A Treasury of Great Mysteries, Volume 2

by Howard Haycraft (Editor), John Beecroft (Editor)

A collection of novels, novelettes, and short stories
The Big Sleep-Raymond Chandler
"The Bone of Contention"-Dorothy L. Sayers
"The Arrow of God"-Leslie Charters
"I Can Find My Way Out"-Ngaio Marsh
"Instead of Evidence"-Rex Stout
"Rift in the Loot"-Stuart Palmer & Craig Rice
"The Man Who Explained Miracles"-Carter Dickson
Rebecca-Daphne du Maurier

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Classics, Adult Fiction

576 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

A publisher, editor, critic and anthologist who wrote one of the first serious books of criticism of the mystery/detective genre, Murder for Pleasure: The Life and times of the Detective Story , still in print and considered a classic. He also edited a number of interesting and important anthologies.

Reviews

[Mehedi Sarwar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This the second volume of the mystery collection. It contains couple of novels and some short stories. I already read the novels before but the short stories were the real gem. If you like classic mysteries then you will like the stories.

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been wanting to read some good traditional mysteries, and when I saw that this collection starts out with Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep—which I actually had in my hand to purchase when I saw this Treasury—I immediately picked it up.

Chandler’s an amazing writer, though he tends to cycle from brilliant and innovative metaphor to clichés. (Though, for all I know, he created the clichés, I doubt he created all of them.) Starting the collection with Chandler must have drew many readers to buy the book, but it also made the rest of the stories, except the final one, fall a bit flat.

The last story is Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, which is beautifully written, though also much like watching a neurotic train derail itself. The narrator, much later in her life, is describing how her then-new husband came under suspicion for the murder of his first wife; except that that isn’t at all what the book is about. It’s more a gothic romance than a mystery.

The middle stories are short stories, a Lord Peter Whimsy by Dorothy L. Sayers; a Saint by Leslie Charteris; a very strange short story by Ngaio Marsh; a Nero Wolfe by Rex Stout; a slightly humorous story by Stuart Palmer and Craig Rice about a slightly shady lawyer, John J. Malone; and an old-style guy-gets-the girl-during-mystery by Carter Dickson. They make a decent representation of the state of mystery stories of the time.

If I see Volume I I’ll definitely pick it up.

[VT · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book (and it's volume 1 companion) up recently from the local flea market for an absolutely irresistible price - although I felt 98% sure I've already read most of this collection.

I re-read most of volume 2 over the past few days. After a quick glance at the opener to The Big Sleep to confirm it is still excellent, I jumped into the middle stories, and they are for the most part enjoyable, some more so than others, one that doesn't really do much on second read. I didn't bother to re-read Rebecca, as I've read it at least twice already and watched the film adaption not too long ago.

And then I had the pleasure of re-reading The Big Sleep.

I feel very sorry for the few people who can see nothing but the occasional homophobic slur and misogyny in this book. Yeah, that's there.
But seriously, get over yourselves, girls.
And a question to those who say that Marlowe has no feelings - have we read the same story??

Yes, The Big Sleep is not perfect, not every line is amazing, there are aspects that have not aged particularly well, (reading it this past week, it was the pointing out of which characters Marlowe thinks are Jewish that bothered me the most) and there is the infamous plot failure of no one actually knowing who killed Owen Taylor, but there is also so much goodness. There are sentences (and whole paragraphs) that leave me nearly speechless with awe. How can you not feel at least some of this?

Of course, if you hate this style of writing, you'll feel the same way about this story as a cat without a home feels about a rainstorm, but for those of us who dig it...

I give this collection 3.5 stars overall, rounded up to four.

Volume 1 is going to go straight onto my shelves and just sit there for awhile - but in that volume I can say without any qualm that the Eric Ambler's Journey into Fear is really good too.

[Jason McCuiston · Rating 3 out of 5]

This anthology started strong with Raymond Chandler's gritty Noir classic The Big Sleep, then moved into more "cozy" territory with stories from well-known franchise detectives like Nero Wolfe, John J. Malone, Simon Templar, and Lord Peter Whimsey, before screeching to a halt with the self-indulgent Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. I gave up on this snoozer after I got halfway through the second chapter and the only name I'd come across was that of a remembered dog -- plenty of weather, scenery, and atmosphere, but no characters whatsoever, nor the hint of a plot, for that matter.

Though the last installment in the collection was not for me, I absolutely loved the opener, and found myself enjoying the other stories to varying degrees. In all honesty, this book was my first literary introduction to Nero Wolfe, The Saint, and Lord Peter Whimsey, and their stories were quite entertaining.

