Loved the plots and characters, such of which would not look out of place on a television adaptation now. Sadly, a couple are more meandering, as told by one colourful character from the past to another equally colourful character from the past, without ever creating much sense of mystery or suspense.

These are mainly set in the last century but I love the old fashioned settings, the way people spoke, the simplicity of life and the hardship of it before the health service, before the welfare state. The stories don't have details of the dates when they were written or previously published, which is a shame.Perfect to dip in and out of between other festivities and I am building my collection of this joyous series! Innes was reliably clever, Sayers terse and entertaining with a well crafted red herring character, but I did rather enjoy R. Unbelievably, this is the seventh seasonal collection in this series of cosy crime short stories edited by Cecily Gayford. I would have like a little biographical section about each author and some mention as to why each story was chosen.

I enjoyed some of these tales, but it seemed quite an uneven and random collection and not really very wintry at all. I don't think I am being unfair by saying that even though some of these authors are well-known and respected the particular stories in this book are hardly their best work. All of these classic stories have their merit, but I think the seasonal theme is sometimes stretched a little too far, with one of the stories set in late October – cold though the featured lonely signal box no doubt is! In The Mystery of Felwyn Tunnel by LT Meade and Robert Eustace, our narrator investigates the mysterious deaths of two signalmen on a remote section of the mountainous Welsh railway. Perhaps a bit more than just the title and author, even just the date first published (even the credits at the back of the book only mentions 4 of the stories and no dates), would have been the icing on the cake.The Michael Innes story is also great - less wordy than his full-length Appleby novels, and very clever.

So bundle up, grab a glass of mulled wine, and get ready to be puzzled, astonished and entertained by these festive stories of murder and mayhem. The Adventure of Abbey Grange' by Conan Doyle - Sherlock Holmes chooses to play judge and jury, after his detective work is done . A pretty ragtag selection, all told, with only Conan Doyle’s ‘The Adventure of the Abbey Grange’ and Edgar Wallace’s sneakily structured ‘The Clapham Affair’ truly standing out. This series of books, being a collection of murder stories by well known authors, is a regular Christmas present for my wife. There is no information given about the authors or the background to the stories, and some authors are better known than others, e.Austin Freeman - in which a woman is murdered and finding her killer may hinge on finding a cat, a dog and a monkey.

Some of the stories are a little obscure, but I really enjoyed The Chopham Affair, The Adventure of the Abbey Grange and The Mystery of Felwyn Tunnel. My favourites in this were the Sherlock Holmes (which I've read many times), The Chopham Affair, and Haunted House, but my absolute favourite was The Mystery of Felwyn Tunnel, which is very like The Signalman by Charles Dickens, a story that I love. A quick and easy read - while some were interesting most we pretty mediocre, no real twists or turns, they seemed to get more lame as the book went on - the best stories being at the front of the book.

T. Meade and Robert Eustace - a very good story in which murder is suspected near a train tunnel in winter but the solution is completely natural. Sleuths on the Scent by Dorothy Sayers - in which the solution hinged on the detective and reader on observed details. Though there are 2 - 3 stories that were genuinely fun and exciting to read, most of them were a bit of a letdown – being rather clumsy and awkward. I felt they passed the time nicely, but apart from the Conan Doyle and the Chesterton, I found them tidy but rather workaday. But for shivers down the spine, the opener Haunted House by Gladys Mitchell is well worth reading by candlelight before turning in on Christmas Eve.