Author: Various: edited by Lynne Patrick
Publisher: Creme de la Crime
Binding: Trade
Publication Date: August 2009
Overall, a nice collection. The stories run the gamut from noir to cozy, modern-day to historical with a surprise futuristic thrown in. There’s a little bit of the “fantastic” here and there as well in the form of a ghost or two. I really, really wish that editors would mix genres together like this in collections more often. It was a nice change of pace to have such different types of stories thrown together. The funnier, lighter stories were my favorites, and it was nice to see a collection that included more than one.
If I’ve one compliant, it would be that some of the best stories were too short; you could almost feel the word count restrictions reigning in the authors, forcing them to close. There’s a few weird ones and predictably, I wasn’t too fond of the noir/sanity/insanity entries, but bear in mind as you read the review that those types of story are not something I like anyway. Of course, then, to my surprise, a fairly dark story may very well be one that I liked the best–it was quite shocking and creepy, but just had everything in place!
Remember too, that for each book purchased a pound or a dollar will be given to Breast Cancer Research (depending on where you make your purchase).
Out of her Mind – Carla Banks –I didn’t get it. Can’t say much more than that. Some sort of horror, heavy on the dark atmosphere, but I never even got close to grasping the point, assuming there was one.
Off Duty – Zoe Sharp — I was looking forward to this because I’ve been wanting to read a Sharp novel for a while. It introduced a very interesting character, but for me, it needed more of a plot. The protag is a body guard, and a few crimes take place, but there wasn’t enough room for the story to really bang. I liked the kick-ass character and it was a good enough piece that I’ll be looking into the novels to get the whole story.
Top Hard – Stephen Booth –Interesting story. It has the depth and description of a novel, which at first seemed to be a bit of a waste in a short, but I do believe it was all clever distraction because the ending isn’t what I’d expected from a crime story…and it finishes with a bit of an uh-oh, not answering every question and leaving you wondering, “what next?” Bit of cleverness here. I liked it.
Work Experience – Simon Brett –Oooh a delight! In the style of Donald Westlake a truly wonderful little criminal romp. Wonderful characters, lots of color and lots of fun. Not a wasted word, not a wasted moment.
Before the Fall – Maureen Carter –A police procedural vignette more than anything. Characterization didn’t particularly grab me, but the story could be relying on characters in a novel-length work.
No Baby – Linda Regan –This is a strange little memoir-type thing, more a story about what happens after the crime has been committed. I’m not sure it works well in short story form. The emotion is certainly there and the tension, especially in the beginning. It even has a decent ending, but because it’s a short story, the ending feels condensed. I’ve not read anything in this particular style in a short story so I don’t have a comparison. And yeah, it’s noir so that probably kept me from jumping and up down over it.
Hangman – Mary Andrea Clark – A nice cross between Robin Hood and Zorro! This story was fun–good tension, very interesting characters and a nice setup. The mystery needed a few more clues or intrigue; it ended rather abruptly, solved a bit too fast, but perhaps to be expected in a short story this short.
Push – Lesley Cookman –Every anthology needs a surprise/twist ending. This one would be it. Kind of a morbid tale, but goes about it quite in disguise.
Games for Winter – Ann Cleeves –And here we have a tale told in the style of Washington Irving (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow). While horror is not my thing and I’d rate this as horror, it was very cleverly done, drawing the reader into a bucolic setting, keeping expectations quite calm…
Neutral Territory – Natasha Cooper –A kind of coming to one’s own, after a rather depressing life.
Mindstalker – Martin Edwards -Rather too much exposition to create a setup. There simply wasn’t anywhere else to go with this story because there aren’t many characters introduced. A kind of vignette of life in the fast lane. Interestingly, it is a futuristic story, which made it unusual in the collection, but I would have liked a more unique twist to the ending.
The Man with the Pram – Peter Guttridge — Gibberish and wandering to lead to murder. Stronger characterization might have at least made me care about the victim, but somehow the story was so depressing and morose, the actual murder was simply meaningless.
The Octopus Nest – Sophie Hannah –Holy expletive! I did not see this one coming. This is the one where you tell your friends–buy this book for this story. It has tension, suspense–it’s creepy, but you don’t know whether to draw the shades down and hide or open them up so that you’re not forced to read in the near dark! Great characterization, plot–this, this is a short story! When I finished reading it, I wanted to immediately hand it off to someone and say, “Is this really what happened??? Is this really what she means???” It’s…creepy. It’s…skillful. It’s very good.
