Bodies from the Library

Selected Lost Tales of Mystery and Suspense by Masters of the Golden Age

By: Tony Medawar, Agatha Christie, Georgette Heyer, A. A. Milne, NIcholas Blake, Christianna Brand, Philip Bretherton

Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

This anthology of rare stories of crime and suspense brings together a selection of rare tales by masters of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction for the first time in book form, including a newly discovered Agatha Christie crime story that has not been seen since 1922.

At a time when crime and thriller writing has once again overtaken the sales of general and literary fiction, Bodies from the Library unearths lost stories from the Golden Age, that period between the World Wars when detective fiction captured the public’s imagination and saw the emergence of some of the world’s cleverest and most popular storytellers.

This audio anthology brings together the majority of forgotten tales from the book Bodies from the Library, from the 1920s to the 1950s, by masters of the Golden Age including Cyril Hare, Freeman Wills Crofts and A. A. Milne,

Most anticipated of all are the contributions by women writers: the first detective story by Georgette Heyer, unseen since 1923; an unpublished story by Christianna Brand, creator of Nanny McPhee; and a dark tale by Agatha Christie published only in an Australian journal in 1922 during her ‘Grand Tour’ of the British Empire.

With other stories by Detection Club stalwarts Anthony Berkeley, H. C. Bailey, J. J. Connington and John Rhode, plus Vincent Cornier, Leo Bruce, Roy Vickers and Arthur Upfield, this essential collection harks back to a time before forensic science - when murder was a complex business.

©2018 Half-Eaten © Nikesh Shukla; Thicker Than Blood © Erin Kelly (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"A veritable treasure trove of classic short stories. The star line up includes Agatha Christie, Cyril Hare and Georgette Heyer, but the best of the bunch are the second rank authors." (Daily Mail)

Great read!!!!!

I love the "Golden Age" Mystery. Some these authors are new to me and some I've been reading their books for ages. I can't wait for the second volume. It has been pre-ordered. I have written down the names of the new to me authors. I will be looking for their books

HOW GOOD? I NEVER USE ALL CAPS, THAT’S HOW GOOD.

To rescue lost tales of malfeasance penned in crime fiction’s Golden Age is, in and of itself, highly laudable. Listening to them is like floating on a cotton candy cloud over an ocean of bliss. But beyond the unadulterated enjoyment of these 14 stories, Tony Medawar has done people like me another very great service.

I enjoy a good Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie or Josephine Tey. However, once familiar with each writer, I pine for other voices. Problem is, those other voices, though prominent in their time, aren’t very well known now (at least not to me); selecting from their works is, to use an appropriate metaphor, a shot in the dark.

Now I know better. Bodies from the Library is a sort of criminal sampler, wherein we get a good taste of John Rhode, Christianna Brand, Arthur W. Upfield, Freeman Wills Crofts, Georgette Heyer, Anthony Berkley, A. A. Milne (yes, that A. A. Milne) and C. Day Lewis, writing under the name of Nicholas Blake (like P. G. Wodehouse’s Percy Gorringe, Lewis found that crime paid better than verse). It's not just the story, of course, that sets these stories apart. It's the writing, the characters, the good humor, the overall sense of serious fun. And the best part? Specimens from each author named are available on Audible. And if that wasn’t enough, Phillip Bretherton’s performance behind the mic is pretty darn near perfection. He is a reader to whom it is a joy to listen.

The only fly in this grade-A ointment is an occasional but silly political correctness. Before one story we are warned, for example, of offensive attitudes about race. Ironically, the offending passage gives credit to Aborigines and Europeans for their salient strengths as detectives (diversity, right?). More, it is spoken by a man descended from both races, explaining his own superior powers of detection. If not forewarned, I don’t think I’d have noticed it.

wow. fun read or should I say listen

all those wonderful writers in the Golden Age of Mysteries in one place is a treat. Hope there are more of these anthologies to come. I was mad for Lord Peter upon my first reading of Dorothy Sayers and his friends and fifty + years later nothing has changed.

2 stories definitely missing

"Calling James Braithwaite" by Nicholas Blake and "Blind Man's Bluff" by Ernest Bramah are in the index of the printed version, but no included here! Audible should update its version to include the whole compendium! Otherwise a 5 star all around.

Light but a pleasurable look into this genre from the paxt.

Nothing too profound, but great writing and fun stories. I also loved the narrator whose voice is soothing and f
has a variety of accents. There are also short bios of the site after each story. Just a delight!

Good Stories. Great Narration!

The last two stories were hard to play...but I was able to listen to them eventually. The narrator was truly wonderful. Enjoy with a cuppa!

Masterful classic mystery

Enjoyed hearing short unknown works by some of my favorite classical mystery writers of days gone by. Some reads are just timeless for enjoyment.

two stories missing

I have enjoyed the stories I have listened to in this audiobook. But, a warning: There are two stories missing from this audiobook that are present in the print or Kindle version:

Calling James Brithwaite by Nicholas Blake

AND

Blind Man's Bluff by Ernest Brauch

Fabulous Collection of Mystery Shorts

When I was feeling the urge for nostalgic British Golden Age mystery, I was glad to discover this anthology tucked onto my audio shelf. I've read/listened to a few different British mystery writers, but I mostly stuck to those and read their backlists instead of expanding into more of the genre. That was an error because I discovered several authors that I hadn't heard of or hadn't gotten around to that were fabulously entertaining when I caught their stories and bios in this entertaining collection.

Bodies from the Library is a classic mystery lovers' dream. Tony Medawar curated a sampling from several authors and some of these were never-before-published or lesser known works of the authors. What was also a tremendous extra was the fascinating author bios included with each story that I found as entertaining as the stories themselves.

As with any collection, I preferred some stories and some writing styles more than others. But, I am happy to report that I didn't dislike any of these. Even those that didn't do much for me had enjoyable elements and I enjoyed exploring the familiar mystery elements that were popular in the era from wildly improbable murder elements and character intuition to the historical backdrops themselves. Most stories were set in England, but a couple were in other countries. Some were from the eyes of the murderer, some from the detective, and some from interested third parties. I loved the variety.

I chose this anthology for what it was, but also I couldn't resist a previous unpublished Georgette Heyer or reading a mystery from the author of Winnie-the-Pooh, A.A. Milne. These were good, but turns out that some of the others ended up being fab.

Philip Bretherton was a new to me narrator, but I enjoyed his narration voice and the voices of the characters, accents, pacing, and tone of the stories. He caught the subtleties like humor and menace just great.

All in all, this was a scrumptious smorgasbord of short stories and a fab collection that I know I'll be returning to and using it as a jumping board to try more from these authors. I'll definitely be listening to the rest of the series. Definitely recommend to British classic mystery fans.

Good collection of short stories

This is a nice collection of short stories -- some very short -- that range from excellent to good. I don't remember a bad one in the bunch, though of course some are more dated than others. Definitely worthwhile.