“The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits, Volume 3,” was published in 2005 and contains some 26 stories of which 15 are original to this anthology. As with all such volumes, each reader will prefer some stories over others, but generally speaking, all of these tales are well-written and entertaining in their own way. My favourites included Peter Tremayne’s “The Spiteful Shadow,” in which Sister Fidelma saves the tinnitus-suffering Sister Scathach from a murder charge (admittedly half my enjoyment was the name Scathach, which means “the shadowy one” and who was the Warrior Queen/Goddess who taught Cuchulainn how to fight; also the name of one of my mighty warrior cats); “Catherine and the Sybil,” by Sharan Newman, in which her series character Catherine meets Hildegarde the visionary; Alan R. Gordon’s “The Jester and the Mathematician,” featuring his jester/diplomat Theophilos saving a mathematician accused of murder in 1198 Pisa; “The Stone-Worker’s Tale,” by Margaret Fraser, whose 15th Century Oxfordshire Dame Frevisse solves a double murder before it happens; Martin Edwards’ “The WItching Hour,” in which a clerk foils a plot to convict a young woman of witchcraft in order to steal her land with its hidden Roman treasures; “The Serpent’s Back,” by Ian Rankin, set amongst the shady denizens of late 18th-Century Edinburgh; “Botanist at Bay,” by Edward Marston, whereby a convict transported to Australia becomes respectable - but not innocent; and a reprint from 1945, “Murder in Old Manhattan,” by Frank Bonham, involving thievery and blackmail in 1857 in New York City. There are perhaps a few too many stories set during wartimes for my tastes, and as the stories venture from Ancient Egypt to the sinking of the Titanic, the majority of tales are set in either the US or the UK, but those are generally minor quibbles and the series as a whole is well worth searching out; recommended. ( )