Haycraft, Howard and Beecroft, John (Eds) - A Treasury of Great Mysteries (1957)

In two volumes

Howard Haycraft is a talented historian of and commentator on mystery fiction, but as an anthologist his selections leave a lot to be desired. All of it is good: but some of it is hackneyed, and from a GAD standpoint much of it is padding. The books are big, true, but still, why waste so much space on famous novels by Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler that are available in any library -- not to mention the uncanonical Rebecca and Journey into Fear? The reader who has not already encountered The Big Sleep or Murder on the Orient Express is surely unlikely to appreciate Carr's Incautious Burglar or Queen's The Lamp of God. But the principle of most anthologising in this field seems to be 'Cheap, readily available or famous -- pick any two'.

Having said this, the collection does have a number of novella-length stories that are difficult to come by elsewhere: but O, how much better it would have been to combine them in a single book and omit the cumbersome novels!

For the record, here are the contents in their order of appearance, with comments where appropriate:

Volume 1

• Christie, Agatha - Murder on the Orient Express (here as Murder in the Calais Coach)
• Gardner, Erle Stanley - The Case of the Crimson Kiss
• Wallace, Edgar - The Treasure Hunt -- with JG Reeder.
• Simenon, George - Maigret's Christmas -- the Superintendent sleepwalks through a Christmas crime committed in his own neighbourhood.
• Quentin, Patrick - Puzzle for Poppy -- who poisoned the dog-owner in mistake for the pooch?
• Rinehart, Mary Roberts - The Secret -- Hilda Adams, 'Nurse Pinkerton', investigates a deranged daughter in a family flown back from Hawaii after Pearl Harbor.
• Carr, John Dickson - The Incautious Burglar -- classic misdirection unravelled by Gideon Fell.
• Queen, Ellery - The Lamp of God -- Ellery investigates his largest disappearance yet. A well-implemented story despite the obvious conclusion.
• Allingham, Margery - The Case of the White Elephant -- Campion looks into jewel thefts in high society.
• Woolrich, Cornell as William Irish - Rear Window
• Ambler, Eric - Journey into Fear

Volume 2

• Chandler, Raymond - The Big Sleep
• Sayers, Dorothy L - The Bone of Contention. Did fake ghosts ever really scare anyone away from anything? On the contrary, I suspect they would bring out local teenagers in force.
• Charteris, Leslie - The Arrow of God
• Marsh, Ngaio - I Can Find My Way Out
• Stout, Rex - Instead of Evidence
• Palmer, Stuart and Rice, Craig - Rift in the Loot
• Carr, John Dickson as Carter Dickson - The Man Who Explained Miracles with Sir Henry Merrivale
• du Maurier, Daphne - Rebecca