I adored this class mystery collection of short stories! It was phenomenal to learn about some more "Golden Age" detectives and would recommend this to any mystery reader! I would recommend this for a mystery book club as there is something for everyone!

Thanks to Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Books, Penguin Classics Publishers for the Arc! This is a great collection of stories showcasing some classic mystery writers over the last 100 or so years. I'm not going to comment or review the original stories, rather the introduction by Michael Sims and the biographies of the authors posted before their story. To be honest, the introduction was over-written and I ended up skimming most of it. It was a lot of words to really not describe much. It read more like a thesis paper than the introduction to a collection of fictional stories. It wasn't poorly written, just too many details (multiple examples for each statement, comparisons). The same goes for the biographies. They were just too long. A good edit with just the most interesting & pertinent information would be helpful here. I don't think many people read the introductions in these collection style books, especially when they're so long. I'd suggest the editors shorten before release.

This was a great anthology of mysteries. Even as a fan of the genre, I hadn't read some of these so I came up with new authors to read. Recommended.

Reviewed for Mystery and Suspense magazine.
The Penguin Book of Murder Mysteries by Michael Sims is an anthology of crime stories, most featuring a crime-fighting detective, with a dead body (or two) and a murderer on the loose. Most of the novels featured in Mysteries are from the nineteenth century, and all of the stories in the collection had authors who were relatively unknown to me.
There were thirteen stories in all, with male and female authors from England, Scotland, Ireland, the USA, and Canada, and Sims does an excellent job collecting and organizing them. Some of the stories are selected for obvious reasons (such as The Red Room by Canadian author Mary Fortune, being the first story featuring a female detective written by a female, and The Sheriff’s Children by American Charles W. Chestnutt, being the only novel in the collection written by a Black writer, for example), but all of them have a few things in common – they are creative, engaging, and entertaining!
Mysteries features fiction stories, obviously, but to ensure due diligence, Sims includes a blurb to introduce each story with details on the author, country of origin, and any relevant facts about the author, the publications, or the story itself, which were extremely helpful in providing important background. The stories themselves are short, making them easy to read in one sitting!
Sims brings to light authors who have since vanished into history, and I appreciate his careful re-introduction. Some of the authors were inspired by Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and some were inspirations for the literary greats that are now household names.
Each story begins with a murder and, on average, features someone who has been unjustly charged for the crime. A detective, male or female, comes on the scene and tries to deduce the true murderer, and the story is generally (and satisfyingly) resolved within a handful of pages. The stories were similar in theme and in writing style, but they were unique enough to be identified as having different writers, and it was obvious why Sims picked this particular collection of writers as they play very well together.
The Penguin Book of Murder Mysteries is perfect for fans of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie, and for readers who enjoy the historical component of the nineteenth century. The stories are witty and ahead of their time, and I loved each of Sims’ carefully collated selections. This is one novel that a crime reader will not want to miss.

A great anthology of 19th century murder mystery stories, each introduced with helpful historical background and insightful commentary on the genre.

This is a collection of 13 short stories about murder and attempted murder. The stories were written from the early 1800s to early 1900s, mostly set in England. The Introduction was an odd, rambling treatise that went on for 4% of the book, and I'd recommend skipping it. Some of the author bios were nearly as long as their story, and the stories were so short that none were puzzle mysteries.

Only about 5 stories really fit the genre of "murder mystery," with actual crime-solving, clues, and justice. Several of the stories didn't have a murdered victim. Only a few had a detective (amateur or professional), and even those stories were usually solved by a chance happening. Sometimes the criminal was not found or wasn't arrested. Once, there wasn't even a crime, just a mystery solved by chance (though I do like that one and have read it before).

Some stories seemed more about ethics than justice. For example, an innocent man committed suicide because he couldn't prove he didn't murder someone. Another story talked about the ethics of providing a confessed murderer what he needed to commit suicide. Overall, this collection wasn't really what I expected from the title and I didn't really care for it. There were only a few uses of bad language. There was no sex.

I enjoyed reading this collection of mystery stories from many authors of which I was not aware. These types of publications introduce me to new authors to check out in the future. Overall a good mix of stories and one I would reccommend.

As with any anthology, this was a bit of a hit or miss for me. Overall, it is a great sampler of stories for fans of the classic mystery genre. It's a book and you can pick up and put down with ease.

Thank you for an ARC of The Penguin Book of Murder Mysteries.

This is an interesting collection of murder mysteries written by authors I've never heard of.

They're very old timey, fun timey, in that the mystery is very simple and basic, while the details and exposition is very wordy, formal, and verbose, typical for writing in those days, I've noticed.

These stories weren't for me, not to mention the lengthy background on each author and his/her works didn't help, either.

Most readers don't read intros, especially long ones.