The Verdict of Us All: Stories by the Detection Club for H.R.F. Keating

by Peter Lovesey

Lovesey, Peter, Ed., Verdict Of Us All, Stories By The Detection Club For H.R.F. Keating

Genres: Short Stories

222 pages, Hardcover

First published November 13, 2006

About the author

Peter Harmer Lovesey, also known by his pen name Peter Lear, was a British writer of historical and contemporary detective novels and short stories. His best-known series characters are Sergeant Cribb, a Victorian-era police detective based in London, and Peter Diamond, a modern-day police detective in Bath. He was also one of the world's leading track and field statisticians.

Reviews

[Les Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

In honour of H.R.F. Keating's 80th birthday, his fellow Detection Club members and the leading lights in crime fiction serve up a new selection of tantalising conundrums.The stories are:

Lionel Davidson — Tuesday's Child
Len Deighton — Sherlock Holmes and the Titanic Swindle
Reginald Hill — Uncle Harry
Colin Dexter — The Case of the Curious Quorum
P. D. James — Hearing Ghote
Liza Cody — Kali in Kensington Gardens
Catherine Aird — Perfidious Albion
Peter Lovesey — Popping Round to the Post
James Melville — Mayhem at Mudchester
Andrew Taylor — Keeping My Head
Tim Heald — Bearded Wonders
Robert Barnard — Sisters Under the Skin
Simon Brett — Initial Impact
June Thomson — A Case for Inspector Ghote
Michael Z Lewin — Friends of the Garrick
Jonathan Gash — Bundobast on Voyage
Michael Hartland — Different Time, Different Place
H.R.F. Keating — Arkady Nikolaivich

[Linda Amos · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short stories by famous authors who are members of The Detection Club. The book is a celebration for H.R.F Keating's 80th birthday and includes a special story by him.
Some authors I had heard of but not read. They will now be on my reading list. One or two I just didn't get, but I'm hoping that will be remedied when I read a full length novel.

[Louise Bath · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a collection of 17 stories written to celebrate the 80th birthday of HRF Keating in 2006 and features the work of many well-known crime writers belonging to the Detection Club.

My own favourites include Colin Dexter's The Curious Quorum, Hearing Ghote by PD James, Popping Round To The Post by Peter Lovesey, Keeping My Head (I forget by whom), and Simon Brett's tale written entirely in rhyme, Initial Impact. Ironically, one of the best stories is Arkady Nicolaivich by HRF Keating himself.

But for me, a major issue with this compilation is the fact that it *was* written to celebrate HRF Keating's 80th birthday. It's great that fans of the individual authors get to read their contributions, but I found this collection *read* like something put together to celebrate someone's career. To say that the stories that feature HRF Keating himself in some fashion are buttock clenchingly oleaginous is no exaggeration. It's toe-curling at times.

It's the sort of collection that would be great to compile and distribute to all the members of the Detection Club, say, but shouldn't necessarily be made available to the general reading public.

It's not a bad read, all the same.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didnt enjoy going from one writer's style to another. The stories were fine but i would have preferred stories all written by the same author

[Simon Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was hard to get. Hope its worth it.
Sorry to say it wasn't. Very few of
Stories where enjoyable. Think many
Of authors where trying to be too clever.