John Brown’s Body – Reginal Hill –A mordid tale with morbid humor. Wild, throwing herrings out here, then there. A good, solid entry, with mystery, a very good setting and setup. And then there’s the humor. Did I mention that??
12 Bolinbroke Avenue – Peter James –There must be a ghost story, of course. This one is rather tangled, almost leading me away from the ending, but I’ve read a LOT of ghost stories, and I got to the “aha” quite a while before the end.
The Pomeranian Poisoning – Peter Lovesey – I expected to like this as I’ve read his work before, but this one was just not my thing. A story told through letters about people that I could not possibly care about. Meant to be funny and ironic, the ending was too predictable to amuse me (well, the overall ending, not necessarily all the details.)
A Girl Thing – Adrian Magson – Hmm. An interesting undercover sting operation. Hard for me to match-up the tawdry setting with the ending.
The Vicar of Clopewolde’s Daughter – Kaye C. Hill –Predictably this is one of the stories I enjoyed a lot. Not only does it use the same characters as in Hill’s novel (Dead Woman’s Shoes) it has some of the strongest traditional mystery elements. The setup is good, the characterization is good and the ending wasn’t at all what I expected.
Poor Old Frankie – Barbara Nadel –This wasn’t really my type of thing. Dark, brooding with a bit of wondering just which characters are sane (a sanity theme ran quite often in the collection). Quite possibly these noir stories bother me because they tell the story, but in the end, there is no end. No one wins and I’m left annoyed.
Home – Chris Nickson –Noir.
Hungry Eyes – Shiela Quigley -Too many POVs. The mystery itself is quite good, but I don’t like multiple POV in novels; it’s even harder for me to care about characters when multiple POVs aer used in a short.
The Masquerade – Sarah Rayne –Relies too much on exposition/description. The descriptions do instantly set you in the place with the right atmosphere. There is simply too much of it and not enough of anything else. Told entirely from the POV of a pompous person it goes on far too long. I give sit points for being a bit on the extraordinary side of the mystery genre.
Does it Always Rain in Manchester – Caroline Shiach –I’m not sure I liked this one, but it did have a good mystery. It was laid out well and was believable. I think perhaps I stumbled a bit in that a detective hands over the final results rather than there being actual detective work towards the end. I did like the family nuances. Ending made me think of Casablanca.
Singer of Lost Songs – Roz Southey –This is a well-written piece, an introspective mystery. The premise is a bit too foolish for me to believe (even though it’s probably quite true that young girls are that foolish) but be that as it may, it is laid out well and the pacing/discovery is done well.
Waiting for Mr Right – Andrew Taylor -Morbid; graveyard horror tale. It’s done in the Poe style and well done at that. Were horror my thing, I think this would be a good one.
Sneeze for Danger – Val McDermid -A very, very strong entry. I enjoyed this story–top-notch characterization, bit of a police procedural with all the right elements. It’s one of those short stories where the answer fits, but you wish it had been longer, you wish for a few more red herrings because the writing is so strong, you really aren’t ready for it to end.
Just wondering, Brian, are all of these writers novelists? I know that most of them are but some I’m unfamiliar with. Which makes me wonder why, when you’re putting together a short story anthology, you would choose novelists instead of short story writers. I’m not saying a writer can’t do both, Stephen King’s shorts are more brilliant than his novels for me, but I’ve seen too many novelist just fail when writing shorts. Of course, that’s just my opinion.
And my apologies. That would be Maria, not Brian.
Hi Sandra,
As I understand it, Lynne put out the call for stories when she started the project and was looking for first and foremost good stories. Any that were donated were even better because that would help keep costs low and raise more money! Several of these stories (about half) were previously published in various print magazines or anthologies, so I would imagine that many of the authors consider themselves both short story writers and novelists.
Some of the stories are from the Creme de la Crime stable of authors. On top of that, Lynne ran a contest looking for a first time, unpublished author–and chose a story from the many entries: Caroline Shiach’s “Does it Always Rain in Manchester.”
There’s a really great front section with a blurb about each author in the set. Leslie Cookman writes pantomimes and non-fiction as well as novels. Martin Edwards edited several anthologies and won the CWA short story Dagger a couple of years ago. Adrian Magson apparently started out as a writer doing short stories.
I don’t think that Lynne meant to limit in any way which authors showed up–and probably would have looked at, and considered authors that only wrote short stories (I don’t remember the guidelines to be honest.) I will say that she managed a pretty impressive stable of authors that crossed a whole slew of backgrounds. One of the things I enjoyed most was sampling some of these authors that I had heard of, but hadn’t gotten around to reading.