I used this collection of thirteen Christmas-themed Golden Age detective short stories as a sampler to help me decide which writers to read in 2019.

I found two authors I want to read more of. Most of the rest were entertaining but not enticing.

The stories I enjoyed most were both by women.

"The Case Is Altered" by Majory Allinghamwas my first experience of an Albert Campion story. The plot was satisfying without getting too fantastical.

The strength of the story came from how vividly and convincingly Allingham describes a luxurious Country House Christmas Party. I was disarmed by the regretful reluctance that Campion brings to the business of solving mysteries. It's a pleasant change from the egocentric do-you-see-how-clever-I've-been? behaviours of other amateur detectives of the period. I'll be giving the first Campion book, "The Crime At Black Dudley"a try.

"Waxworks" by Ethel Lina White, the story of a young reporter who hides herself away in a waxworks to get a story about whether it's haunted, worked for me because it felt fresh and energetic and still managed to generate moments of menace. The gender politics in the story are awful but I doubt that much is different today except for a litigation-reducing veneer of we-treat-our-women-well words. I'm going to try "The Wheel Spins" which Hitchcock made into "The Lady Vanishes".

"Cambric Tea" by Marjorie Bowen showed great skill in creating an atmosphere of menace and paranoia that was quite disturbing, even if the thinly drawn characters were a little unlikely.

"The Chinese Apple" by Marjorie Bowen writing as Joseph Shearing was probably the darkest story in the book. The two women in this story, both strong, neither attracted by duty, each determined to take the steps needed to distance themselves from their unpleasant childhoods, are brilliantly drawn and disturbingly credible.  I'd love to read more of Marjorie Bowen writing in this way but none of the books seem to be in print.

Of all the stories written by women in this collection, Dorothy L Sayers' "The Necklace Of Pearls" made the least impression on me. I found it a bit thin. Peter Wimsey struck me as bloodless and the humour, while it did make me smile, all stemmed from making fun of people's weaknesses. It didn't leave me wanting to find a Wimsey book.

On the whole, the stories by men were weaker than the stories by women.

"The Name On The Window" by Edmund Crispinis not so much a story as a logic teaser with just enough story wrapped around it to get the punchline delivered.

"Stuffing" by Edgar Wallace, I skimmed and then skipped. He's a writer who I have never enjoyed. I find him false. He is glossy and self-assured and has some smart ideas but I don't believe him. I see too much disdain for his own characters beneath the shiny veneer of his prose. So, I skipped him. Which doesn't mean you should. Although I would if I were you.

"A Problem In White" by Nicholas Whiteis a board game with archetypes rather than people and answers on a cheat sheet at the end of the book rather than in a formal denouement. This is either innovative, pre-figuring interactive media or it's the height of laziness.

"The Absconding Treasurer" by J. Jefferson Farjeonis competent but bloodless, uses humour that rather looks down on country folk and a detective who is a plot device rather than a person.

I had high hopes of G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown story "The Flying Stars"but after several pages of waffling text stuffed with clichéd characters that the author seemed to hold in contempt, I no longer cared what happened to the jewels or any of the people in the story, so I abandoned it.

"Parlour Tricks" by Ralph Plummer is an amuse-bouche, well described by its title. A small conceit worked into a small parcel of entertainment. Nothing memorable but nothing to object to either.

"A Happy Solution" by Raymund Allen I skipped as it seems to have been written for chess players and so was beyond me.

"Beef For Christmas" by Leo Bruce raises the game a bit with a clever puzzle and a playful twist on the Holmes/Watson dynamic by having Beef, the detective, as blunt and laconic. The crime itself requires such suspension of disbelief that it would fit well in a pantomime.

"The Unknown Murderer" by H. C. Bailey was a welcome surprise. His Dr Fortune character rather charmed me for being not in the least bit charming. I liked his "natural man" stance and his preference for being really quite good at many things but not truly expert in anything, except perhaps seeing people clearly and acting on what he sees.

Standing head and shoulders over the work of the other male authors is Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Blue Carbuncle". It's a light piece of Christmas whimsey, told in an unremarkable linear manner. What sets it apart is the confident economy of the writing and the skilful presentation of Sherlock Holmes' ravenous curiosity and unassailable self-esteem. This story is as much a gem as the object it revolves around.

On the whole, it's pretty much a safe bet that just about any anthology collection is bound to be hit or miss: some stories will hit all the marks, while others will be, at best, 'meh'.

Silent Nights is one of the rare ones where even the weaker stories are better than average. I reviewed the first 4 here, but here are my thoughts concerning the remaining stories.

Stuffing by Edgar Wallace - ★★★  There was a definite The Blue Carbuncle vibe to this story.  It was short, and amusing, and was amongst the stories in this book with the most Christmas spirit.  It was short and told in third person so even though I really enjoyed it, it was hard to rate it higher.

