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{{Cargo_Reviews_Articles
|Date=1991-03-01
|Book=The Oxford Book of Detective Stories
|BookAuthor=Patricia Craig
|Reviewer=Peter Coleman
|Topics=Anthology
}}
This review of the book ''"The Oxford Book of Detective Stories", by Patricia Craig'' was written by [[Peter Coleman]] and published in the [[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 2, No. 1) in Spring 1991.

== Review ==
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1991-03-p82-review-coleman.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Spring 1991, p. 82)]]
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1991-03-p83-review-coleman.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Spring 1991, p. 83)]]

: '''The Oxford Book of Detective Stories'''
: Edited by Patricia Craig
: Oxford University Press, 1990; 546 pp.; £15.00

'''Reviewed by Peter Coleman'''

This anthology contains thirty-three short stories, all by different writers, covering one hundred years of detective fiction. The aim is to show the development of the genre and, therefore, the merits of the individual writers are not the prime concern. All of the stories have been carefully selected and many have stood the test of time.

Patricia Craig explains in her brief introduction that it was Edgar Allan Poe who inaugurated fictional detecting in the 1840s, but it was not until the advent of [[Sherlock Holmes]] that the genre, as we know it, came into being. [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] changed the style of previous detective stories by devising a pattern in which the puzzle was paramount, the detective memorable and the investigation procedure riveting.

The longish story, rather than the novel, continued to be the most effective vehicle for detective fiction until 1920 and the publication of Agatha Christie's ''Mysterious Affair at Styles''. This was the first novel to use the interlocking system of episodes and, since that time, most detective novelists have tried their hand at the short story, often with considerable success.

The short story needs to be full of substance and to move along fairly quickly. The range of suspects is reduced and there is little scope for red herrings. This is certainly true in this anthology where the average length of the story is seventeen pages and the shortest just six pages. The story has branched out considerably from the original Holmes formula, but the formula is still implicit, even in the most innovative offerings. The collection shows the continuity in detective writing, from [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes]] on, and there are certain persistent features which may be pinpointed, like the story's power to absorb the reader and the edge of tension which is a key ingredient. Justice is seen to be carried out or, if it is not, it is in the interest of playfulness or invigorating anarchy.

The short story relies on the material traces left at the scene of the crime and the detective's ability to observe and to interpret this evidence together with the behaviour of the suspects. In the [[Sherlock Holmes]] story included in the anthology, [[Silver Blaze]], [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes]] recognised the significance of the dish of curried mutton fed to the stable boy and the dog who did nothing in the night time. This formula continues in the other stories and those readers who enjoy [[Sherlock Holmes]] will find much to interest them in this book.

The selection of authors is excellent and Patricia Craig has brought together a wide range of stories and variations of plot, many of which will be unfamiliar to even the most avid reader of detective fiction. Most of the stalwarts are included: Agatha Christie, Julian Symons, Ngaio Marsh, G. K. Chesterton, P. D. James, Ruth Rendell, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, Michael Innes and H. R. F. Keating. There are others who enjoyed equal standing in their own time but whose work is now sadly out of print, or difficult to find except in the specialist book shops. In this category, I would include: R. Austin Freeman, E. C. Bentley, Freeman Willis Crofts, Nicholas Blake and Edmund Crispin. Although their popularity has waned over the years, they produced some of the classic detective stories and are still worth reading. The most modern writers are represented by Robert Barnard, Reginald Hill and Simon Brett. Many of them authors writers have included their famous detectives in the form of Dr. John Thorndyke, Father Brown, Roger Sheringham, Sir Henry Merrivale, Gervase Fen, Inspector John Appleby and Adam Dalgleish, but others have conceived new ones for the short story format.

The book provides a valuable reference work for those searching high calibre detective stories and is good value to be enjoyed by all lovers of the short detective story who have progressed beyond the atmosphere of the Victorian period of [[Sherlock Holmes]]. My one disappointment was with the introduction for, whilst I accept that the English detective story was the important aspect of the book, I think that most readers will want to seek out other stories or novels by the writers they have enjoyed. Unfortunately, neither the introduction, nor the brief biographical notes, provide much useful information in this area and leave the reader to search for himself.

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