Oxford Book of English Detective Stories

Description

Beginning with the Conan Doyle era, this collection moves chronologically past Christie and Sayers to P. D.James and the present moment. Most of the 33 stories follow the Sherlock Holmes formula: a plethora of clues and a solution by ratiocination. No hard-boiled detectives or seedy characters can be found because, as Craig ( The Lady Investigates ) informs us in her introduction, such types never took root in the English detective story–British readers evidently prefer the urbanity of the drawing-room settings roamed by upper-class sleuths. This anthology is chock-full of deductive reasoning, whimsy and that remarkable gift of the British: understatement.