Holidays offer us the luxury of getting away from it all. So, in a different way, do detective stories. This collection of vintage mysteries combines both those pleasures. From a golf course at the English seaside to a pension in Paris, and from a Swiss mountain resort to the cliffs of Normandy, this new selection shows the enjoyable and unexpected ways in which crime writers have used summer holidays as a theme. These fourteen stories range widely across the golden age of British crime fiction. Stellar names from the past are well represented-- Arthur Conan Doyle and G.K. Chesterton, for instance-- with classic stories that have won acclaim over the decades. The collection also uncovers a wide range of hidden gems: Anthony Berkeley-- whose brilliance with plot had even Agatha Christie in raptures-- is represented by a story so (undeservedly) obscure that even the British Library seems not to own a copy. The stories by Phyllis Bentley and Helen Simpson are almost equally rare, despite the success which both writers achieved, while those by H.C. Bailey, Leo Bruce and the little-known Gerald Findler have seldom been reprinted.

The adventure of the Devil's Foot /Arthur Conan Doyle -- A schoolmaster abroad / E.W. Hornung -- Murder! / Arnold Bennett -- The murder on the golf links / M. McDonnell Bodkin -- The finger of stone / G. K. Chesterton -- The vanishing of Mrs Fraser / Basil Thomson -- A mystery of the sand-hills / R. Austin Freeman -- The hazel ice / H. C. Bailey -- Razor edge / Anthony Berkeley -- Holiday task / Leo Bruce -- A posteriori / Helen Simpson -- Where is Mr. Manetot? / Phyllis Bently -- The house of screams / Gerald Findler -- Cousin once removed / Michael Gilbert.