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Once again, Maxim Jakubowski has gathered together a collection of short stories by prominent British authors. These stories range from historical mysteries to hardboiled mysteries to traditional English village mysteries. The list of authors includes many familiar, well-publicized authors such as Lee Child, Colin Dexter, Stuart MacBride, Val McDermid, Reginald Hill, and Peter Robinson. It also includes many mid-list authors who have a strong following even if they do not get as much publicity; for example, Zoë Sharp, Simon Kernick, John Harvey and Marilyn Todd. THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST BRITISH MYSTERIES includes several short stories by my favorite historical authors: Susannah Gregory, writing about Thomas Chaloner in The Curious Contents of a Coffin; and Edward Marston, writing about Christopher Redmayne in Tom of Ten Thousand. As the works of both of these authors tend to be published in England first, I always look forward to their new releases in the US. In the case of Edward Marston, this is even more the case as not all of his books are published in the US nor are they always easily available. For me, these two short stories alone would be worth the price of the book. Another historical author makes an appearance in this book - Michael Jecks. While well known for his Knights Templar mysteries featuring Sir Baldwin Furnshill and Simon Puttock, in A Case of Asylum he writes a contemporary stand-alone instead. I will admit that this was not my favorite story in the book, yet it is always nice to see authors expand and develop themes outside their current writing boundaries. While I am not a fan of all of the authors, Jakubowski included, the collection itself is entertaining and engaging. Anthologies allow the reader to see how their favorite writers stack up against their contemporaries, how their authors or favorite characters grow through the years, and they allow the reader to find new authors and characters to read and enjoy. The other nice thing about anthologies is that they permit authors to step away from their series work and explore new themes and topics if they so desire.
Reviewed by Sarah Dudley, May 2008
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