I don’t usually enjoy anthologies. Daft really, as I write stories for for inclusion in anthologies and magazines, but have never enjoyed perusing them.

Murder in Midwinter however has been an absolute pleasure. I read one a night, and there’s nothing to keep me awake wondering what comes next. Because that’s it, a neat package of sublime classic writing, full of icy twists and turns.  The only thing to wonder about is – what the next winter murder is about.

So here within the book covers are perfect stories complied by Cecily Gayford:  Dorthy L Sayers, Cyril Hare, Margery Allingham, Anthony Berkely Arthur Conan Doyle, Ruth Rendell, Ellis Peters, Edmund Crispin, John Dickson Carr, Ngaio Marsh.  They are all delightful in their own way, none of them savage, all of them just excellent.

Perhaps my favourite was Cyril Hare’s Sister Bessie, but then what about Margery Allingham’s The Pro and Con with the old favourite, Campion. I  envisage Peter Davison in the role. But then there’s Arthur Conan Doyal. And what about Ruth Rendell? No, let me stop there, because there can be no favourites, they’re all the best of the best.

Do buy it for Christmas, for yourself at the very least, or read it carefully, package it up and send it on.

I absolutely loved it.  I know you will.

Murder in Midwinter: £8.99 paperback and ebook.

Available HERE at Amazon, and HERE for Bookshop.org:

Annie Clarke’s latest novel Christmas on the Home Front  is out now. at Amazon, supermarkets and bookstores.