A Treasury of Great Mysteries. Volume 2 Edited By Howard Haycraft \u0026 John Beecroft 1957 by Howard Haycraft

A Treasury of Great Mysteries. Volume 2 Edited By Howard Haycraft \u0026 John Beecroft 1957 Reviews

• 
  Jerry

  This is a far more blockbuster collection of great mysteries than
  the second volume, though, like the second volume, the final story doesn’t really strike me as a mystery. Journey Into Fear is more of a thriller; there is no actual mystery in it.
  
  The volume opens with one of the most famous mystery stories of all time, Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Calais Coach, though most people will know it by the movie title, Murder on the Orient Express, which is also the title it originally went under in its United Kingdom printing. The story begins in far countries still familiar to us and still in the news: Aleppo in Syria, and into ‘Jugo-Slavia’.
  
  By now pretty much everyone who reads mysteries and many who do not know the story, but it remains a masterful read.
  
  From Agatha Christie the volume goes immediately into a Perry Mason story with the very Masonesque title The Case of the Crimson Kiss. And there is a Christmas story with Inspector Maigret by Georges Simenon about the Christmas gift he gives his wife. It is a lovely holiday tale.
  
  And there’s a convoluted Ellery Queen with a disappearing house.
  
  The final two stories are also famous as movies. William Irish’s Rear Window relies a lot more on coincidences compared to the movie; it’s a neat idea but weak as a mystery or thriller because of that.
  
  Journey Into Fear (1940) is a nice bookend as it references Murder on the Calais Coach (1933), I think. I haven’t seen the movie based off of this story, but I now want to. The story began somewhat clumsily; the writing wasn’t up to par with the rest of the stories in the collection. But about a third of the way through I stopped caring; it is a very compelling thriller. A good story can overcome mediocre writing far more often than the other way around.
  
  This collection excels as an overview of the best of the old-school detective serials. Combined with the second volume it also provides the stories behind some of the best movie and television mysteries.
• 
  Austen to Zafón

  I just have volume I. Good intro to classic mid-20th-century mystery writers like Christie, Allingham, Rinehart, and Erle Stanley Gardner (whose first name must be the most used name in crosswords ever).
• 
  Linda

  Christie - Murder in the Calais Coach - Poirot
  Erle Stanley Gardner - Case of the Crimson Kiss - Perry Mason
  Edgar Wallace - Treasure Hunt
  George Simenon - Maigret's Christmas
  Patrick Quentin - Puzzle for Poppy
  Mary Roberts Rinehart - The Secret
  John Dickson Carr - Incautious Burglar
  Ellery Queen - Lamp of God
  Margery Allingham - Case of the White Elephant
  William Irish - Rear Window
  Eric Ambler - Journey into Fear
• 
  John Lyman

  Great collection of some classic stories. They are old and sometimes a little hard to understand due to slang terms of the time, but most are really great. I hope to read more by some of the authors in this collection. It's sad/strange that there is no title page or table of contents which makes access to the titles and authors awkward at best. I'm not going to read the final "story", which is actually a complete book, Rebecca, because I read it a little over a year ago in book form.
• 
  Robin

  I was disappointed to find John Beecroft was not a writer but and editor. All in all I enjoyed most of the stories. Fun mysteries. I really like Rear Window a lot! A friend found the book in an antique store and thought I'd be interested in the book and if Mr. Beecroft was a relative of mine. I'm sure he is somehow, I just haven't the foggiest on how.
• 
  Ski

  I'll be jumping around with this one. I'm starting with Rex Stout's "Instead of Evidence"