‘Murder in the Midday Sun’ Edited by Cecily Gayford.

Published by Profile Books,
4 June 2026.
ISBN: ‎978-1-80522981-0

There’s nothing worse than going on holiday without an enticing book. Recently, en route to Italy, I had time to spare before my plane took off from Heathrow Airport. WH Smith had a well-stocked range of titles, but the one that I snapped up was Murder in the Midday Sun: Classic Crime for the Holidays, edited by Cecily Gayford. The anthology features ten short stories by such revered names as John Dickson Carr, Ruth Rendell, Edward D. Hoch, Edmund Crispin, Michael Gilbert, James Holding, Julian Symons, Anthony Berkeley, Val McDermid, GDH Cole and MI Cole.

The ten crimes littered throughout Murder in the Midday Sun are many and varied, ranging from stabbing to impersonation and theft. The setting of James Holdings’ ‘The Grave Robber’ brought back pleasurable memories of my visit to Egypt, while ‘Death in the Scillies’ by Julian Symons was all the more admirable for being such a compact tale, expertly told. Val McDermid’s ‘The Wagon Mound’ centred around the theme of revenge and was as refreshing as a dry, crisp white wine. Although I had previously read ‘The Wrong Problem’ by John Dickson Carr and Edmund Crispin’s ‘A Country to Sell’ in other collections, revisiting them was no less enjoyable. The sheer economy with which Edmund Crispin delivers an intriguing mystery within just seven pages is wholly commendable and offers aspiring authors a blueprint in brevity and ingenuity. Check out any short story collection by these two masters of the genre, and your reading is sure to be taken care of for a week or two. 

For me, the standout story in Murder in the Midday Sun was ‘The Theft of the Bermuda Stamp’ featuring Edward D. Hoch’s thief-turned-sleuth Nick Velvet. While many crime stories are told retrospectively, this caper unfolded in real time, with each clearly delineated scene moving swiftly to a highly satisfying conclusion. The first Nick Velvet story was published in 1966 as Edward D. Hoch’s answer to James Bond. Addicts of one of Edward D. Hoch’s most unusual heroes can continue his adventures in The Velvet Touch and The Thefts of Nick Velvet. 

Murder in the Midday Sun is an excellent anthology, and special credit must go to its editor Cecily Gayford for compiling it. Her love of the classic crime genre ensures each collection she publishes is to be treasured. In short, I am an unabashed fan of each series she curates. Recommended.
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Reviewer Jared Cade

Cecily Gayford studied English at the University of Oxford, where she wrote her thesis focusing on "Golden Age" detective fiction from the 1930s and 1940s. During her time there, she developed a deep fascination with the mysterious, gothic, and macabre side of literature. As an editorial director at Profile Books, she is widely recognised within literary circles for editing highly successful thematic anthologies of classic crime, mystery, and ghost stories. Her popular collections are usually divided into distinct seasonal (Winter and Festive Thrills) or atmospheric themes (Summer and Holiday Mayhem), and feature such stalwart contributors as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, Ian Rankin, and John Mortimer. Her anthologies have collectively sold more than 250,000 copies. 

Jared Cade is the Amazon number-one bestselling biographer of Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days, which is being released as a major motion picture in 2027. The upcoming adaptation stars two-time Oscar nominee Felicity Jones, French cinematic icon Vincent Cassel, and Game of Thrones star Alfie Allen. The author is a former tour guide for a bespoke travel company, escorting parties around Agatha Christie’s former home Greenway, in Devon, which is open to the public courtesy of the National Trust. Jared Cade is also the award-winning creator of the Lyle Revel and Hermione Bradbury mysteries. Titles in the series include The Elusive Dietrich, Murder on London Underground, and Deadly Fortune. His book, Secrets from the Agatha Christie Archives, was longlisted for the 2025 ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction, while the follow-up volume, Agatha Christie’s Spotlight on Murder, is being published on 30 November 2026.

 Jared Cade | Author