Margaret Frazer

Award-winning Author of the Sister Frevisse Mysteries and the Joliffe Player Mysteries

Short Stories

My short stories can be broadly ordered into three categories: Those written for a variety of collections edited by Mike Ashley; those written for the Murder Most series; and then a sprinkling of others which have appeared here and there. Some of these short stories have been translated into German.

MIKE ASHLEY COLLECTIONS

THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF

HISTORICAL WHODUNNITS

(1993 Edition)

"The Witch's Tale" by Margaret Frazer

When my co-author and I were several books into the Dame Frevisse series, we were approached by Mike Ashley, an English editor of anthologies. I had never written a short story before and, up until that moment, was fairly certain that I couldn't.

But Mike Ashley offered money, so I quickly resolved that I could and I would.

Seven thousand words later, "The Witch's Tale" -- my first short story -- was complete. And I must have done something right, because Mike Ashley kept coming back to ask me for new stories.

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THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF

HISTORICAL WHODUNITS

(1997 Edition)

"The Witch's Tale" by Margaret Frazer

This is the 1997 edition of The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunits, published in hardcover by Barnes & Noble. It is virtually identical to the 1993 edition (which was published in both England and America), except for the title: Compare the spelling of "Whodunnits" between the two.

Normally this cover would have appeared on the Alternative Covers page, but the Historical Whodunnits books have suffered the most bizarre and confounding history of publication imaginable. Thus, in the interests of making it as clear as possible for those trying to find my short stories, I'm going to be as inclusive as possible on this page.

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THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF

HISTORICAL WHODUNNITS

(2001 Edition)

"Heretical Murder" by Margaret Frazer

This is the 2001 edition of The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits, as originally published in England. It contains a completely different set of stories from the previous editions of the book published under the same title.

In addition to the difference in cover art, this edition can be distinguished by the words "Brand New Collection" on the title page.

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THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF

MORE HISTORICAL WHODUNITS

(2001 Edition)

"Heretical Murder" by Margaret Frazer

This is the 2001 Edition of Historical Whodunnits as it was published in America. You'll notice that the title here includes the word "more", distinguishing it nicely from its predecessor.

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THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF

HISTORICAL WHODUNNITS

(2005 Edition)

"The Stone-Worker's Tale" by Margaret Frazer

This is the 2005 edition of The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits, as originally published in England. It contains a completely different set of stories from either of the two previous editions of the book published under the same title.

This book can be distinguished from the previous two by the different cover art and the words "Third New Collection" which appear on the title page.

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THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF

NEW HISTORICAL WHODUNITS

(2005 Edition)

"The Stone-Worker's Tale" by Margaret Frazer

And last, but not least, we have the 2005 edition of Historical Whodunnits as it was published in America. You'll notice that, in this case, the word "new" is helpfully included to distinguish it from previous volumes.

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THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF

HISTORICAL DETECTIVES

(1995)

"The Midwife's Tale" by Margaret Frazer

"The Midwife's Tale", collected in this volume, was actually my second short story. My work for Mike Ashley started with the original Historical Whodunnits, which was then followed by Historical Detectives. Historical Detectives was, in fact, followed by all of the Ashley volumes listed below before the Mammoth series returned to the Historical Whodunnits title (as detailed above).

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This book is also available in an omnibus edition collecting both the original 1993 edition of Historical Whodunnits and Historical Detectives.