Having spent months immersed in detective series set in the 1920s (but written now), I thought I’d cap off my mania with a re-read of The Mammoth Book of Roaring Twenties Whodunnits, from 2004. Most of the stories here are original to this anthology, a few are reprints from the 1930s to 1980s, and three are reprints of stories actually written and published in the 1920s. As with all anthologies, my favourite stories may not be yours; that said, I especially enjoyed “There Would Have Been Murder” by Ian Morson, involving a fledgling Communist party cell in England attempting to start a revolution; “Someone” by Michael Collins, about the uneasy pact between cops and mobsters in Prohibition-era NYC; Marilyn Todd’s “Thoroughly Modern Millinery,” where the heist revolves around the right hat; “The Hope of the World” by Mat Coward, another Communist Revolution story, this time set in a country house complete with aristocratic communists; Hulbert Footner’s “Putting Crime Over,” a novella published in 1926 and featuring a very clever woman; 1928’s “The Broadcast Murder” by Grenville Robbins, which uses then-new technology to great effect; “Without Fire” by Tom Holt, dealing with murder on an ocean liner; and Archibald Pechey’s 1928 story “The Man Who Scared the Bank,” which also features a very clever woman. This sounds like a lot of stories, but there are 23 in total, all of which have their merits. Quite a lot of fun; recommended, especially if you, like me, have during this Pandemic experienced a period of madness concerning the last, historic Roaring Twenties! ( )

I've read a couple of Mike Ashley's Mammoth anthologies and really enjoyed them. He's quite talented at collecting a cohesive set of stories, some of them quite obscure. This one was The Mammoth Book of Roaring Twenties Whodunnits and I thought ten of the twenty three stories were great fun. The others dealt with boxers and mobsters, things I'm really not interested in. I was hoping for more Bright Young Things but that's okay. It was fun to immerse myself in another time and to meet all sorts of crazy characters, even the ones I found distasteful. I've jotted down a couple of authors to investigate in the future and I look forward to my next Mammoth book.

http://webereading.com/2014/07/short-story-summer-update-one.html ( )

A fun anthology of mysteries set in the 1920s. My favourite was one of the few in the collection actually written in that decade: "Putting Crime Over" by [a:Hulbert Footner|1431001|Hulbert Footner|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] in which Mme Rosika Storey and her secretary turn to crime to catch the mastermind behind the city's criminal gangs.