[Review] Vintage Crime: from the Crime Writers’ Association
I’ve always loved detective stories. Growing up, they were almost all I read. When I found a detective fiction class in college, I leapt at the chance to take it, to find new detectives to follow beyond Poe’s creations and Christie’s Poirot. There’s just something so comforting in following the twists of a puzzle a piece at a time. As I got older, faithful Poirot was still by my side, but my crime solving tastes got a little darker. Instead of just wanting to catch the culprit, I wanted to know why they did what they did, and frequently the only stories revealing that in enough depth were written from their point of view. So, those were what I sought out and eventually began to write for myself.
Reading the Crime Writers’ Association’s Vintage Crime felt a little like retracing the path of my own love for crime stories. With stories spanning from the ’50s to the 2000s, it’s a unique opportunity to trace the development of detective fiction across the decades. The opening story, “Money is Honey” by Michael Gilbert, took me back to the cozy armchair mysteries I read on crisp nights, accompanied by firelight and cocoa. A family mystery, an insomniac detective, and incriminating bee stings…it all felt very comfortably Wilkie Collins-esque. The second story, “Strolling in the Square One Day” by Julian Symons, catapults us forward to the ’50s, into the land of PI’s, sultry, dangerous women, and murder most foul. Even with my comparatively small exposure to stories of this tone, I know detective noir when I see it, and “Square” is a strong show of its type.
The third offering, Bill Knox’s “The Service Flat,” is where things really begin to pick up speed and heighten tension. The first with a cliffhanger ending, it tells of a woman with Hitchcockian levels of paranoia who believes someone is invading her flat while she’s away. One of my favorite stories on offer, it twists and turns on itself just when you think you’ve got it figured out, and then leaves you hanging breathlessly on a mystery it never resolves.
Vintage Crime is more than just detectives digging their way to the bottom of a question, however. Almost before we realize it’s happening we are thrust into unique perspectives not often given — as with Michael Z. Lewin’s stand-out story, “Hand that Feeds Me,” which appears to be from the POV of a dog — and into the depths of killers’ minds. Lust, greed, envy, rage, Vintage Crime covers all the expected murder motivations, and offers some surprising twists to boot, presented in a range of formats.
Some of my favorite stand out stories with innovative formats and perspectives include: “In Too Deep” by Liza Cody, a letter to the brother of a dead woman, recounting the circumstances of his sister’s death, though the how of it is never made clear; “The Nuggy Bar” by Simon Brett, the story of a man out to get his wife’s fortune, told in the format of his product marketing bible; “Interior, with Corpse” by Peter Lovesey, a brilliant murder mystery plot with clues hidden in a painting A comfortable mix of the familiar and the modern, Vintage Crime proves crime stories have as much variety and lasting power as any other strain of horror fiction, and is sure to have something for everyone.
Vintage Crime releases from Flame Tree Press on August 11, 2020.
I would like to thank Flame Tree Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to review an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.
