Guilty Creatures (British Library Crime Classics): A Menagerie of Mysteries: 91

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It’s always a joy to receive one of the latest British Library Crime Classics releases through the post, and this clever anthology of short stories, Guilty Creatures – a Menagerie of Mysteries, is no exception to the rule. (My thanks to the publishers for kindly providing a review copy.) Included here are fourteen vintage mysteries, each featuring an animal, bird or invertebrate of some description as an integral component in the case. As Martin Edwards notes in his introduction: Since the dawn of the crime fiction genre, animals of all kinds have played a memorable part in countless mysteries, and in a variety of roles: the perpetrator, the key witness, the sleuth’s trusted companion. This collection of fourteen stories corrals plots centred around cats, dogs and insects alongside more exotic incidents involving gorillas, parakeets and serpents -- complete with a customary shoal of red herrings. Ham. I heard thee speak me a speech once, but it was never acted; or if it was, not above once; for the play, I remember, pleas'd not the million, 'twas caviary to the general; but it was (as I receiv'd it, and others, whose judgments in such matters cried in the top of mine) an excellent play, well digested in the scenes, set down with as much modesty as cunning. I remember one said there were no sallets in the lines to make the matter savoury, nor no matter in the phrase that might indict the author of affectation; but call'd it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine. One speech in't I chiefly lov'd. 'Twas Aeneas' tale to Dido, and thereabout of it especially where he speaks of Priam's slaughter. If it live in your memory, begin at this line- let me see, let me see: Solving the death depends on interpreting the actions of the family dog. Father Brown likes dogs, but refuses to believe in the mutt as an omniscient being who sees into the souls of men. He scorns this as a reversion to paganism with its mystical gods who take the forms of animals. I love his sweeping statement, "It's the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense and can't see things as they are." That's telling 'em, Father. Ham. 'Tis well. I'll have thee speak out the rest of this soon.-- Good my lord, will you see the players well bestow'd? Do you hear? Let them be well us'd; for they are the abstract and

Act 2, Scene 2 - Video Note: The Play Within the Play

Do you ever think about your Olympian-like power, as the author of this article does, when smushing a bug? Does it make you think twice? I was so pleasantly surprised by this anthology. To be honest, I usually favor full-length novels over short story collections, but I had a great time reading this. There was so much variety in tone and style, so it never felt redundant or repetitive. The story introductions by editor Martin Edwards also gave some great insight into each of the writers and their careers—thanks to this, my TBR list just got even longer!hesitate. He looks like maybe he’s not having such a great day already. Getting smushed is the last thing this guy needs. The Man Who Hated Earthworms” by Edgar Wallace (Pamela’s pa) is awful, Garnett Radcliffe’s 1938 “Pit of Screams” was simply unreadable, and the rest forgettable. That includes G.K. Chesterton’s “The Oracle of the Dog” (1923) and “The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane” (1926), which is not up to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s usual standard (as is true of many of Conan Doyle’s later stories).

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Ham. We'll ha't to-morrow night. You could, for a need, study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines which I would set down and insert in't, could you not?

SARAH: As it turns out, Hamlet's idea to cause a criminal to confess by using a play would have been reasonable to Shakespeare's audience. There were numerous accounts at the time of criminals being so moved by a play that they confessed their crimes. These accounts were useful for playwrights and producers who were anxious to defend the theatre against those who argued that the theatre promoted immoral behavior. I love the cover of Guilty Creatures: A Menagerie of Mysteries. It’s one of the most recent collections from British Library Crime Classics. As always, Martin Edwards edited the collection, and wrote the introduction to this anthology of stories involving the animal kingdom. As Edwards says, animals may be “victims, witnesses, even detectives” in the stories. And, occasionally they are the villains of the piece as well. But, neither Edwards nor I will point readers in the direction of the animal as villain. You’ll have to read the stories yourself.

Guilty Creatures: A Menagerie of Mysteries - Goodreads Guilty Creatures: A Menagerie of Mysteries - Goodreads

The Yellow Slugs by HC Bailey – a Reggie Fortune story. He is called in by Superintendent Bell to a troubling case. A small boy was seen trying to drown his little sister. Both survived and are in hospital. There seems little doubt that the boy meant to kill her, but Reggie wants to know why. He believes that there must have been a very strong reason for a child of that age to act that way, especially since the boy seems to love his sister. This is a chilling and disturbing story. I’ve read a couple of Fortune stories where children have been involved and they seem to bring out his strong sense of justice and an underlying anger, presumably the author’s, at some of the social concerns of the day. The title tells you which creature is involved, but you’ll need to read it if you want to know how! This was rather a stolid bunch with nothing very outstanding but nothing too awful either. It was just... middling.

Pol. The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral; scene individable, or poem unlimited. Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the liberty, these are the only men. However, I’m afraid most of the tales left me cold. The Man who Hated Earthworms; Pit of Screams; and The Man Who Loved Animals are not mysteries at all and one wonders why they were included. Bailey’s The Yellow Slugs was disappointing. Reggie Fortune is hard going and this tale just wasn’t worth the effort. Moreover, they can also provide – or indeed uncover – vital clues in the investigations, as illustrated by some of the best stories showcased here. So some excellent and varied stories and, as always, despite the varying quality in these anthologies, they are a great way of being introduced to new authors to look out for. This was the most entertaining of the lot, for some reason. The characters in this are all unlikeable, but given the duration of the time we spend with them, it was quite surprising how easy it was to form opinions on what could have happened and what to think of the people themselves. A man is cheating on his wife quite brazenly, and his mistress is found dead after his visit. The cats are definitely important here.(5 stars)