Buy new:
-25% $11.26
FREE delivery Friday, May 24 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$11.26 with 25 percent savings
List Price: $14.99

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Friday, May 24 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Thursday, May 23. Order within 11 hrs 18 mins
In Stock
$$11.26 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$11.26
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
30-day easy returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$9.95
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
Former library book with usual stamps and stickers. Binding is tight. Pages are crisp and clean with no markings. Ships direct from Amazon! Former library book with usual stamps and stickers. Binding is tight. Pages are crisp and clean with no markings. Ships direct from Amazon! See less
FREE delivery May 28 - 30 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Friday, May 24
In Stock
$$11.26 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$11.26
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Carol Carnac
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Crossed Skis: A Seasonal Golden Age Mystery (British Library Crime Classics) Paperback – November 3, 2020

by Carol Carnac (Author), Martin Edwards (Contributor)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 150 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$11.26","priceAmount":11.26,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"11","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"26","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"wTOnh7H237oLxoNP1MMRvyTgvTGAWA3P%2FRf2ftDnMRSSIUBdGwF1WEsoCMkO8i4JsOBVUD3dIKL3GocYseIP3aWDaP1%2BlQbQzCkWU6pWSMn8o4k8wO1xK4D8tbCCB0EaQF0KYgXqxsrBeU76OcMUDQ%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$9.95","priceAmount":9.95,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"9","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"95","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"wTOnh7H237oLxoNP1MMRvyTgvTGAWA3PB4btAJqVmMif%2BBi8P37UULj3BxT41CR%2FkcCVRSr9M9NUhm9RFadc7f0UK7Sne6U%2BnzpCtrLpBZVBJWRcBihYEoRwmjoQoXv9zVs9H%2FZ1ni4a6ONCisgRk16f6yLakKa1rUUepFgBooS%2FJ6LKDharOQ%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Discover the captivating treasures buried in the British Library's archives. Largely inaccessible to the public until now, these enduring classics were written in the golden age of detective fiction.

Crossed skis means danger ahead...

In Bloomsbury, London, Inspector Brook of Scotland Yard looks down at a dismal scene. The victim of a ruthless murder lies burnt beyond recognition, his possessions and papers destroyed by fire. But there is one strange, yet promising, lead―a lead which suggests the involvement of a skier.

Meanwhile, piercing sunshine beams down on the sparkling snow of the Austrian Alps, where a merry group of holidaymakers are heading towards Lech am Arlberg. Eight men and eight women take to the slopes, but, as the C.I.D. scrambles to crack the perplexing case in Britain, the ski party are soon to become sixteen suspects. A riveting piece of British crime fiction that spans from foggy London to the sparkling Alps, the double narrative of this golden age mystery twists and turns with alacrity, culminating in a thrilling denouement.

Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Part of series
    British Library Crime Classics
  2. Print length
    252 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Poisoned Pen Press
  5. Publication date
    November 3, 2020
  6. Dimensions
    5.25 x 0.64 x 8 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    1728219949
  8. ISBN-13
    978-1728219943
  9. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

Crossed Skis: A Seasonal Golden Age Mystery (British Library Crime Classics)
$11.26
Get it as soon as Friday, May 24
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
These Names Make Clues (British Library Crime Classics)
$11.89
Get it as soon as Friday, May 24
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Post After Post-Mortem (British Library Crime Classics)
$13.39
Get it as soon as Friday, May 24
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Choose items to buy together.

From the Publisher

Crossed Skis Castle Skull Measure of Malice Portrait of a Murderer Murder by Matchlight Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories
Crossed Skis Castle Skull Measure of Malice Portrait of a Murderer Murder by Matchlight Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories
Customer Reviews
4.5 out of 5 stars
150
4.2 out of 5 stars
348
4.2 out of 5 stars
260
4.0 out of 5 stars
411
4.3 out of 5 stars
1,112
4.3 out of 5 stars
754
Price $11.26 $14.99 $13.49 $10.75 $12.86 $13.69
Golden Age of Detective Stories ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Police Procedural ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Collection of Anthology ✓ ✓
A Touch of Horror ✓
Female Author ✓ ✓ ✓

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[An] intriguing entry in the British Library Crime Classics series...Carnac keeps the reader guessing to the end. Fans of clever literate murder mysteries will hope for more Carnac reissues." ― Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

About the Author

CAROL CARNAC was a pen name of Edith Caroline Rivett (1894-1958), who also wrote as E. C. R. Lorac and was a prolific writer of crime fiction from the 1930s to the 1950s as well as a member of the prestigious Detection Club. Her books have been almost entirely neglected since her death and deserve rediscovery as fine examples of classic British crime fiction in its Golden Age.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Poisoned Pen Press (November 3, 2020)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 252 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1728219949
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1728219943
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.64 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 150 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Carol Carnac

Carol Carnac

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
150 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Ace
5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Old Cat & Mouse Detective Story
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2023
Verified Purchase
If you love a good old-fashioned, well-written mystery without immoral garbage in it, you'll enjoy this story!
Carnac is an underappreciated writer from the 'golden age' of crime writers!
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Anissa Annalise
4.0 out of 5 stars Great Winter Mystery!
Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2021
I loved this! The setting was fantastic (piles of snowy awesome, mountains, chalets and skiing!) & the mystery is more a London police procedural with a concurrent thread running with an Alps vacationing party of 16 in which the sought after killer is embedded under an assumed identity.

The detectives are presented with a grisly situation upon happening onto a house fire with a horribly burned corpse. It's soon clear that there's been a murder and the notice of the impression of a ski pole in the mud is the first clue. The vacationing group was a chaotic and jovial bunch with varying knowledge of each other (siblings, friends, friends and acquaintances of friends).

