Bodies from the Library 4

Starred review from December 13, 2021
The bulk of the 17 selections in Medawar’s excellent fourth anthology of traditional crime fiction were either unpublished or never collected. Highlights include Shadowed Sunlight, a brilliant Christianna Brand novel unavailable for more than 75 years, and the previously unpublished script of a radio play by H.C. Bailey, “The Only Husband,” featuring his series sleuth Reggie Fortune, who inspired S.S. Van Dine’s better-known Philo Vance. Every story is top-notch, including six originally published in a British newspaper from authors who had to base short mysteries linked to cryptic drawings containing clues, such as an image of a goblet on top of an anvil. But the standout is a never before seen gem from Edmund Crispin, “Child’s Play,” in which the four charges of a newly hired governess include an orphan who recently moved in with her three cousins after her parents died. The crime at its heart—and Crispin’s way of disclosing it—is a genuine gut punch that will linger long after the book’s finished. This is a treasure trove for golden age fans.