ONCE UPON A CRIME II

A sequel to Hutchings's Once Upon a Crime (1994) that outclasses the original collection in every respect. There's a wider range of tones (from Bräni James's Socratic dialogue to Robert Barnard's agreeably foolish royal intrigue) and of approaches (from James Powell's Arabian Nights tale to Anne Perry's French Revolutionary intrigue); there's a higher level of ingenuity (especially in the pair of Theodore Mathieson contributions starring Galileo and Alexander the Great); and there's a more effortless and accomplished evocation of different periods (from Steven Saylor's Imperial Rome to Jeffry Scott's war-torn England). But mainly, the level of writing, from Susan B. Kelly's archly amusing slice of Jane Austen to Florence V. Mayberry's postbellum memoir, is simply higher. In short, Hutchings's selection of 16 stories from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, 195495, seems to have hit all the high points she missed last time.