The Measure of Malice edited by Martin Edwards is one of the more enjoyable short story collections that I’ve read. It contains 14 stories in which scientific/technological methods are used in the detection of crime. There is an excellent introduction by Martin Edwards with information about the authors, five of whom were doctors, two were engineers and one was an academic chemist.

As always with short story collections some stories are better than others. I’m highlighting a few of the better ones here:

The Boscombe Valley Mystery by A Conan Doyle was originally published in the Strand Magazine in October 1891, and is the first short story to feature Inspector Lestrade. It’s a solid story, solved by Sherlock Holmes by inspecting and analysing the footprints and signs at the scene of the crime.

The Horror of Studley Grange by L T Meade and Clifford Halifax (1894), from Stories for the Diary of a Doctor, originally published in the Strand Magazine. I enjoyed this one although it was pretty easy to predict. Ostensibly a ghost story, the solution involves the use of a laryngoscope.

After Death the Doctor by J J Connington, a Scottish professor of chemistry. This one was first published in 1934, involving a contemporary scientific gadget. The doctor in question is Doctor Shefford who together with Sergeant Longridge, investigate the murder of old Barnaby Leadburn, found dead with his throat cut.

The next two are the ones I enjoyed the most:

The Broken Toad by H C Bailey, first published in 1934, featuring the surgeon and Home Office Consultant, Reggie Fortune as he considers the death of a police constable from poisoning. I enjoyed all the detailed complications and Bailey’s literary mannered style of storytelling.

In the Teeth of the Evidence by Dorothy L Sayers, first published in 1939, about forensic dentistry, which starts as Lord Peter Wimsey is sitting in his dentist’s chair. The police had just visited the surgery, wanting to see his predecessor’s records to identify the victim of a burnt out garage. An upper right incisor crown and the filling in a molar provided the clues to his death. Gory if you actually visualise what is involved!

The Poisoned Pen Press has published a number of excellent mystery anthologies, of which this is one.  This collection includes stories about cases that were investigated and solved using science and technology, as it existed when each story was written. 


A knowledgeable introduction is followed by stories from writers who are both well and lesser known.  Some of the authors represented are Conan Doyle, Dorothy L Sayers and Freeman Wills Crofts.  There are fourteen stories in all.


If you find that you sometimes have trouble concentrating on a novel, this book provides a nice alternative with its stories.  Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title in exchange for an honest review.

This wasn’t my favorite collection of short stories from the British Library. The link didn’t always seem obvious, the the stories themselves were pretty forgettable. I do generally like these though, so I will continue to give them a try,

Princess Fuzzypants here: Long before DNA and other advanced forms of forensic and scientific aids, mystery writers were playing with forms of scientific intervention either in the crime itself or in the resolution of the crime. Naturally, at a time when daily it seemed like the human race was learning more and more, it was a popular device to further a storyline.
If you are, as am I, a fan of the short story and anthologies, you will find this blast from the past both engaging and entertaining. There are stories from some of the greatest mystery writers that ever graced the page, I thoroughly enjoyed the retrospective. Five purrs and two paws up.

Poisoned Pen Press has been rolling out new collections of old stories as part of their British Crime Classic Library and this one is no different. This one rolls together stories that use science to help solve the mystery. There are the big names of course, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but lesser known names as well.
Like any anthology, this one has some good stories and some that are just... odd. And there is always the fun of reading about things that used to be cutting edge and, in terms of today's scientific knowledge are just sort of funny.

Three stars
This book came out February 4th
ARC kindly provided by Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

The Measure of Malice is a fun anthology of classic mystery short stories from the Golden Age of Mystery. Martin Edwards has produced several editions for Poisoned Pen Press harvesting stories from authors who have been lost to the passage of time. This anthology focuses on stories with an element of science.

While Edwards includes a few of the most well-known authors like Arthur Conan Doyle and Dorothy Sayers. His primary focus, though, is on those who have been lost to time such as Robert Eustace, L. T. Meade, and H. C. Bailey.

Some of them are very clever such as “The Cyprian Bees” by Anthony Wynne and “The Broken Toad” by H. C. Bailey. “The Case of the Chemis in the Cupboard” on the other hand irritated me with the way the detective treated the woman who worked for him. “The New Cement” by Freeman Willis Crofts is pure genius.