Mystery fans will probably enjoy this one a bit more than I did as that is not my preferred genre. I think the book is a great study of the history of 20th-Century detective stories.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think if you're interested in the history of mystery fiction, and this includes some of its most famous characters, then this two volume set is probably a good introduction for a reader. For me, it leaned a bit heavily on the British/cozy type of tales that are not really my favorite form of this type of fiction.

Passing notice is give to American work with the inclusion of the Philip Marlowe novel The Big Sleep and a Nero Wolfe tale. The Wolfe story in the second volume is probably my favorite in that book, as I enjoyed the interaction among the Archie, Nero and the other players in the mystery.

The Peter Wimsey and Hildegarde Withers stories are ok.

But, really I think this two volume set is more for those interested in the past and I would recommend reading more current mysteries after this to see how the genre has evolved.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Volume 2 was a mixed bag. I reviewed The Big Sleep separately since it has been on my TBR list a number of years and is the main reason I picked up these volumes. I couldn’t grab volume 2 and just let volume 1 sit there lonely at the library book sale.

Starting with the best: Instead of Evidence is my first introduction to Rex Stout. Loved his character Archie. Funny, snappy dialogue and seemed to age better than some detective fiction.

And the not so good: The Man Who Explained Miracles by Carter Dickson is possibly the worst short story I’ve ever read. Many detective stories rely on some convenient coincidences to move the plot along. This one relied on complete strangers trusting each other with minute details of their personal lives on first acquaintance….made worse by a misguided romance angle.

Rebecca was also included but I did not reread at this time. Great book

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent selection of short stories and one novel by well-known, well-respected mystery authors. After I read Chandler's "The Big Sleep," I watched both movies, the one starring Humphrey Bogart and the one starring Robert Mitchum. Both movies followed the main plots and characters pretty well, but the later one with Mitchum had an ending that was much more in keeping with the original story. And I learned that Carter Dickson's (John C. Carr) character Sir Henry Melville and Rex Stout's character Nero Wolf are birds of a feather.

[Marlene Chabot · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so glad I found this anthology. Great mystery authors have contributed short stories for this book. Some authors were familiar to me like Raymond Chandler, Rex Stout, and Daphne du Maurier. New to me were Dorothy L. Sayers and Carter Dickenson. Daphne du Maurier's story titled "Rebecca" I personally felt dragged on too long, although when you finally get around to the ending you'll be totally surprised how everything turns out. And isn't that what a good mystery is all about.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

An anthology of pre WW II mysteries. The first and last are novels and the remaining are short stories. All were enjoyable reads.

The Big Sleep-Raymond Chandler
"The Bone of Contention"-Dorothy L. Sayers
"The Arrow of God"-Leslie Charters
"I Can Find My Way Out"-Ngaio Marsh
"Instead of Evidence"-Rex Stout
"Rift in the Loot"-Stuart Palmer & Craig Rice
"The Man Who Explained Miracles"-Carter Dickson
Rebecca-Daphne du Maurier

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really didn't care too much for any of these except Rebecca by DuMaurier, and even that was extremely weird.
Chandler - The Big Sleep
Sayers - Bone of Contention
Charteris - The Arrow of God
Marsh - I Can Find My Way Out
Stout - Instead of Evidence
Palmer & Rice - Rift in the Loot
Dickson - Man Who Explained Miracles
du Maurier - Rebecca

[Sheila Myers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always wonder how editors create anthologies with "great" in the title and then choose which stories they think fit that category. A few within this book I would rate as great, most are very good, and few are good.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read one of the stories - "God's Arrow" by Leslie Charteris. It made me want to read more stories about the detective Simon Templar ("The Saint") who was also the subject of movies and a TV series. "God's Arrow" is a witty and unusual story.

[Sue Whitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chandler, Sayers, Marsh, du Maurier, and others

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of great mysteries!

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second volume of several books, the last of which, Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca taking up nearly half the volume, is superb.

[DKSDGM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic introduction to an amazing group of writers. I loved every single one of these novels.

[Serena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Philip Marlowe 01 the Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler ****
Lord Peter Wimsey] the Bone of Contention by Dorothy L Sayers *****
Saint] the Arrow of God by Leslie Charteris *****
Roderick Alleyn] I Can Find My Way Out by Ngaio Marsh *****
Nero Wolfe] Instead of Evidence by Rex Stout *****
Rift in the Loot by Stuart Palmer ****
Sir Henry Merrivale] the Man Who Explained Miracles by Carter Dickson ****
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier ****

My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.

[Kathy Sebesta · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a 1957 collection (volume 2 no less) of mysteries the authors think are great. OK, if you've never read Chandler's The Big Sleep or duMarier's Rebecca, go ahead and pick up the volume; they take up almost 3/4 of the book anyway. Everything else inside is entirely forgettable.