7 Incredible Collaborative Detection Club Books

Shortly after the founding of the Detection Club, members started to collaborate on a series of ‘round robin’ mystery novels in which a manuscript was sent from one author to the next with each adding a chapter. This is the third in the series, after The Scoop and Behind the Scenes

This story features the hapless Inspector Rudge, a corpse in a rowing boat, and a shoal of red herrings.

Written by Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, G.K. Chesterton, and nine other pillars of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, it’s a delightfully frothy mystery puzzle filled with wit and in-jokes.

Two Queens of Crime (Sayers and Margery Allingham) were amongst the contributors to the original 1934 edition of this wonderful short story collection, while the third, Dame Agatha, was added to the later reprint.

All six stories in the collection are the result of a challenge to the writers to design a murder so perfect it would baffle even the most experienced detectives at London’s Scotland Yard. In an added twist, real life retired Scotland Yard superintendent, George Cornish, was brought in to attempt to solve them, presenting his analysis and his methods after each one.

This is a unique and highly entertaining idea that is beautifully executed by the writers.

Some of the most famous detectives of the Golden Age gather together to investigate the death of the media magnate Lord Comstock, a man who is about as popular with the public as influenza. In the quest for the killer, each will draw his or her own conclusions.

The twist here is that each of the celebrated mystery writers who collaborated on the novel writes about another’s detective. Dorothy L Sayers' upper-crust sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey, finds himself under the control of Anthony Berkley (who has rather a lot of gleeful fun with him), while Sayers takes charge of Berkley’s Roger Sherringham.

Will they find the murderer, or will they even agree who it is?

The fun the writers had is evident, even if the plot has more holes than a hobo’s pants.

In this 1937 collection, illustrious members of the Detection Club provide an overview and analysis of their favorite true crime cases, bringing the minds of mystery writers to some of the most baffling real life murders.

Amongst the stand-outs are Dorothy L. Sayers' perceptive study of the 1931 killing of Julia Wallace (her husband was convicted and then set free on appeal), Freeman Wills Crofts' review of a gruesome double homicide and possible miscarriage of justice in New Zealand, and Margaret Cole's superb dissection of the complex story of the Pimlico Poisoning and the young Frenchwoman at the center of it.

Edited by Detection Club President Simon Brett (who contributes an entertaining history of the club as a preface), this superb 2005 collection brings together 11 original short stories by the cream of British crime writers from the last two decades of the 20th century.

Included here are fine tales from Colin Dexter (Inspector Morse), P.D James (Adam Dalgleish), and Lindsey Davis (Falco). Though perhaps the real gem is the story by Reginald Hill, which features his regular detective, the brusque and occasionally downright rude Andy Dalziel without his more moderate partner, Peter Pascoe.

This cheeky 2016 follow-up to The Floating Admiral sees the roles of Dame Agatha and co taken up by Simon Brett (one of the UK’s greatest purveyors of cozy crime), current president Martin Edwards, Peter Lovesey (Sergeant Cribb) and 11 other leading British mystery authors who follow the same round robin formula.

All the original contributors to The Floating Admiral have roles to play as fictional characters in this old-fashioned (in attitudes as well as style) whodunit.

TheAdmiral Byng is a down-on-its-uppers rural pub, casually called “the Admiral.” The nickname also refers to its financially floundering landlord, who winds up dead in a jolly boat under the noses of a TV documentary team.

Entertaining, lightweight fun.

This sparkling collection of 22 new short stories was commissioned to celebrate the 80th birthday of Simon Brett and was published earlier this year. A golden cast of Detective Club alumni contributed original bite-sized tales of crime and detection in a dazzling variety of forms.

Fans will enjoy fresh encounters with John Harvey’s jazz-loving Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick and Brett’s actor-sleuth, the suave Charles Paris (so memorably played on BBC radio by Bill Nighy). There’s also a fresh take on Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White from the always excellent Elly Griffiths, a predictably engrossing story from Anne “Vera” Cleeves, and a witty tale of adultery and cold-blooded revenge by the late Christopher Fowler.