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The Omnibus Of Modern Crime Stories - The 80’s

The Jackal and the Tiger - Michael Gilbert (1988)
In order to avenge the death of one of his friends (who had been blackmailed), Ronnie Kavanagh buys a small detective agency. A Mr Huffin works for it, and R.K. knows that the man is involved in his friend’s demise. With the help of his nephew, he sets out to find out how the crook operates and who his accomplice is.
7/10


The Fix - Robert Twothy (1980)
Stremberg is plagued with a serious addiction to horse racing. A constant run of bad luck leaves him with just 23 cents in his pocket. This forces him to take back his job as a taxi driver, but he plans to return to the race as soon as he has a nice stake.
8/10

One Moment of Madness - Edward D. Hoch (1982)
A corrupted detective goes berserk when the woman he loves enters his police station. He doesn’t realise that she has actually been arrested. For fear of being betrayed by her, he shoots at everyone in an attempt to kill her.
5/10

Loopy - Ruth Rendell (1982)
While playing in small pantomime productions, a 42 year old man develops an obsession for wearing an animal outfit (a wolf). This plays havoc with his plans to marry an office colleague, and takes a turn for the worst when he discover that his mother is affected by the same compulsion.
4/10

The Plateau - Clark Howard (1984)
The local government has decided to run an uncommon lottery: one where the winner will be allowed to hunt the last buffalo in the state. It was supposed to be a 9 year old animal called Bruno, but it dies before the hunt. The authority then decides to replace it with its mother Hannah, a 30 year old cow. In order to allow Hanna to have the dignified death she deserves, Tank Sherman, its owner, takes her away to an Indian sacred ground.
10/10

The Butchers - Pete Lovesey (1982)
One morning, the owner of a butcher’s shop is found dead in the cold store. An apprentice butcher tries to make it look like it’s another worker who killed their boss.
5/10

Burning Bridge - James Powell (1989)
As years pass by, Barber becomes convinced that he owes his good fortune to the personalities of his dead friends. One day, he is so afraid to lose his wife to another man that he tries to kill one of his friends, renowned for his success with women.
6/10

A Good Turn - Robert Barnard (1989)
After a severe dispute with his mother, Steven ventures into another town to meet with his father, who abandoned him when he was just two. The man turns out to be so nasty and mean that Steve almost kills him.
8/10

Clap Hands, there goes Charlie - George Baxt (1982)
Alice is married to Charlie, a successful publisher who repeatedly cheats on her. She has learned to live with it. However, his attitude with women will prove to be fatal to him when he has an affair with Monica Duval, a medium and would-be writer.
7/10

Big Boy, Little Boy - Simon Brett (1980)
Larry Renshaw has killed his wealthy wife because she had discovered that he was stealing from him. He flies to France where Peter Mostyn lives. P.M. has always been infatuated with him and offers to do anything that could help Larry out. Renshaw, in his usual over-confident way completely misjudges the situation and ends up in jail for the murder of two persons.
6/10

The Omnibus Of Modern Crime Stories - The 70’s

Reasons Unknown - Stanley Elin (1978)
Larry Morrison, who works for a big company, has a chance encounter with a former colleague, now a taxi driver. When his ‘friend’ explains to him that big corporations only use re-organizations within their department as a screen to fire people, Larry becomes very worried about the safety of his own job.
When one day his boss calls him to his office, Larry loses his mind. He turns up to work with a gun ; kills his boss plus several employees.
8/10

Three Ways to Rob a Bank - Harold R. Daniels (1972)
A former bank employee devises 3 ways to rob a bank. The first two are stated in the form of two stories, which he sends for publication. The bank industry does all it can to prevent these stories from being published and waits eagerly to see the third method. However the 3rd way is actually this story scheme that he has created to alert them on the weaknesses of the bank system.
8/10

The Perfect Servant - Helen Nielsen (1971)
Maria Morales is a poor widow, once married to a gambler. Her way to make a living is to pretend that she has found 100 dollars in the street and bring the money to the police. She uses this scheme to find employment as a cleaner for rich people, who are sure to be impressed by her absolute honesty.
9/10

The Marked Man - David Ely (1979)
A Major is confronted to an unusual mission: to live on his own for a certain amount of time in a park. To be sure that he won’t be tempted to talk to anyone, his head has been painted green. As doubts arise about the real purpose of this strange assignment, the Major slowly loses his mind.
7/10

Flowers that blooms in the Spring - Julian Symons (1971)
Bertie is an inquisitive retired man who is convinced that his neighbours have not only murdered someone, but also that they belong to a gang of small bank robbers. His doubts are reinforced when he meets them one summer in Italy, and they pretend they owe all their money to the publication of a book.
7/10

