Please welcome
Paula Messina back to the blog today...
Silent
Nights by Paula Messina
Christmas
is a time of mysteries. Will Aunt Matilda finally stop making that fruit cake
everyone detests? Will Uncle Virgil get through Christmas dinner sober? Will
those pesky reindeer for once land on the roof without causing several thousand
dollars of damage?
Will
anyone suggest an anthology filled with great Christmas short stories?
Silent Nights
satisfactorily answers the last question. Edited by Martin Edwards, this
anthology has fifteen stories from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction set
during the Yuletide. Some of the stories and their authors will be familiar.
Others might ring a bell. Still others are highly unlikely to be familiar.
Nearly
one hundred years after his death, Conan Doyle is still one of the most popular
writers of English literature. “The
Blue Carbuncle,” the story of the Christmas goose that got away, is most likely
familiar to readers. In this case, familiarity does not breed contempt. Holmes
and Watson are as comforting and welcomed as old slippers, tobacco included or
not. The pair’s deep, abiding friendship is just one of the reasons readers
flock back to Holmes and Watson again and again. Crackling good mysteries is
the ultimate one.
Whether
familiar or not, the stories of G.K. Chesterton (“The Flying Stars”), Dorothy L. Sayers (“The Necklace of
Pearls”), and Margery Allingham (“The Case Is Altered”) are pleasant reminders
of why this trio is still widely read.
While
I thoroughly enjoyed the stories by the well-known writers, I found the most
joy in being introduced to those writers who now haunt the denizens of the
forgotten. In his introduction, Edwards says Nights “aims
to introduce a new generation of readers to some of the finest detective story
writers of the past.”
“Parlour Tricks” by Ralph Plummer, as
Edwards notes, “deserves to be rescued from oblivion.” Edwards knows “nothing
of Plummer’s life.” His short story involves hotel guests unable to leave, a
theft, conjuring, and what could qualify as the most creative use of forensics
in the genre.
“Cambric Tea” by Marjorie Bowen might
lead you to reassess your relatives. Maybe they aren’t nearly as bad as you
think. Regardless, think twice before drinking any proffered tea on Christmas
day.
In
Ethel Lina White’s
“Waxworks,” Sonia, an ambitious, young journalist, spends the night locked in
the Waxwork Collection of Oldhampton to determine if two recent nocturnal
deaths were murder. Sonia quickly fears she won’t survive the night.
The
last story, “Beef for
Christmas,” by Leo Bruce stars Sgt. Beef, whom Edwards describes as “an
engaging vulgarian with a passion for playing darts.” I recently discovered
Sgt. Beef when I read Case
for Three Detectives, an hilarious send-up of Golden Age
mysteries. (See my review on Kevin’s
Corner at https://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/2024/11/paula-messina-reviews-case-for-three.html.)
Bruce is just one of the writers presented in Silent Nights that I intend to become
more intimately acquainted with.
It’s also enjoyable to learn more about
these writers in Edward’s two-paragraph bios. How did H.C. Bailey (“The Unknown
Murderer”) go from being admired by no less than Agatha Christie to being
forgotten? J. Jefferson Farjeon’s Mystery in White
was a best seller in its day. His offering here, “The Absconded Treasurer” is so obscure that “not even the
British Library possesses a copy.”
Ultimately,
it doesn’t matter how well
known these authors and their short stories are. A good story is always in
fashion. A great way to enjoy the season is by reading Silent Nights
while sitting by a roaring fire in the comfort of an overstuffed chair with a
cup of nutmeg-dusted eggnog.
Amazon
Associate Publishing News: https://amzn.to/3VtxEAS
Paula
Messina ©2024
Paula Messina in a Native New Englander. Her writing has
appeared in various publications including Devil’s Snare,
Wolfsbane, Black Cat Weekly, Ovunque Siamo,
and THEMA. Her current project is a
novel set in Boston during 1944.
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