The Dead Witness by Michael Sims
THE DEAD WITNESS edited by Michael Sims. Bloomsbury £18.99
Reviewed by Peter Coleborn
This large anthology is subtitled “A Connoisseur’s Collection of Victorian Detective Storiesâ€. I’m no expert of this genre but looking at the contents, it’s clear that this is a juicy book. Included herein are stories by William E Burton, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Arthur Conan Doyle and Mark Twain: 22 in all. Actually, there are a couple of non-fiction pieces, including a newspaper article and an inquest transcript from a certain Jack the Ripper case. Truly fascinating stuff.
Editor Michael Sims adds a good general introduction to the Victorian detective, plus pieces for each story in the anthology. He suggests that Poe’s Dupin story (“The Murders in the Rue Morgue†[1841]) kicked off the detective story genre, but mentions that “The Secret Cell†by William E Burton (reprinted here for the first time) was published in 1837, a few years before Poe’s masterpiece. This is an excellent anthology, and an excellent introduction to the detective tales of the Victorian era.