Toward the Golden Age: The Stories That Turned Crime to Gold by Mike Ashley

I love old mysteries.  They mainly used brain power to solve their crimes.  Now we have all these fancy techniques but in the early 1900's they only had their own personal skills.  This collection has the first Father Brown mystery, several stories only in magazines, and some new authors for me as well as characters I enjoy reading about.  This is a good compilation for those of us who like short stories and mystery stories both.

Dover Publications and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It has been published, so you can grab a copy now.

I was pleasantly surprised to see so many women as detectives.  This was an era where women should be seen but not heard.  However, these ladies are not short in brain power and many of them use intuition to help solve cases.  I liked that.  I'd never met Lady Molly before, but I'd read more about her.

There are fifteen stories, all written from 1905 to 1921.  They are well written and enjoyable to read.  My favorite was The Crime at Big Tree Portage by Hesketh Prichard.  I hadn't read his work before and his style reminded me a bit of Jack London.  There's been a murder but there's no evidence.  He reasons out who it must have been, but when he's heard the whole story it changes things.  Stories that end unexpectedly add to my reading enjoyment.

All of these are worth the read.  Some are more entertaining than others.  As I settled down and read, I found characters I'd met before and it was like visiting with an old friend.  Maybe you'll find a few in here, too.