Mark Ellingham

Warning: this review contains spoilers -- well, maybe not, but I do discuss the content of the stories, and because some are very short, they are at greater risk of being accidentally spoilered.

Ian Rankin introduces this collection of 27 short stories from a wide range of highly regarded crime fiction writers. Some stories feature the authors' well-known series characters, others are early efforts, some are stand-alones, and others explore different genres such as sci-fi and horror. I would show more recommend this collection if you like one of the writers featured in it or want to try something by a name you've heard of but don't want to commit to a whole novel. Of the authors new to me here, I most want to try novels by Anne Zouroudi and Yrsa Sigurdadottir.

Most of these stories I at least "liked", and of the two that I was really indifferent to, they at least had the benefit of being short. Below is a brief assessment of each story.

The Dead Their Eyes Implore Us (Pelecanos): This story was a first-person narration by a Greek immigrant to New York City in the 1930s. It had a good distinctive voice (3/5)

The Case of Death and Honey (Gaiman): This was a Sherlock Holmes story, which should have been fun, but the viewpoints jumped around a bit too much for my tastes. Also, it gave me nightmares about bees. (2.5/5)

Buy and Bust (Lewis): Decent plot, decent suspense. My rating is a positive 3 instead of a "meh" one. (3/5)

I've Seen That Movie Too (McDermid) -- Excellent! The story told us only what we needed to know about the protagonist, and what information we learned was provided in a natural way. And most importantly, the story ended at exactly the right spot. This was my favourite story in the collection. (5/5)

Caught Short (Horowitz): I laughed out loud in places where I probably should not have, but it was more of a "Haha, that is BRILLIANT" laugh. Very good description, maybe almost TOO good in places. (4.5/5)

The Sin of Dreams (Mosley) -- Cool premise. The ending was a bit weird, but I was feeling charitable and the originality of the premise bumped it up past some of the 3.5 stories. (4/5)

Five Francs Each (Vargas) -- Normally I prefer to read Vargas in French, because I get distracted trying to back-translate her books in English, but this story was interesting. (4/5)

An Afternoon (Rankin) -- A very early Ian Rankin story. I like the use of the football ground and the glimmer of the cop that might have become Rebus. Rankin also includes a little afterword. (3.5/5)

Juror 8 (Neville) -- A really good riff on what I presume is 12 Angry Men. You might get more out of it if you've seen the movie, but I don't think it's crucial to know more than the basic idea. (4/5)

Face Value (Duffy) -- Nice! Creepy twist at the end. (4/5)

Not Tommy Johnson (Harvey) -- I suppose it was OK. Nothing special, at least not for me, and at least not in comparison to some of the other stories in this collection. (3/5)

You'll Never Forget My Face (James) -- Definitely creepy, but it felt like something I've heard before. (3/5)

The Calm Before (Mina) -- Really good! An interesting way to tell the story and provide some foreshadowing. (4/5)

The Ladder (McKinty) -- Clever plot, much better than the Sean Duffy book I read. The punctuation was a bit sloppy, though. Too many commas and run-on sentences. (3.5/5)

Venice Is Sinking into the Sea (Sallis) -- Meh. (2/5)

My Life as a Killer (Jakubowski) -- Not bad. Met my expectations. (3/5)

The Caterpillar Flag (Fowler) -- A charming little story from the author of the Bryant and May series, but sadly not featuring either Bryant or May. (3/5)

Reflections in Unna (Welsh) -- Not much I can say about it. It held my interest and is better than some of the other 3-star ones, so I bumped it up to 3.5. (3.5/5)

People Just Don't Listen (Robinson) -- Short and punchy. I predicted the ending but was still grossed out. (4/5)

The Honey Trap (Zouroudi) -- Very clever! Might have to try one of her Greek detective mysteries. And now I want honey. (4/5)

The Spinster (Cleeves) -- I liked the description of the knitting and spinning, and the story was good. However, there was a bit of "quit while you're ahead" going on. One too many sordid secrets to be believable. (3.5/5)

Diagnosis Murder (Waites) -- Probably predictable, but I really liked it. (4/5)

Trouble at the Institute for the Study of Forgiveness (McCall Smith) -- Normally I find McCall Smith's writing a bit too cosy and charming, but this story was manageable. I would however have liked a name for the protagonist. Am I supposed to know him from one of his other series, or is this just a stand-alone guy? (3/5)

The House of Susan Lulham (Rickman) -- Decidedly creepy at the end. Wouldn't go back to the series, but it's tolerable in short form. (3.5/5)

Underneath the Mistletoe Last Night (Billingham) - Very good. Yay, Thorne! Only downside is I now have "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" stuck in my head. Thanks a lot, Mark Billingham. (4/5)

The Children of Dr Lyall (Connolly) -- Weird. I liked the WW2 setting and the concept, and the eerieness and length were just right. (3.5/5)

Black Sky (Sigurdadottir) -- Holy smokes this was a good story. It might help that I have been on a space kick lately. (5/5) show less

OxTravels by Michael Palin

OxTravels is a collection of travel writing. It was put together to raise funds for Oxfam and contains stories by 36 travel writers. I picked it up largely due to the inclusion of Rory Stewart, author of The Places in Between]and The Prince of the Marshes. It turned out to contain writing by a number of other authors I enjoy such as William Dalrymple and Paul Theroux. Overall, the collection was excellent. While I enjoyed some stories more than others, I thought all show more were enjoyable at some level. The variety of locations and stories really made the book more readable and engaging.

For what it is worth, the piece by Rory Stewart was one of the stories that I found less engaging. While I think he is an excellent writer, his story in OxTravels is not what I would recommend as an introduction to Stewart. show less

16 Jun 2010 - gift from friend Helen/Nice-cup-of-tea

I'm not normally the biggest fan of the short story as I like a longer form, maybe because I read quickly. But this was sent to me as a gift, chosen for me, and there was a lot to like. In particular, Rose Tremain's story about the death of Tolstoy was beautifully written as if it was itself by a master Russian writer, and Kate Atkinson's "Lucky We Live Now", about a woman's possessions going back to their original form in an age of show more austerity (I particularly liked the kangaroo) was quite disturbing but ever so well done. Lots of different types of writer made it a very interesting collection and enjoyable to read.

I'm trying to be rigorous about not keeping too much, so as this has already travelled, may I BookCross it? show less

An excellent collection of eight short stories and one extract from a novel in progress by British authors. As you would expect from an accomplished short story writer, Rose Tremain's 'The Jester of Astapovo' captures a historical moment with vividness and immediacy. Marina Lewycka's 'The Importance of Warm Feet' is also memorable, especially as I had previously only read her novels.
But for me the bonus of this collection was Jonathan Buckley's 'Telescope', which is the extract from a novel show more in progress. This is a new author for me and I shall be looking out his novels as the extract was engagingly written and intriguing, although I am unsure how the interest can be sustained over a novel.

Part of the proceeds from the sale of this book, and the three other in the series (Fire, Water and Air), raises money for Oxfam. show less