British Library Crime Classics (more short reviews)

In a fit of excitement at being in the British Library Reading Rooms and Friends Room again (an excitement I'm having to tamp down already a month later, and may see snuffed out in January) I bought three of the British Library Crime Classics a few weeks back and, more to the point, read them.

The first was Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert. This is one I've had my eye on for a while - an old deed box in the firm of Horniman, Birley and Crane Solicitors is found to contain a body. Actually it's more complex than that - they've been looking for this chap a while because he needs to sign some papers, all unknowing that he's been on the premises all along. It sounded irresistible and more than lived up to my expectations - not because of the mystery, although it does unravel nicely as a puzzle - but because of the details. The elaborate filing system that requires such large deed boxes in the first place, the structure of the firm and it's associates in other parts of London, and the characters that populate the small office, with their rivalries, snobberies and large and small secrets. 

The next is Murder by the Book, which is one of the short story compilations. I usually have a rule that I don't buy these, only read them if I see them in a library somewhere, but the bibliophilia  persuaded me - also the books are 3 for 2, which is always seductive. This is a mixed bag of stories, none of which really stood out. I should have stuck to my rule - and I'm perfectly prepared to accept it's me not them. 

Last is Murder's a Swine by Nap Lombard,  pseudonym for (at that time) married partners Pamela Hansford Johnson and Gordon Neil Stewart. It's a witty book, just a little too long, set at the beginning of the Second World War and published before the end, full (again) of detail really more fascinating than the mystery. There's a bit too much going on though, and the married couple at the centre of the book really are, as their family member in an official capacity at Scotland Yard or the Home Office or whatever it is seems to find, absolutely maddening and amateurish and likely to get themselves killed at this rate. 

This one has also been put reviewed by Clothes in Books here for anyone who wants more info: Reprint of the Year Awards: Murder's a Swine (clothesinbooks.blogspot.com)