A Nice Place to Stay - Nedra Tyre (1970)
A woman who has cared all her live for other people and lives in abject poverty is sent to jail. She is accused of having stolen a silver box - actually given to her by one of her employers. However, she finds that her life in prison is much more comfortable than anything she has experienced outside…
9/10

Paul Broderick’s Man - Thomas Walsh (1979)
Captain Anthony Vincent Flanagan was once a reputed police officer. But after years of taking bribes from crooked businessman Paul Broderick, he realises that he may have made a lot of money, it has cost him his pride and the respect of his daughter.
7/10

When Nothing Matters - Florence V. Mayberry (1979)
Solange discovers that after a year being married with Thorwald, he intends to leave her for another woman. She cannot cope with the situation and kills him.
[The first part of the story is built to make the reader believe she is a window who isn’t involved in the death of her husband.]
7/10

This is Death - Donald E. Westlake (1978)
Couldn’t make myself to read it. The story of a man who takes his own life.
0/10

Woodrow Wilson’s Necktie - Patricia Highsmith (1972)
Clive Wilkes is an 18 year old with an obsession for a local waxwork museum. His fascination for it leads him to kill the museum’s employees and place them among the various murder tableaux. Later, he goes to the police to confess his crimes, but no one believes him. Frustrated, Clive begins to plan a much bigger crime, one that would grant him a place in a waxwork museum.
8/10

Les Arcanes du Chaos - Maxime Chattam (2005)

Le multi-millionnaire suisse Bonnevieil décide d'utiliser une jeune femme, Yael, pour tuer un de ses ennemis, le puissant Goatherd. Pour se faire, il lance Yael sur une piste parsemée d'énigmes et de symboles occultes. Elle est aidée par un journaliste (Thomas, en fait a la solde de Bonnevieil.)

Apres un parcours ou fleurissent les allusions a JFK, Lincoln, le Titanic et les illuminatis, Yael se retouve face a face avec le fameux Goatherd.

[Lecture agréable, encore que les dialogues sont, a mon sens, un peu bateau. Ils ne possedent pas l'étincelle qui aurait pu les rendre vifs et intelligents.
L'auteur met tout en place pour valider sa théorie du "Nouvel Ordre du Monde": depuis 1776, les personnes les plus riches de la planete, non seulement gouvernent le monde ; ils nous utilisent également comme des pions pour satisfaire leurs ambitions personnelles. Ce mode de pensée veut nous faire crore que l'assassinat de JFK a été orchéstrée de la sorte pour avoir certains points communs avec le meurtre du président Lincoln.

Il suffit de taper le noms de ces deux americains dans un moteur de recherche pour trouver tout de suite des paralleles. Les gens friands de complots mettent toujours en avant les points soit-disant communs - pliant la vérité au besoin, et oublient les détails qui ne cadrent pas.
Nostradamus aurait d'ailleurs eu sa place dans ce roman. De toute évidence l'auteur n'a pas osé. Pourtant ces quatrains contiennent quelques perles ;-p. ]

The Twilight Zone - Christina Faust (2005)

Burned
A slumlord hires an arsonist to burn down his less successful building. Two kids die in the fire. As ghosts, they take their revenge on the people involved in their death.
[OTT characters who are either dirt poor or filthy rich. There is also the annoying fact that several characters developed early in the story aren’t heard of again as the plot moves on.
Would have been better off as a much shorter story, say 100 pages max.]
3/10


One Night at Mercy
Another story with OTT characters and all the clichés you can expect to find in an emergency hospital. This time, we are treated to what happens when ‘Death’ (personified by a woman), doesn’t take anyone anymore. Suddenly people and animals who were scheduled to die, remain alive and suffering like hell because of their disease or injuries.
[Built in the exact same way as the previous story, with a gallery of characters all connected by the same disturbing fate.]
2/10

The Omnibus Of Modern Crime Stories - The 60’s

Published in 1991

Changes of Climates - Ursula Curtiss (1967)
Due to a large number of allergies, a woman needs to move southward with her husband and young daughter. She flourishes in their new town, but soon becomes impossible to live with. This pushes the husband to force the family back to their original town, despite the fact that this will have a devastating effect on his wife’s health.
9/10

Life in our Time - Robert Bloch (1966)
Professor Harry Cramer knows that his wife is having an affair. He has his revenge on her with an elaborate lie: he pretends to be in charge of a time capsule project, and promptly fills it with meaningful items from the 20th century.
8/10

The Special Gift - Celia Fremlin (1967)
Eillen runs a writers’ club. One winter evening, when she only has 5 guests, Alan Fritzroy turns up. He is a strange little man, who manages to mesmerize Eileen with a recurrent dream that’s affecting his life: he walks with heavy boots towards a cradle, knowing that if he lies in it, he will go mad.
9/10

