The Collected Shakespearean Whodunnits

by Mike Ashley

The Collected Shakespearean Whodunnits ~ Murders and Mysteries based on Shakespeare's Plays (Boxed Set) [Paperback] edited by Mike Ashley

Genres: Mystery, Shakespeare, Anthologies, Short Stories, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical Mystery

862 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Michael Raymond Donald Ashley is the author and editor of over sixty books that in total have sold over a million copies worldwide. He lives in Chatham, Kent.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was going to wait on reviews until I had most of my lists filled out but then I saw how many people hadn't read it yet. This takes people from the pays and turns them into the stars by putting them into detective story situations. A background character of R&J tries to figure out the details of the play for instance. My personal favorite was the shocking mystery of King Lear. Read to find out all about that story.

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

In all honesty, this not one of the better anthologies I have read. At the one third point, I was considering dropping it and at the half way my sighs of frustration were as loud as the sighs of love in a Shakespeare play. However the last four stories go a long way to redeeming the book. Of the 25 stories in here, roughly 15 are a decent read with some 5 or 6 being excellent stories. I will also point out that less than half of the stories really constitute whodunnits and for a hand full calling them mysteries is being overwhelmingly generous.

[Michael K · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ehh, as all anthologies go, it's hard to say that all of these were gems. But I do recommend this particular collection to avid Shakespeare fans.

My opinion might be baised, however; as I only read the spin-offs related to the plays that I have read in their own right.

[Gary M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection that left me wanting to know more about shakey and his works. Now where for art thou my copy of the complete works?

[Jolie · Rating 1 out of 5]

For some reason, one of the things that came to mind as I slogged through this savage wasteland created by otherwise talented writers was a Tolkien quote:
“I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.” I am well-acquainted with the work of several writers in this collection, and Ashley has edited other things I’ve mostly enjoyed. But to call this a slog is an insult to mud. I don’t know half the writers as well as I should like, and I liked less than half the works in this as well as they deserved. Slavishly lavishing Shakespearean language onto excruciatingly contrived mysteries in a desperate attempt to relate stories to the plays? To be or not to be, that is the question. Whether ‘tis nobler to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous prose...and I wish they hadn’t.

[Jim Collett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was certainly an entertaining little book, consisting of mystery short stories, each grounded in a Shakespeare play. One did not have to have read all the plays to appreciate the stories, but I think it helped. And one definitely should have some appreciation of Shakespeare. Like any story anthology, some were better than others. Most were brief and to the point to be enjoyable. Two or three I did not really "get.' Some I thought were clever. The last ones address the issue of whether Shakespeare wrote all or any of the plays and there you probably need to have some idea of the controversies and theories to enjoy them. A nice light read that can be read in any order "As you like it."

[Mbuye · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shakespeare wrote great stuff, but for sure he was not a man for details. Leave it to Mike Ashley to sort these out. This collection by various well-known authors contains mysteries and unexplained details from the plays and works them into plausible detective stories. Not a brilliant collection, but certainly an unusual one. I don't think Shakespeare would have cared, though.

[Ronn · Rating 2 out of 5]

A nice collection of interesting, if not compelling, mysteries based on and featuring characters from Shakespeare's plays. Not bad, not great, not worth seeking out unless you are an absolute Shakespeare geek.

[Jay C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great idea for an anthology, but I am probably lacking the Shakespearean credentials to fully appreciate all the stories. (Plus I’m not necessarily a whodunit fan to begin with.) Several stories were quite enjoyable, but more were frankly a bit of a slog for this reader.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

some excellent stories here - the sequel to The Merchant of Venice for one - but some overlong, over-complicated or plain unconvincing.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this in bits and pieces, so I don't remember the start date (definitely June 2021). It didn't hold my attention very well. There were a few good stories but mostly "meh".

[Eva Müller · Rating 1 out of 5]

In which I am talking to myself:
"So Aoife, tell me again: Did you ever read a crime short-story collection (apart from Sherlock Holmes) you actually liked?"
"Well, there was this one by Pater Tremayne."
"And apart from that?"
"None."
"So why exactly did you think you'd like that one?"
"Because of the connection with Shakespeare. It sounded awesome, that this wouldn't be the 325th story in which an actor is killed during a production od Macbeth but one with has a story where the thre witches do some sleuthing."
"And was it awesome?"
"...no...it was dull."
"So when will you ever learn not to read crime short-story collections?"
"Hopefully very soon."


