Guilty Creatures by Martin Edwards

Guilty Creatures
by Martin Edwards

ISBN-13: 9781464215841
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Released: June 7th 2022

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description from NetGalley:
From the animal mysteries of Arthur Conan Doyle and F. Tennyson Jesse through to more modern masterpieces of the subgenre from Christianna Brand and Penelope Wallace, this anthology celebrates one of the liveliest and most imaginative species of classic crime fiction. The collection includes an introduction on animals in detective fiction by Martin Edwards.

Since the dawn of the crime fiction genre, animals of all kinds have played a memorable part in countless mysteries, and in a variety of roles: the perpetrator, the key witness, the sleuth's trusted companion. This collection of fourteen stories corrals plots centered around cats, dogs, and insects alongside more exotic incidents involving gorillas, parakeets, and serpents—complete with a customary shoal of red herrings.


My Review:
Guilty Creatures is a collection of 14 short story mysteries written between the 1890s and 1960s. These stories either had an animal as the intended victim (a racehorse, etc.) or an animal provided a clue or was a part of committing the crime. In one case, an animal was simply the excuse for buying the poison. Most of the cases were simply a walk-through of the events with the solution at the end, but a few were clue-based puzzle-mysteries. In general, I enjoyed the stories, and I hadn't read any of them before. I will note, though, that I didn't like the India viper story. The vipers in that story didn't act like what little I know about vipers and snakes. First, snakes can climb (even slick metal). Also, it's not like they could eat a human, so why would they come out of hiding to attack a human? Anyway. There were only a few uses of bad language. There were no sex scenes. Overall, the stories were interesting and enjoyable.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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