The Man Who Read Mysteries

by William Brittain

It's been worth the wait. One of the authors most requested by Crippen & Landru readers throughout its 25-year history has been mystery writer William Brittain, whose fiction challenges the reader with tricky plots presented in a unique style. For the first time, all of the popular Man Who Read stories and a selection of the Mr. Strang stories have been collected into a single volume. Both series appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine during the mid-years of the 20th century. Sadly, Brittain later forsook mystery fiction to become a children s author, and his YA novel The Wish Giver earned him a Newbery Honor award. This collection was edited by Josh Pachter, who also wrote the introduction and compiled a bibliography of Brittain s many publications.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Short Stories

213 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2018

Reviews

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderful book contains eleven "Man Who Read" stories, and seven cases featuring Mr. Strang.
The tales are witty, charming, fast-paced, and realistic. They are also classic examples of fair-play mystery— where all clues are laid before the reader, thus providing an opportunity as well as a challenge to the reader to solve the mystery.
The book became special due to the warm 'Introduction' as well as a personal 'Afterword'. It also contains a checklist of Brittain's works.

[ShanDizzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful, quirky, palate-cleansing stories for a break in between heavier reading.

[Jameson]

I haven't finished this yet. Three stories in and the typos and errors are killing me. What is going on at Crippen & Landru? How come every review isn't moaning about this?! It's obnoxious. The Kindle edition, and probably the paperback, is horribly formatted and littered with errors and typos. Awful.

[Theunis Snyman · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a treat. To have all the men, or women, who read stories by some great detective authors in one collection together with some of the mister Strang stories is really something special. The publisher Crippen and Landru has done us a great service to publish this collection in the Lost Classics series. It’s a pity that there was not enough space for all the mister Strang stories. We can only hope that they will appear in a future volume of the Lost Classics. Mister Strang is a teacher in a secondary school who solves some really baffling murders. There are, if I remember rightly, even two locked room murders. A delight to read.

[John Marr · Rating 5 out of 5]

A excellent collection of short stories from a long time EQMM/AHMM contributor. "The Man Who..." stories (collected here in toto) are clever pastiches with mystery fans getting to solve real life mysteries in the style of their favorite sleuths, while the Mr. Strang stories pit a delightfully choleric high school science teacher against a series of cleverly conceived puzzle crimes. Highly recommended to anyone who owns more than 10 issues of EQMM/AHMM.

[C.A. Knutsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun collection of short stories

An entertaining collection of short stories. I haven't read anything of this author before. He does a good job of introducing characters and the situation very quickly and then presents the entertaining solution to whatever problem needs to be solved

[John Keeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sorry Not My Kind Of Book

I will be honest - this book didn’t interest me. A couple of the stories were interesting but overall I just couldn’t get into them. I read about half and then gave up.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review for The Man who Read Mysteries

I absolutely loved it! I’m glad this collection was made. Wonderful stories and I love the character of Mr. Strang. This is a must read series! I can’t wait for the next book!

[Larry Keeton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific Stories from an Early Master

If you're a student of mystery short stories, these are a must read! Britain demonstrates clarity, character, and unusual solutions to these mysteries.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute concept with the mysteries solved in the style of a fictional detective. Less interesting of you don't know the fictional detective. I only read the first story in the second half of the book that involve Mr. Strang, a high-school science teacher.

[Lennart Guldbrandsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable pastiches with a lot of interesting ideas and some clever plots. Bonus points for the well-written foreword (by a friend of Britain's) and afterword (by Britain's daughter).

[Michele bookloverforever · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of intriguing mystery short stories. I enjoyed them.

[Juergen Amling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each “Read” story really got the right tone for the detective.
And I loved to follow the thoughts of Mr. Strang. Would like to read the other stories with him.

[Federico Kereki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading many of these stories a long, long time ago in EQMM, and it was a pleasure being able to read them all again.

[Tin Long Seng RX]

The Man Who Read John Dickson Carr

[Teddi]

Really short mysteries. I'm not a fan of short stories but will read one or two from time to time.

[Macel Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

So happy with this collection. I'm going to look for all books written by this author now.

[Cindy Shortall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a delightful collection of short who-dun-it mysteries, which are solved by fans of various mystery novels. These stories give you the flavor of the classic tales. It was a pleasure to read.

[Lu Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the digital edition, which definitely could have used a proof- reader, but I'm sure the paper edition reads much better.

William Britain's short stories are a joy to read and re-read. This book has two of my favorites: "The Man Who Read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" and "Mr. Strang Performs an Experiment".

[Gowri N. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun collection of stories, with each one a tribute to a famous detective novelist—Christie, Carr, Doyle and so on. The author is clearly a fan of the genre. The stories are real tributes in the sense that the protagonist in each mimics a great detective. Great fun!