Resorting to Murder: Holiday Mysteries

Fans of classic British mysteries will welcome this anthology of 14 vacation-themed stories, most of them published during the first half of the 20th century. As Edwards points out in his introduction, "Holidays offer us the luxury of getting away from it all. So, in a different way, do detective stories." Tales by familiar names in the genre include Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot," a Sherlock Holmes story set in Cornwall, and G.K. Chesterton's "The Finger of Stone," in which art-loving English tourists in France come across a murder sans body. Anthony Berkeley's obscure "Razor Edge" centers on a bathing accident that is anything but. Other hard-to-find selections include Phyllis Bentley's "Where Is Mr. Manetot?," Helen Simpson's "A Posteriori," and Leo Bruce's "Holiday Task." This volume in Poisoned Pen's British Library Crime Classics series is ideal summer vacation reading. (June)