As if by Magic - Martin Edwards (Ed.) ***(*)
By Brian Clegg
Part of the British Library’s extensive Crime Classics collection, this largely enjoyable set of short stories features what the subtitle calls ‘locked room mysteries and other miraculous crimes’. The short story form is excellent for puzzle stories where an apparent impossibility takes place, and these tales range in period from the late Victorian era to 1980, though most are from the 1920s and 30s.
Some of the situations stretch credulity to the limit, but others are ingenious. Most are readable, though (perhaps not surprisingly) the earliest ones sometimes struggle a little. The feel varied significantly from an attempt to poke fun at the concept itself, where a series of ex butlers relate stories of crimes where (actual) fictional detectives go to extreme and unlikely lengths to show that the butler didn’t do it, to the closing story which has an impressive, if grim, twist.
In case you are wondering why some well-known examples aren’t here, this is the second collection Martin Edwards has compiled for the series, the other being Miraculous Mysteries. Relatively few of the stories in As if by Magic are page turners – but if you are a fan of the genre and like a good locked room mystery (or even a bad example) it’s one you need to read.
You can buy As if by Magic from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and Bookshop.org
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Now Appearing is the blog of science writer Brian Clegg (www.brianclegg.net), author of Inflight Science, Before the Big Bang and The God Effect.
Source: http://brianclegg.blogspot.com/2026/03/as-if-by-magic-martin-edwards-ed.html
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