My library is more heavily weighted to the golden age and interwar period of classic British mysteries, so Sexton Blake was not really familiar to me previously. These three works are short and easily read. They're what I would call "ripping yarns" and full of action and espionage. They're absolutely a product of their time and, despite being partially edited for modern audiences, contain some eyebrow raising casual racism and other story stopping bits of dialogue which have been mostly excised from the current release. The historical notes and introductions are cleverly written in as a dialogue instead of the dry potentially academic editing notes which often accompany such re-releases. It works quite well in context and I liked reading them very much.
The writing quality is generally pretty high, especially considering that many of these stories were banged out as public entertainment and, let's face it, propaganda for morale boosting on a very tight schedule.
I definitely would recommend the updated versions to anyone looking for light and entertaining action books, especially fans of series characters. For all my friends and acquaintances who enjoy the old John Creasey series like The Toff and The Baron, these (though set somewhat earlier in time) will fill the bill nicely.
Four stars (warning, product of its time and reflects many of the social mores and attitudes of same).
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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