Margery Allingham Anthologies books in order

Margery Allingham Anthologies collects the various crime and mystery anthologies Allingham contributed to or edited, spanning decades of the genre from 1930s British classics to late twentieth-century collections.

Reading order

# Title Published Author Buy on Amazon
1 Six Against the Yard 1937 Margery Allingham Buy
2 Nine Detective Stories 1964 Margery Allingham Buy
3 Murder for Christmas 1987 Margery Allingham Buy
4 English Country House Murders 1988 Margery Allingham Buy
5 Fifty Best Mysteries 1993 Margery Allingham Buy
6 Canine Crimes 1993 Margery Allingham Buy
7 A Century of British Mystery and Suspense 2000 Margery Allingham Buy
8 Crime Story Collection 2000 Margery Allingham Buy
9 Crime Never Pays 2001 Margery Allingham Buy
10 Murder Most Merry 2002 Margery Allingham Buy
11 Murder in Midsummer: Classic Mysteries for the Holidays 2019 Margery Allingham Buy
12 Bodies from the Library 2 2019 Margery Allingham Buy
13 Metropolitan Mysteries: A Casebook of London’s Detectives 2025 Margery Allingham Buy

Margery Allingham’s work has been included in crime and mystery anthologies from the 1930s through to the present day. Six Against the Yard (1937) is one of the more unusual examples: six prominent crime writers each contributed a story in which the narrator commits what they believed was the perfect murder, with ex-Superintendent Cornish of Scotland Yard analyzing each story for practical flaws. The result is part fiction, part genuine procedural curiosity.

Later anthologies gathered her work alongside that of other Golden Age writers, reflecting the sustained interest in mid-century British crime fiction. Collections like English Country House Murders (1988) and A Century of British Mystery and Suspense (2000) placed Allingham’s stories in the context of the broader tradition to which she contributed. Murder for Christmas (1987) and Murder Most Merry (2002) drew on the seasonal strand of her short fiction.

More recent publications like Bodies from the Library 2 (2019) and Metropolitan Mysteries (2025) reflect ongoing scholarly and popular interest in Golden Age writers, bringing together stories from archives and magazine runs that have been out of print for decades. Allingham’s presence across so many different anthologies across nearly a century speaks to the durability of her short fiction.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many books are in the Margery Allingham Anthologies series?

There are thirteen books in the Margery Allingham Anthologies series, published between 1937 and 2025.

What is the first book in the Margery Allingham Anthologies series?

The first book in the Margery Allingham Anthologies series is Six Against the Yard, published in 1937.

Did Margery Allingham edit anthologies herself, or did she mainly appear as a contributor?

Both. Allingham contributed stories to many anthologies during her lifetime, and she also helped compile and edit collections of crime fiction. Six Against the Yard (1937), in which six crime writers each wrote a murder story that a real Scotland Yard detective then analyzed, is one notable example of her collaborative anthology work.

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