An anthology of classic murder mysteries - the unfamiliar, the unjustly forgotten, and little-known gems by the most famous practitioners

A Penguin Classic

These are not the usual suspects. When Edgar finalist Michael Sims formed the line-up for The Penguin Book of Murder, he did not include the familiar classics that you can find anywhere. Although he wanted to explore the first century of murder mysteries (from 1827 to 1924), he sought out the unfamiliar, the unjustly forgotten, and a few little-known gems by famous practitioners.

The mystery of a bloody murder has been a perennially classic theme, drawing readers to examine what motivates heinous crimes and how the investigative procedure takes us behind the scenes of tragedy. These stories from the 19th and early 20th centuries introduce the earliest detectives, both male and female, that inspired iterations from BBC radio dramas to American television. Sims’s selections showcase evil masterminds, suspect narrators, early female detectives, shipboard murders, and psychological and scientific inquiries. And then, there are Clue-like titles such as The Case of the Pool of Blood in the Pastor’s Study that a modern murder mystery fan can’t resist.

The Penguin Book of Murder features stories by classic authors such as Anton Chekhov, Louisa May Alcott, and Charles W. Chesnutt along with early crime writing luminaries, such as Austrian novelist Augusta Groner and the prolific American Geraldine Bonner. Surprises include a dark Irish detective story published 14 years before Poe’s Dupin investigated the doings in the Rue Morgue-sixty years before the debut of Sherlock Holmes-and a Canadian First Nations detective who investigated a century before Dana Stabenow introduced Kate Shugak.