There was quite a bit I didn't care for... too much to even explain. Quite too much of this was males writing for males., there was an undercurrent of machismo.

There were four major sections:

Part I: The Ancient World
Peters, Herodotus, James, Roberts, Nichols, Mayer/Reed, van Gulik, & Tremayne

Part II: The Middle Ages
Peters, Harding, Frazer, Pulver, Mathieson, & Gores

Part III: Regency & Gaslight
Rafferty, de la Torre, Butler, Post, Harrison, Carr, & Hock

Part IV: Holmes & Beyond
Adrian Conan Doyle & Stevens

For me, the first two parts were more interesting & I had already read other books by several of those authors.

The third part was boring & tended to focus on "locked door" scenarios

The fourth part was a joke.... No one, Not One-Single-Person can ever hope to replicate Sit Arthur Conan Doyle, and those who delude themselves into thinking that they can are sorely mistaken.

There are many others who have written historical mysteries who should have been included....

This book is mostly unforgettable, almost like a volute of Readers' Digest that one would peruse while waiting their turn in a doctor's front office ( )

While one or two of these short story, murder mysteries may have been so-so, they largely were interesting and enjoyable reads. I noted someone complained that English mysteries, except for Christie, are not that good. Well, firstly, the compilation (anthology) of short stories was published in England (1993) but most of the authors are American and not just British. Also, the authors are from the late 19th century to early - mid 20th century. Some are really good authors not often known to late 20th, early 21st century readers. The style of the older authors may be unfamiliar to more 'modern' readers but that does not mean that they are not well written and 'good reads.' As time permits, I may hunt down other works by some of the authors from the anthology. ( )

This is a collection of short mysteries which have a historical setting, ranging from Ancient Egypt to Reno, Nevada, 1910. Various authors were sought for contributions. I picked it up hoping to find another author to compare with Ellis Peters, who is one of my favorites. Margaret Frazier would be one I will seek out after reading this. I must say that, although no story was sucky, most did not stand out for me. I think the missing element to engage me was humor. I don't read mysteries so much for the puzzle, as for the fun in following an entertaining detective. Humor was sadly lacking in almost all of these tales.
Another thing which extremely disappointed me and made me decide not to keep it or loan it to my friends, is that in the middle of what were decent tales, not overly explicit in any way, is a novella which in my book would qualify for soft porn. Yuck. Ptooie. ( )

This is a great compilation of stories for the history & mystery buff. It ranges in time periods from ancient Egypt to the 20th century. Ellis Peters included stories that were not only historical in time, but characters too. Some stories feature historical people such as Socrates and Leonardo Da Vinci, others are set in epic time periods like Byzantine during the reign of the Emperor Justinian in the middle of the iconoclastic wars. If I have one complaint of the book it is that there are several locked room with dead body scenarios, a few too many, but the variety is refreshing and the characters unforgettable. ( )