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Published in good time for Christmas is the latest in Ardagh's spoof novelettes 'criminally illustrated with what was to hand' – in this case re-used cartoons from Punch of 1880. (Earlier volumes have used illustrations from Girls' Own Paper and Strand Magazine.) The illustrations, of course, are a delight: they include lots of Du Maurier and Charles Keene, with additional contributions from Tenniel, Sambourne and others. Each of Ardagh's three bonbons has been a crime story, to a point, allowing us to recommend this one as an ideal stocking-filler (from the days when you were lucky if your stocking would be filled for Christmas) and, at £9.99, an affordable gift, especially for the crime fan who has read everything else. And, unlike whodunits, these little books can be re-read every year. What's it about? Three Victorian sisters and their dastardly life of crime: they are mistresses of disguise, and are dab hands with Russian-made umbrella rifles, drugs and odd poisons. They are also encumbered with a goody-goody brother and a lascivious Grandpa. Nemesis awaits, in the guise of an umbrella shoot-out and – oh damn, I've just given away the end. Or have I?

Russell James

The Scandalous Life of the Lawless Sisters

by Philip Ardagh

Faber hb, £9.99, 978-0-571-23904-7