The Unknown Murderer by H.C. Bailey - ★★★1/2  This one was just plain weird, but oddly satisfying.  Twisted story / mystery, but the ending was unsatisfactory.  I wanted more information.

The Absconding Treasurer by J. Jefferson Farjeon - ★★★  I'm not sure I'm destined to be a Farjeon fan.  This is the second story I've read by him and I'm left feeling short changed.  I liked the writing, but the mystery was really non-existent.  The investigator doesn't share his thoughts with the reader - or the clues - so you're with him for almost the entire story, and then suddenly he goes for a walk, finds a body and voila! knows the solution to the entire mystery.  The writing saves this from a 2 star story though.

The Necklace of Pearls by Dorothy L. Sayers - ★★★★  I'm a fan of Whimsey, so even though Sayers pulls something of a Farjeon in this short story, I find I didn't mind quite as much.  Even though I don't think the reader gets enough information to solve the mystery, we do at least get all the elements, making it easy to see where Whimsey is going.  And the crime's concealment was freaking ingenious.

The Case is Altered by Marjory Allingham - ★★★  The fact that I had to look this one up again because I remembered nothing about it probably says more than I can for the story.  It's not bad, nor badly written, it just wasn't memorable.

Waxworks by Ethel Lina White - ★★★★★  I was sure I was going to dislike this one when I read the author intro, where Edwards highlights the author's focus on writing suspense stories.  But oh man this one was so good!  Even though I knew how it was going to turn out - really, everything about the first part of the story made the ending inevitable - I had no idea how that ending was going to happen.  I was expecting something far less subtle than I got, and that subtlety, and the twisty bit, was what made the story so good.

Cambric Tea by Marjorie Bowen - ★★★  This story started out promising to be another 5 star, but in a gothic vain, but lost steam at the very end, with a disappointingly weak ending that felt the result of the author writing herself into a corner and then copping out.

The Chinese Apple by Joseph Shearing - ★★★  Oddly enough, as this is written by the same author as Cambric Tea under a pseudonym, this story's problem was the exact opposite of Cambric Tea's:  weak build up and a solid ending.   What is supposed to be the plot twist was obvious to me from the start; but the ending was so satisfying it scored extra points from me.

A Problem in White by Nicholas Blake - ★★★★1/2  An Encyclopaedia Brown type of mystery!  I had a very hard time at the start figuring out the characters - the author gave them all nicknames, then two pages in gave them their proper names, confusing me to no end.  But Blake gives the reader all the clues and then doesn't give the solution - it's at the back of the book, allowing readers to try to guess whodunnit without being influenced.  (I haven't had a guess yet, because I need to re-read it again now that I have a better idea of who is who.)

The Name on the Window by Edmund Crispin - ★★★★  I really enjoyed the writing in this one an awful lot, which made the abrupt ending to the 'locked room' mystery easier to put up with.  I'll definitely be reading more Crispin.

Beef for Christmas by Leo Bruce - ★★★★1/2  I've read Bruce's other series involving the Professor and I like him as a main character better, but Beef's a very clever man and the writing was top notch.  The reader doesn't get all the facts, but the story compensates; this one felt far more complete than a lot of short stories often do.

Book themes for Advent: Read a book with a wreath or with pines or fir trees on the cover.

Silent Nights is the first of (at this point) two Christmas mystery short story anthologies in the British Library's "Crime Classics" series, edited by Martin Edwards. The anthology combines stories by well-known and -remembered authors (e.g., Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Wallace, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Margery Allingham) with stories by authors who, even if they may have been household names in their own time -- and many were members of the illustrious Detection Club -- have since been rolled over by the wheels of time; not always deservedly so.

The standout story in the collection is doubtlessly Arthur Conan Doyle's The Blue Carbuncle (one of my all-time favorite Sherlock Holmes adventures that shows both ACD and his protagonists Holmes and Watson at their absolute best), but I enjoyed almost all of the stories -- in varying degrees, and not all of them were apt to make me want to go on reading an entire novel by the same author, but several did; and thus, I am glad that I have extended my "Detection Club / Golden Age crime fiction quest" to the likes of J. Jefferson Farjeon, Ethel Lina White, Edmud Crispin, Leo Bruce, and Nicholas Blake (better known as Cecil Day-Lewis, poet laureate and father of actor Daniel Day-Lewis).

Like any collection of short stories, this one is a mixed bag. Martin Edwards is, of course, an expert in the stories and authors selected here, but as with his other selections, and indeed any other selection, his tastes and favourites are somewhat different to mine.

And, let's not forget that some authors are better at writing short stories than others. The authors selected for this collection seem to represent some of the big names of mystery writing, but not necessarily the ones who were good at shorts.

The Blue Carbuncle (Arthur Conan Doyle) - 5*

One of my all-time favourites.