I love mysteries and I love short stories. When they come together, in a package like The Measure of Malice I am thrilled. I think Edwards does an excellent job of finding a good mix of the famous and the forgotten and the various kinds of mysteries. I appreciate that Edwards did not define science to narrowly. This is is not CSI: The Golden Age. This is why I always look forward to his anthologies.

I received an e-galley of The Measure of Malice from the publisher through NetGalley.

The Measure of Malice at Poisoned Pen Press
Martin Edwards author site

An excellent collection of short stories in the detective genre in the style of Sherlock Holmes.

The opening one is actually a Sherlock Holmes wonderful story and sets the tone and elegance of writing which is so characteristic for all the writers.

Apart from the style of writing which is calm and collected and not frenzied in the least despite the goriness of the actual murders, there is a great deal of intelligent detective skills utilized throughout and a measure of scientific deduction which adds to the interest.

Another great publication under the Classic Crime category.

The Measure of Malice is a well curated anthology of forensic detective fiction. Released 4th Feb 2020 by Poisoned Pen Press, it's 336 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

For me, one of the biggest draws of these anthologies is the erudite and always interesting introductions by editor Martin Edwards, both to the anthology itself and to each of the individual stories. Mr. Edwards has a prodigious knowledge of the genre and writes engagingly and well.

Well written, this entry and the series as a whole are well worth seeking out. This would make a superlative selection for readers of the genre as well as an introduction to classic crime fiction from early . I love that these collections have some titans of the genre (Sayers, Doyle, Crispin) alongside lesser known but worthy authors. The stories are arranged in roughly chronological order from the Victorian through the modern era.

This would make a superlative choice for commute reading or short interludes.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

What a pleasure to tread back into these stories of traditional British Crime Classics, like Sherlock Holmes and my favorite was by Dorothy L. Sayers. These are your more traditional "who done it" sort of stories, some were more entertaining and better written or more engaging than others. As with most collections, each story speaks to different people so the collection as a whole may suffer a bit because the stories are varying strengths in writing or tone.
Overall, I would recommend this as an good read and a nudge to pick up some of these authors works again.
#TheMeasureofMaliceScientificDetectionStories #Netgalley #BritishLibraryCrimeClassic #MartinEdwards #PoisonedPenPress

I rarely (if ever) review the individual stories in a collection of short stories but given the fact that my varying reactions to the several I encountered in this book, I had to split it up to give a more accurate picture of the book itself. It is a collection of stories where the detectives use 'scientific methods' to come to their conclusions. In some cases, the thought process is not as apparent as in some others.

The Boscombe Valley Mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle [1891]