I read the first few stories (all based on the historical plays) and found them all quite dull and predictable. Then I skimmed forward to those based on my favourite plays and it didn't really get better. The Macbeth- and Hamlet-stories both simply retold the events of the play but the oh-so-amazing twist at the end is that the real villain is not whom we think...I was...unimpressed.
I'm not sure what the authors of the Midsummer Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing-stories thought but it must have been something like "You know what these stories lack? DEATH AND TRAGEDY! There is far to little of this in Shakespeare's work so we'll include some in those plays with a happy ending! Isn't that AWESOME???"
Well...no.

The King-Leir story was weird, too and then I just gave up. I did read the Peter Tremanye-story which wasn't based on a specific play and I enjoyed that one but I won't bother with the rest.

[Dana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a collection of mysteries based on the stories in Shakespeare's plays (along with a couple of mysteries set in Shakespeare's London). A thorough knowledge of the original plays is not required to understand the stories, as each story is preceded with a quick summary of the play's main events and characters. The quality of the stories varies greatly. Well-known authors such as Margaret Frazer, Susanna Gregory, and Peter Tremayne deliver interesting short mysteries to read. Some of the other authors--like junior high students--are distracted with topics of sex and bodily functions. Despite the contributions from less-mature authors, the book still earns an "I like it" rating from me based on the contributions from the authors above, the Hamlet story ("A Sea Of Troubles" by Steve Lockley), and the collection's final story which draws from all of Shakespeare's plays ("The Collaborator" by Rosemary Aitken). Teachers who wish to use this collection in a classroom to create interest in Shakespeare's characters should pre-read the stories and select with care. Grown-ups who want to spend more time with some of their favorite Shakespearean characters will find some gems in this book.

[Roberta]

I picked up this book at the library used book store. Since it is so difficult to find short story collections in which even 1/3 of the stories are worth reading, I choose my short story collections carefully. I look for good authors or a theme that I will like and Will Shakespeare looked like a good bet. However, in the absolutely abysmal introduction written by the editor, Mike Ashley, I found out that he had also written an introduction to each story in the book. So that's 20 more pages down the tubes. Please don't PM me to tell me who Mike Ashley is. I know that he has edited about 8 million books and won an Edgar Award and I don't care.

The first couple of stories are meh so I am taking a break from this book to read a good book and will try to get back to this one later to finish reading it, write a full review, and rate it. Update: Life is too short.

[Griffin Wold · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shakespearean Whodunnits is an anthology comprised of short story adaptations of Shakespeare's original plays. Most of them are based on loose ends at the ends of the original plays, exploring a particular character's death.

While it claims you do not need to have any knowledge of the plays, I would highly recommend knowing all of Shakespeare's plays thoroughly before reading this anthology, as most were confusing if you haven't read the original.

There were a couple of gems in here, but most of them felt rushed and underdeveloped, like a rough outline of how that story were to go if it were written in full. All of them were quite forgettable. Additionally, several of the short stories had a lot of racism and sexism, even in excess of Shakespeare's original plays, which I was not a fan of.

If you're looking for a Shakespeare retelling or adaptation, I would look to full length stories focusing on one of his plays.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I took a lot of breaks while reading this, so it took me a very long time. As in any short story anthology, I liked some stories better than others. Some of these people got really creative in crafting a mystery out of a preset story, which was fun. If you like Shakespeare and are moderately familiar with the works listed, it's worth a try.

[Diana Sandberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, I was sick in bed (pneumonia), and I figured short stories wouldn't tax my rather weak attention span (I mostly slept). And maybe my illness affected my perceptions, but I did find this pretty pedestrian. Nh. This has a companion volume, Shakespearean Detectives, which was pretty much the same. I read them both and I'm just going to repeat this review on the other book.

[Jennifer]

Mystery

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like this as much as the Shakespearean Detectives collection, but there were some good stories in here.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of mysteries based on Shakespeare's plays. Many of them are "What if"'s, i.e. suppose Shakespeare's version of events isn't what really happened. A fun read.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creepy

[Martha Greenough · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dreadful. Fake "Elizabethan" language misused, stories with no sense of the Shakespearean characters. Skip this.