Kate is the main organizer and one of the main characters of the story. She was inquisitive and interested in people so when she senses something amiss with missing money, she wonders what is going on and who is the mystery centred on. When it comes to her notice that the CID is asking questions at her boarding house and arrive in the Alps, she's sure it's to do with the travelling group somehow. She was a good character and I found her quite a good investigator in her own right. I'd read another book with her as the sleuth. The story culminates with the two threads merging, the killer outed and an exciting scene on the slopes. I'd thought it was going to zig but the story zagged and I loved every minute of it. When the title popped up I had the "A-ha!" moment and that was cool as well.

I chose to read this because it's the time of year I want my mysteries wintry and this more than satisfied. This is a great addition to the British Library Crime Classics and I recommend it. I'd read another by Carnac (aka E.C.R. Lorac). This is the eighth book in the Julian Rivers series but she has many books under her other name in the BLCC reissue series.

Favourite passages (surprise, mostly related to the atmosphere & setting):

"Snow and mountains are the only reality and in spite of their beauty there’s an element of terror in them."

"They had emerged from the pine woods now, and were in bright sunlight again, travelling up a wide valley shut in by snowy crests, the intense whiteness confusing distances, so that the valley seemed a vastness of immeasurable untrodden snow, stretching from the track to the mountain tops, the horse and sleigh dwarfed to insignificance."

"A blue dusk seemed to caress the snow: stars were beginning to gleam above the mountains and the valley shone with golden specks from lighted windows. The sound of sleigh bells and the soft thud of horses’ hooves on the beaten snow tracks combined to make enchantment of the Austrian village."

"Kate Reid took one good look at what she could see of Lech and was well satisfied. It was an Austrian village, set in a wide Alpine valley, with a stream racing in torrents between snowy banks. Cradled on all sides by the embracing snow slopes, dominated by mountain peaks, Lech yet retained the charm of a village. It had the comely wide-eaved wooden houses familiar to travellers in Switzerland, which clustered round an enchanting little stone church, whose tall rather gaunt tower was crowned by an onion-shaped cupola, glowing golden in the lucid light. Neither the hotels, nor the polyglot crowds in ski-ing kit, destroyed the impression that Lech was an Austrian mountain village, which had its own way of life, its own character, developed and bred in the mountains: something picturesque and yet sturdy, colourful and independent, to which the winter sports crowd was but an incident in a life of sturdy independence, whose ways and traditions had developed in its mountain environment."

And one because detectives in detective novels reading detective novels is awesome:

"Lancing had bought six Penguin detective novels, from which he derived much entertainment: he left them all in the train at Langen—“as propaganda”, he said to Rivers."
8 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
J.L.
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful service! Love the old English crimes!
Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2020
Verified Purchase
The old English crime stories are so good. Great service and authors of the British Crime Library.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Kitty Kat
5.0 out of 5 stars Great mystery story
Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2022
It’s 1951 in gloomy post-war London, and a group of travellers head off for the ski slopes of Austria. The eight men and eight women can’t wait to escape and partake of everything a European ski resort has to offer. But back home Inspector Brook of Scotland Yard is faced with a terrible death to solve - and the only clue points to an expert skier. Do any of the group have a connection? Brook must sift through the evidence and find the killer before it is too late.

I loved the tandem elements of the story, with the police investigation in London, where clues point to a link to the ski trip, and the trip itself. It was very well written and immersive. It was made all the more interesting to someone in the early 21st century reading about post-war grimy and miserable London, and Europe recovering after the war and trying to get back to some sort of normality with tourism. Carol Carnac originally published this book in 1952, but it has not aged. It is as readable and impressive as it was then.

Carnac lets her characters talk, and through them we see the story unfold. She has a knack for seeing who people really are, and knows their faults and vices. After all, people are people, and a good detective can always count on that. I loved this story and now feel compelled to hunt out more by this author.

I was given this ARC for review.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
annie
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Mystery
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2020
My first vintage British Mystery. I really enjoyed it. The characters are interesting and the storyline is intriguing. And I loved the locations.

I received a copy of this book via Sourcebooks Early Reads Program. My thoughts and opinions are my own and without bias.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
The Grand Sophy
5.0 out of 5 stars Crossed Skis
Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2020
If you like vintage British mysteries, bigger on mystery than violence or sex, you’ll enjoy this book. If you like Patricia Moyes’ Henry Tibbet series, give this a try.
5 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Jehoshephat
1.0 out of 5 stars a trip with 16 very unpleasant but smug people
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2020
Verified Purchase
I hated the book, but when I tried to delete it, Kindle said I wasn't allowed to until I called them and cleared it with some "agents" or something. Their service is getting worse with every passing week.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Patto
5.0 out of 5 stars Chief Inspector Rivers chases a gentleman murderer on skis
Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2020
Verified Purchase
This is a cleverly crafted mystery in the Golden Age tradition with two storylines. First we meet the corpse who died in a lodging house fire. Inspector Rivers quickly determines this is no accident but rather murder. Then a curious clue suggests that the murderer is a skier.

As it happens, the author was an avid skier, and she takes us to the same Alpine resort she once enjoyed with a party of friends. The group reflects her own skiing party, except that it includes a brilliant cat burglar turned killer!

The skiing narrative sparkles with realism, based as it is on the author’s experiences and enthusiasms. But the story of the burned down lodging house is equally realistic and engaging. The landlady is a peach of a character. Carol Carnac is a terrific writer.

I found out reading the excellent introduction, that Carol Carnac is also E.C.R. Lorac, whose books from British Library Classics I have devoured with great relish. I hope the publisher reprints more of this wonderful author's mysteries.

By the way, I have no interest in skiing, but that didn’t stop me from loving this story, including the dramatic ski chase in the denouement.
22 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report