A Neat and Tidy Job - George Harmon Coxe (1960)
Mary Heath works for a bank, where she is in charge of a lift service. Her obsession for cleanliness proves to be handy when the bank is robbed.
5/10

Run, If you Can - Charlotte Armstrong (1963)
Walter lives with his Bible obsessed sister. One day, when he was driving too fast, he kills a woman and drives away from the scene. Because of the accident, he is eager to sell his car and he replies to an advert that asks for a quick swap: a car for a piece of land.
[spoiler: the land owner is in fact the would-be husband of the woman Walter killed.]
10/10

Line of Communication - Andrew Garve (1967)
A 16 years old has been kidnapped by two men who used to work for his wealthy father. They demand a ransom. The teenager manages to make a kite with his shirt. He write a message on it and let it fly out of his ‘cell’, attached to a string. Thanks to this, the police is able to locate him.
5/10

Danger at Deerfawn - Dorothy B. Hughes (1964)
A group of young holiday makers visit Deerfawn manor. There, they get involved in a murder case, tied with an international gang that steal paintings.
4/10

The Man Who Understood Women - A.H. Z Carr (1960)
Four men are having lunch together. In order to get a free meal, one of them convinces his friends that he can tell everything about a woman just by observing her. He demonstrates it by giving minute details about a woman, dining a few tables away from them…
9/10

Revolver - Avram Davidson (1962)
The sordid story of a revolver, first purchased by a stingy landlord. How it first gets stolen by a low life who also takes the rent money he had been collecting. It is then sold to a man who sells it to another. It ends up in the hands of a gang of youngsters, who have reasons to hate the landlord.
10/10

The Eternal Chase - Anthony Gilbert (1965)
Story told from the point of view of Victoria, a 9 year old girl. She lives with her grand-mother . Through deductions she discovers that Harriet, (the girl who leaves nearby), has poisoned her father, so that she could have her mother all to herself. Now, Victoria’s uncle has fallen in love with Harriet’s mother and plan to marry her…
10/10

The Omnibus Of Modern Crime Stories - The 50’s

Published in 1991

As Simple as ABC (1951) - Ellery Queen
Three very old veterans from the civil war die one after the other in odd circumstances. They leave behind them a “war treasure” that turns out to be made of old and worthless confederate money.
7/10

Money to Burn (1957) - Margery Allingham
When a woman returns to the street where she grew up she discovers that Louise, one of her friends, is forced to pay back a huge debt contracted to her father. Adlebert, the man you takes this money, regularly burns some of it in front of her. When the police investigates this case of ‘defacing the coins of the realm’ they find out that Adebert is counterfeiting money and only burns his bad print.
7/10

The Gentlest Brother (1955) - David Alexander
In order to avenge the death of his sister, a Jesuit brother pushes a local crook to kill him. This is order to make sure that the low-life goes to the electrical chair for murder.
3/10


One Way Street (1946) - Anthony Armstrong
A police inspector and his retired father investigate the murder of man in a taxi. The driver had been stopped in Trafalgar Square by a man intent at crossing the road despite the heavy traffic.
5/10

Murder at the Dog Show (1957) - Mignon G. Eberhart
Dr Richard Marly, whose girlfriend trains dogs for a dog show, investigates the murder of a Mrs Florie Carrister. It turns out that her project to open a kernel wasn’t taken too kindly by the competition.
5/10

Always Trust a Cop (1952) - Octavus Roy Cohen
Tex Graham, an ex marines and a murderer, calls his old friend Johnny Norton, not knowing that he has become a cop and is obliged to reveal his presence to the FBI. Their meeting doesn’t go too well and Tex tries to escape the situation by wearing Johnny’s police uniform.
4/10

The Withered Heart (1956) - Jean Potts
A man who hates his wife kills her on the day she is supposed to go to her sister. He arranges everything as a car crash. Unfortunately he forgets one essential element: her dog, which she never leaves alone.
6/10

The Girl Who Married a Monster (1953) - Anthony Boucher
A starlet marries a man who in the past had killed several women for their insurance money. She plans to frame him for the murder of her cousin, who looks very much like her.
6/10

Between Eight and Eight (1950) - C.S. Forrester
Manners is a murderer who is spending his last 8 hours before being executed. He manages to escape from his cell. After a mad run he takes refuge at Ethel’s place, one of the many women he had seduced when he was a free man. Unfortunately for him, a bout of pneumonia and feverish thoughts about his coming execution give him a heart attack.
6/10

Knowing what I know Now (1952) - Barry Perowne
On a train trip to London, a murderer changes the label of his trunk and places it on a similar trunk. This will have fatal consequences for its owner, a Canadian art student hunted by a particularly unpleasant souvenir from her childhood.
[Very atmospheric story.]

7/10