Product Description

The third new collection of historical murder and mystery stories A brilliant new collection of thirty stories of mystery and intrigue spread over three thousand years, from Ancient Egypt to spies on the Titanic. Selected by bestselling editor Mike Ashley, the stories include brand new contributions as well as rare reprints, from writers such as Ian Rankin, Lynda Robinson, Sharan Newman, Gail Frazer, Gillian Linscott and Peter Tremayne. Among the characters featured are the Queen of Sheba, Attila the Hun, Hildegarde of Bingen, Geoffrey Chaucer, Henry the Navigator and Benjamin Franklin. And with settings as far-ranging as Botany Bay and ancient Pisa, New Amsterdam and old Edinburgh, ancient Greece and the court of Kublai Khan.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #236362 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Review
" 'Reveals the strength and ingenuity of this sub-section of the whodunnit genre... Great fun.' Good Book Guide 'This splendid anthology of nineteen enigmatic mysteries will enthrall and enchant all devotees and newcomers to this genre.' Ralph Travis, Crime Time"

About the Author
Mike Ashley is editor of previous volumes of The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits, as well as The Mammoth Book of Roaring Twenties Whodunnits and The Mammoth Book of Roman Whodunnits.

Customer Reviews

A Great 'Buffet' of Exciting Mystery Tales!
Mike Ashley has compiled 23 stories from around the world and from a large time-frame. This collection is an ideal literary "buffet" that is certainly more than just "food for thought"!

Beginning with the Ancient World, Ashley takes an excerpt from Herodotus (the "Father of History" and his "History of the Persian War"); it follows a 20th century account of ancient Egypt by Elizabeth Peters! In the second section,he features a treasured collection of medieval stories (Ellis Peters, Paul Harding, to name two).

Part III is the "Regency and Gaslight" section--with a real thriller by John Dickson Carr, among the others. The final section is "Holmes and Beyond," featuring a little-known but exciting nonetheless story by Arthur Conan Doyle titled "The Case of the Deptford Horror."

What is the most exciting thing about this anthology is that it represents a terrific "gathering" of literary "wizards" and their "whodunits." All are short stories (and naturally short stories cannot really be compared to novels, as the objectives, the vehicles, the whole purpose is entirely different), but what a whallop they pack.

In addition, Ashley gives us an informative (and readable) introduction, with a foreward by Ellis Peters, also not to be missed.

This is a proud collection, a nice addition to one's personal mystery library!

(Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)

Converted me to Mysterys
I loved this book. My mom checked it out from the library (she is a total mystery fan, I prefer historys or romances) I got bored on a long car trip and couldn't put it down, even when we got to Six Flags!!! I highly recommend it to those who would not ordinarily read mysterys

Exellent collection of historical detection!
Before this book I had only read all books so far published by Ellis Peters, so this one gave me a lot of new authors (to me) of historical detective stories to look for next. I haven't come a cross to many of them here in Norway, but I keep on looking. Among my new favorites is P C Doherthy, though I have read only one novel in addition to those featured in this book.