serial investigators) providing a most unexpted solution. There are some real outliers here, too; Arthur Machen’s Change edges towards horror mystery rather than crime mystery, but it’s really very effective and quite chilling. And The Chosen One by Rhys Davies, which is the longest tale in the collection is a particularly striking study of character; it’s a slow-burning story of two unlikely protagonists, locked in contention over a piece of land, which builds to a vivid climax, and is really dark and memorable.”

I’m a huge fan of all of the BLCC releases, but I wanted to nominate this one because of its strengths and enjoyment factor! Martin Edwards curates some really excellent collections and this is particularly outstanding one; it mixes well known authors with obscure ones, takes in some stories which are closer to horror, and the works range from straightforward crime to psychological study. That variety is, for me, vital in an anthology like this, and  it stands high amongst some of the other more regular reissues.

I ended my post by saying, “really, the whole collection is stellar, one of the best from the BL, with a strong and varied selection of stories. I loved the mixture of different styles, lengths and types of story, which just shows what a large umbrella it is which encompasses crime fiction. GA crime has become very popular since the BL started the trend with these reissues, and many other publishers have jumped on the bandwagon, bringing out some fascinating titles. However, I do feel that the BL leads the field, quality-wise, and this is another brilliant addition to their stable of crime classics – highly recommended!!” Looking back now, I still feel the same – this is a very special anthology which is thoroughly enjoyable, brings a wonderful array of authors back into print and flies the flag for classic crime. I highly recommend you vote for it! 😀