I have read this one before, and it was never one of the more intriguing ones (to my mind). It is a case of a man being found dead just after he has a quarrel with his son. Within a span of a few minutes, multiple things happen. Sherlock Holmes and Watson visit the place, and Sherlock analyzes the facts. It is a very swift analysis in comparison with some other narrations, and once you know or remember the solution, it does not hold the same thrill. (3 stars)
The Horror of the Studley Grange - L.T.Meade & Clifford Halifax [1894]
Elizabeth Thomasina Meade Smith and Edgar Beaumont are the names of the authors. It had an engaging narrative style, but the plot was very clear from the very beginning with the usage of certain words repeatedly. Dr Halifax is called to visit a woman's husband who she says will not see anyone for some strange thing plaguing him while the situation does not turn out to be that clear. I did not dislike the story only because of how the sequence of events rolled out. (3 Stars)
The Tragedy of a Third Smoker by C.J.Cutcliffe Hyne [1989]
The title is slightly misleading, but the overall story was surprising. The analysis that brings the story to light was also unexpected. A man is found dead in a compartment with a head wound, and the only other man (or was he?) in the compartment was seen leaving in a daze. The legal team required to build the case actually ends up confirming his role in the events that occurred. It was surprisingly simple and straightforward. Not all short stories end up this way. (4 stars)
The Man Who Disappeared by L.T.Meade & Robert Eustace [1901]
There is a Spanish woman with an English Step-daughter who wants a house for rent with precise specifications. This is handed to her when a new player is brought into the scene with information that might prove valuable. This was also pretty straightforward, but the resolution was not as satisfactory because it seemed too out of the blue. This, of course, is a very personal reaction to the solution. (2 stars)
The Cyprian Bees by Anthony Wayne [1924]
Dr Hailey is brought a bee a story to go with it, this leads to a set of conclusions which in turn leads to action being taken. That is the format of the narrative, and it involved a lot more questioning than the previous stories. The plot was not surprising, but the steady method of analysis had me reading it to the end. (3 stars)
The English Filter by C.E.Bechhofer Roberts[1926]
This story with the lead character who is named ABC Hawkes and is informed about scientific research that might interest him. What he finds instead is a sort of character study and the struggle to maintain power by an old man. I found the resolution and the idea behind it intriguing. If the concept genuinely existed, it would have made the world of mystery fiction more complicated. I did not guess the direction the story might take, and it had me curious till the very end. (3 Stars)
The Contents of a Mare's next by R.Austin Freeman [1927]
Half-way into the book, I started liking the author's narrative styles more, they seemed more along the lines of the stories I am used to typically enjoying. This was also an entertaining story. It is shown from the perspective of an Insurance man and a claim for a death. This then follows the chain of events following a death, certificates and such. I got my guess partially wrong, but the writing and the story itself was worth the read. (4 stars)
After Death the Doctor by J.J.Connington [1934]
Alfred Walter Stewart is the author's real name, and this story was about the death of a man at his table. There is a specific cast of possible suspects and innumerous reasons that people did not like the dead man. This cast is painstakingly examined, but the final revelation happens due to a chance occurrence which took away some of the zeal for me.  (3 stars)
The Broken Toad by H.C.Bailey [1935]
This started in a very different manner than the story actually went. It begins as a chance remark at a party and the story behind the comment is mentioned. The ending surprised me entirely because I was starting to settle into a know-it-all position about the resolution, and things did not turn out the way I thought they would! A policeman is found dead, and the circumstances are very odd. By a lucky chance, the oddity is further tracked and analyzed. (4 stars)


In the Teeth of Evidence by Dorothy L.Sayers [1939]
This particular story was the best of the lot for me. I have a feeling I should do my best to lookup more of the author's works because I have only read one so far. This has Sir Peter Wimsey going to a dentist's appointment and then tagging along to help identify a burnt body. Although I guessed the way the story was going to go, the short format not leaving much to speculation but it was still a lot of fun. (5stars)

11. The Case of the Chemist in the Cupboard by Ernest Dudley [1943]

Authors name: Vivian Ernest Coltman-Allen

This was an odd story, and a little abrupt but the characters introduced to us in the telling of it were fun. We have a grumpy boss with exacting standards who is scaring his assistant into submission when she finds a body and then loses it shortly after. The cracking of the case was not as startling because of the lack of numbers of people introduced to us, but the narration itself was the highlight. (4 Stars)

12. The Purple Line by John Rhode[1950]

This felt like a very swift story. There is a surprise discovery of a woman in a water butt, and the suspect is the husband, but he has a solid alibi. The tale then picks up from there and here too an odd random incident precipitates the revelation, but it was still entertaining (4stars)

13. Blood Sport by Edmund Crispin [1954]

Author's name: Robert Bruce Montgomery.

Although I did not measure the stories, I think this was the shortest of the lot. I was done before I knew it and knowing I had missed something I had to read it twice to see where that twist lay. When I did spot it, I found it highly entertaining, even though we are speaking of murder and murderers. (4stars)

14. The New Cement by Freeman Wills Croft [1955]

This final story was pretty straightforward. It jumps right into sabotage and then from there it is all about tracing the origins of the plot. (3 Stars)

Total Approx: 4 Stars

Sometimes it was the story, occasionally the writing and very few times it was the mystery plot itself that caught my attention. I am glad I gave it a shot, but for most of these authors, I think I might prefer their longer stories.