Parlour Tricks (Ralph Plummer) - 3*

Quick and fun but not difficult to solve.

A Happy Solution (Raymond Allen) - 2.5*

Convoluted.

The Flying Stars (G.K. Chesterton) - 3.5*

Ah, Father Brown, you observer of human frailty. Far superior to old biddy Marple but quite quaint ... unless you happen to catch the BBC tv series or the 1960s German adaptation.

Stuffing (Edgar Wallace) - 4*

Typical Wallace humour, I'd say.

The Unknown Murderer (H.C. Bailey) - 3.5*

Dark and unsettlingly evil.

The Absconding Treasurer (J. Jefferson Farjeon) - 2*

This one just felt like a rushed listing of plot points and character names. 

The Necklace of Pearls (Dorothy L. Sayers) - 4*

A fun Christmas country house jewel theft story.

The Case if Altered (Margery Allingham) - 3.5*

A fun Christmas country house espionage story.

Waxworks (Ethel Lina White) - 4.5*

Waxworks turned out to be brilliant, tho probably better at home in a horror collection.

Cambric Tea (Marjorie Bowen) - 2.5*

Meh. Great concept but too drawn out. I guess, the length meant to give time for the suspicions to develop and linger, but it didn't quite work for me. Also, I had predicted the ending rather early on.

The Chinese Apple (Joseph Shearing) - 2*

This one just did not grab me at all. In fact, I had to read several paragraphs two or three times, and still managed to fall asleep.

A Problem in White (Nicholas Blake) - 2.5*

I should have enjoyed this one more than I did - we had a number of clues to solve the puzzle and I loved the setting: starting on a train and with a background story of a great train robbery. (And I actually had to imagine P.D. with the voice of Sean Connery - until he said he was "English on the outside, Scotch on the inside"...).

However, this one struck me as one where the author wanted to let us know how incredibly clever he is, and that dampened my enjoyment.  

The Name on the Window (Edmund Crispin) - 3*

This was an interesting one, but then I do love a locked room mystery.

Beef for Christmas (Leo Bruce) - 3*

Much like The Name on the Window, this one was fun, even tho it bears a remarkable resemblance to a certain story featuring a certain Belgian gent.  

I'm reading this with BrokenTune and Themis Athena as a buddy read and since it's a book of short stories, I'm marking my status updates as reviews for the individual stories I've read to date.

My 4 stars is a sorta/kinda average of the three stories, which I've rated individually below.

I skipped The Blue Carbuncle - well, I skimmed it, because it's one of my favourite ACD/Holmes stories - as I've read it several times before and I like to save it for re-read right at Christmas.  But if you've never read it and would like to experience Sherlock Holmes, and want something seasonally appropriate, start with this one; it's fun and an excellent mystery!

Parlour Tricks by Ralph Plummer - ★★★  Edwards (the editor of this anthology) believes this is the first time this short story has ever been reprinted after it's first appearance in a Christmas Annual of 1930.  Nothing is known of the author.  It's a short story and it has a suggestion of cleverness to it, but mostly I found it just o.k.  It's very short and one of those stories that start in the middle of things, leaving the reader to struggle to figure out who is who and what is happening.  Just about the time that's all sorted, the story is over.  

A Happy Solution by Raymond Allen - ★★★★  I admit, when I saw in the introduction that the story used chess as a plot point I expected to be bored.  Because like all things space related, chess is one of those things I should like, but don't.  I get bored.  I suspect if I'd been taught to play speed chess I'd like it better, but never mind.  The point is, I was wrong - this story was pretty good!  Chess figured in, but other factors play into the plot too; factors that are much more interesting to me.  Allen also does a very good job drawing the characters, making this a much more satisfying short story.

The Flying Stars by G.K. Chesterton - ★★★★½  Confession:  a few months ago I announced I could not read any more Chesterton because I'd read two of his works and both left me feeling like he was just entirely too flowery and verbose for my tastes.  But something felt a bit... off, after I wrote that and I soon figured out why:  I'd mentally conflated him and Christopher Morley.  Which is absolutely as embarrassing as you'd imagine it would be.  It would be nice to take the easy out and blame it on age, but honestly I've always done this - someone in the mists of my adolescence tried to teach me memory tricks and it backfired, and now I get odd connections 'stuck' in my head. 

Knowing this, I was sheepish, but determined to read this story, and I'm glad I did.  It's my first Father Brown story, and even though I did not like the other short story of his I'd read, The White Pillars Murder (and yes, I'm certain that one was his - I checked), I did like this one.  It was all the things White Pillars wasn't: focused, concise, well-plotted, and interesting.  Father Brown's presence is subtle, but never sidelined, and the plot was really well done.  Even though I felt like the characterisations spotlighted the guilty party, the story never felt predictable.  I'll gladly read more of Chesterton's Father Brown.  Although I'm still not going near Morley's other stuff.