The Times Anthology of Detective Stories

It has been said recently that the time is ripe for a revival of that classic literary conjuring trick - the detective story. But where are the new young writers who can weave plots as beguiling as those of their nineteenth-century forbears? At least two of the most widely-read of English post-war novelists first made their mark as a result of winning newspaper competitions. Muriel Spark, for instance, published her first novel after taking first prize in a short story competition run by the *Observer*, and Alistair Maclean was prompted to write *H.M.S. Ulysses*, his first epic adventure novel which sold several million copies throughout the world, after winning a similar competition in the Glasgow *Herald*. Yet, until now, no newspaper in Britain since the war has made a major award to a detective story writer. In the search for a potential new Conan Doyle, Cape arranged this spring, in conjunction with The *Times*, a detective story competition with a first prize of £500 in cash and a £500 contract for a follow-up detective novel. The competition was judged by Lord Butler, Tom Stoppard and the Queen of Crime herself, Dame Agatha Christie. This collection contains not only the winning entry and the runners-up but also a handful of the best of the stories entered. For cunning craftsmanship and sheer entertainment few recent collections of stories rival the standard of this unique anthology.