I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

All British Library Crime Classic books are excellent read and this one was no exception.
I already read a couple of story but it was a pleasure to read them again.
It's an excellent read that made me discover some interesting and new to me author.
Strongly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

This is an assortment of short stories by British crime writers from the early and mid 20th Century, some are well-known and others are mostly unknown. The theme is aptly described by the book's subtitle: "Scientific Detection Stories". Every one of the stories has a scientific or technological angle, especially around poisons, medical knowledge and related devices.
The leadoff story is "The Boscombe Valley Mystery", an excellent Sherlock Holmes short story by Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes and Watson travel into the English countryside to meet up with Inspector Lestrade and solve a complicated "puzzle" whodunit. Holmes coins a droll comment to Watson: " There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact". He goes on to apply his trademark method to solve the puzzle.
Fans of Golden Age of Murder stories will recognize many of the other included authors: John Rhode, R. Austin Freeman, Dorothy L. Sayers, Edmund Crispin, Anthony Wynne and Freeman Wills Croft. There are some talented writers of which many readers have not previously heard or read: for example, C.J. Cutcliffe Hyne and H.C. Bailey. Their stories included in this anthology can serve as an introduction to their detective stories.
A charm of these British Library Crime Classics anthologies, in addition to introducing talented but little known crime writers, is the readability of the collection. It is easy to put down the book after an individual story and come back to the rest later. Or, the book can be read through to the end in one sitting. Either way, the book is an entertaining read.
I find Martin Edwards's Introductions well worth the time it takes to read them. He provides insight into each author's body of work and puts it in a general context of the Golden Age of Murder as a whole.

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for providing an advanced reading copy to me, via Netgalley. The comments about it are my own.

Measure of Malice contains fourteen short stories featuring science for one reason or another. These aren’t all detectives who use a scientific approach in solving the puzzles posed nor crimes that rely upon science for perpetration .

This is a fine collection and I don’t think there’s a complete dud in there, although not all of them were to my taste. Ernest Dudley’s The Case of the Chemist in the Cupboard, for example, features Doctor Morelle. The doctor appears, based on this story, to bully his assistant, Miss Frayle, without any redeeming pleasantness. However, even unpleasant detectives can still solve the crime. Actually, there is no science involved in solving that crime. Doctor Morelle’s scientific research simply caused Miss Frayle to find the body.

Some of the writers are well known, e.g. R Austin Freeman, Dorothy L Sayers and the inevitable Conan Doyle. (Why on earth do anthologists think anyone still doesn't have all the Holmes stories?) However, some of them were new to me and may be new to you too: C E Bechhofer Roberts, C J Cutcliffe Hyne, Ernest Dudley.

Although NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press kindly gave me an ebook version to review (thank you, both), I also bought my own paperback copy. I want this one on my shelves!

A sharpened pickax, a full water butt (barrel), a marline-spike, an obscure poison are all used (or maybe not used) for murder with A Measure of Malice in this new collection of British golden and silver-aged mysteries.

Fourteen more intriguing, but unfortunately forgotten, tales from famous (Arthur Conan Doyle) and not authors. The theme of these tales is unusual weapons and unique ways to prove the detectives’ suppositions All lean heavily on the new science of the day.

It’s amazing how casual we have become about science in 2020. DNA tests are cheap and available on almost any daytime talk or judge show. Fingerprints are accepted worldwide as evidence of guilt. But it wasn’t always that way. Return to the time when detectives had to use their brain to solve puzzles created by clever murders. The tales within A Measure of Malice recall the slower simpler times of the mid-1900s. Many of these stories are interesting more for their view of an unimaginable past than as a mystery to be solved by an armchair detective. As long as you are fine with that, you will enjoy reading these lost tales. They are perfect for a short break from work. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars!

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Anthology From The Golden Age of Mysteries
This anthology includes Arthur Conan Doyle, L.T.Meade, Clifford Halifax, Robert Eustace, Anthony Wynne, C.E. Bechhofer Roberts, R. Austin Freeman, J.J. Connington, H.C. Bailey, Dorothy L. Sayers, John Rhode, Edmund Crispin, and Freeman Wills Crofts. These 12 detective stories were all written as short pieces for magazines and Detective magazines. They all have some scientific type detecting. The early uses of science in the investigation of crimes, from plaster casts of shoe prints to angle of the sun, these were the CSI stories of their day. They still fascinate the reader with the logic used against baffling circumstances. This is a great set of stories to read and have in your library. Reading them is like being taken back to a 1930s mystery movie. I received this ARC book for free from Net Galley and this is my honest review.

Reviewing a short story collection is arduous and unsatisfying. I’m not going to badger you with a recap of each story and it’s normal that some stories will be better than others. But in a very short sentence, is this collection worthwhile? Yes.

The British Library Crime Classics brings back some forgotten writers from the Golden Age; it’s quite an interesting endeavor! All these stories have in common is that science plays some crucial part in finding the truth. But as science is very large, you will find doctors, dentists, specialists in chemistry, in ballistics, etc. Of course, as Golden age novels go, some stories have aged too much (science has made big progress, and we no longer believe that the murderer’s face is printed on the victim’s retina). Also, it’s mostly an old white male affair, and sometimes it grated on my nerves (especially that patronizing, insufferable detective Morelle in The Case of the Chemist in the Cupboard by Ernest Dudley) but you can still find some gems in the bag.

My favorites in the book are: “Broken Toad” by H.C. Bailey, “Purple Line” by John Rode, and “The Contents of a Mare’s Nest” by R. Austin Freeman. There was famous names, like Conan Doyle (not at his best in my opinion) and Dorothy Sayers, but the fun of the book lies in discovering new-to-me, half-forgotten authors. Of course, upon finishing the book I had to go to Gutenberg and see what mysteries from those 3 are available in the public domain… That might not contribute to a healthy TBR pile, but at least it does contribute to a healthy bank account!

Masters Of Deduction.....
Another anthology from the excellent British Library Crime Classics series. A collection of tales from masters of deduction with a scientific and technical bent - preceded by the usual informative introduction from Martin Edwards. For me, the subject matter was not as interesting as others in this series but still commendable and a solid group of short stories featuring some well known sleuths, many from the Golden Age and worthwhile reading.

First of all: It’s much quicker to name the stories I disliked than the ones I liked. Ernest Dudley’s The Case of the Chemist in the Cupboard isn’t a bad mystery but the sleuth is a massive bully who treats his assistant horribly and Meade and Eustace’s The Man Who Disappeared features a bit too much period-typical racism for my taste and apart from that it is a rather odd mix of a serious crime story with extremely pulpy murder methods. But I enjoyed pretty much all other stories (though the science of some of them was…well not very scientific, like C. E. Bechhofer Roberts’ story The English Filter in which the case gets solved with Optography).

However, I can’t say that I really loved any of the stories. There was one by Dorothy L Sayers (In the Teeth of the Evidence), a in a collection with this theme basically inevitable Thorndyke (The Contents of a Mare’s Nest) and a Sherlock Holmes (Boscombe Valley Mystery) and they were all fun but they were by authors I already knew and liked anyway (though usually I prefer Sayer’s novels to her short stories and BCLC have a talent to put Conan Doyle stories I hate in their collections).

Most of the stories are “just” solid entertainment. Fairly straightforward stories about professional detectives and amateur sleuths solving crime (But With Science), which happens to be exactly what I like and I disliked other collections that included too many stories that did not adhere to that basic formula. (Admittedly, experimenting with, or throwing out that formula completely can lead to amazing results. Sometimes).

So in the end…I got what it said on the tin. I didn’t find any gems but I was entertained.

This story collection highlights the use of science to aid detectives in fiction of an earlier age. The stories are not equally appealing but they are fun. Readers who enjoy the British Library Crime Classic series will like them.

I have read a number of books from this series now and this one seems to have cemented my dislike of the introductory remarks Martin Edwards, the series editor, gives us as a formal introduction in each book and epigraphs in story collections. This time I planned to read the introduction and epigraphs after I had read all the stories to avoid the spoilers Mr. Edwards is prone to revealing, but when the time came, I skipped them all. I do not feel this was a loss.

The Martin Edwards series of mysteries is awesome and this is no exception. Good introduction and brief but concise history of scientific advances documented in mysteries of 1800s/1900s. Dorothy Sayers story included and she is literally the best!