January 2024 Mysterykit Short Stories

Welcome to the New Year! We will gently ease into 2024 with reading mystery short stories. Read one or many!





Throw some suggestions our way as well as tell us what you plan on reading.

I hope to finally get to Crimespotting, a collection of crime stories set in Edinburgh. I bought it in 2017 and haven't even read one story so far!

I've stacked Boston Noir (edited by Dennis Lehane). I think I read one story from it years ago, "Animal Rescue" (by Dennis Lehane)-- which became the basis for the movie The Drop; But I can't remember if I've read the rest of the shorts in the collection or not! Eleven short stories from my old stomping grounds :-)

I can't think of a better author to start the New Year off with than Agatha Christie so I will be reading The 12 Labours of Hercules for January's MysteryKit.

I'm planning to read one of the British Crime Classics collections of Golden Age stories, Guilty Creatures, which features stories involving animals.

I'm also choosing from the British Crime Classics as a lot of their story collections are on Kindle Unlimited. I am thinking Serpents In Eden: Countryside Crimes or Crimes of Cymru: Classic Mystery Tales of Wales. But there are lots to choose from!

My other option is also on Kindle Unlimited - Edgar Allan Cozy, where cozy mystery writers take inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe. This sounds intriguing!

I have an anthology of mystery short stories with authors such as Conan Doyle, Wilkie Collins, Edgar Allan Poe, and G.K Chesterton. I will choose several to read.

I'm considering Rumpole on Trial by John Mortimer.

>8 VivienneR: That is a memory from my younger years. My parents loved watching Rumpole of the Bailey so that was the first legal TV show I ever watched.

I have many options but one that's standing out is Alfred Hitchcock's Tales to Make Your Teeth Chatter, which will also get the AlphaKIT letters A and Y.

Here's a link to the MysteryKIT wiki -- feel free to add your January reads! https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2024_MysteryKIT

I found that I had Double Sin on my shelf. It’s a distinct possibility that I read one or more of the stories in other short story collections, but I’d like to clear my actual bookshelf in the coming year.

Cleaning the gold by Karin Slaughter & Lee Child
Terrific story but it just leaves the reader wanting more.

I read The Parfait Murder by Luna Snow, which was a fun story with a twist at the end! This one needed a good editor though.

I am working on a short story collection, The Best American Noir of the Century edited by James Ellroy & Otto Penzler. I had been dipping in and out of this one for quite a while and want to buckle down and finally get it finished this month.

I picked up a copy of Boston Noir (edited by Dennis Lehane)— a collection of eleven short stories set in and around Boston. The most notable short is the one written by the editor himself, “Animal Rescue” which became the basis of the movie, “The Drop”. In it, a man rescues a dog from a trash can and sets a series of actions into play that have unexpected results. A bit dark; And this is one of those cases where the movie might be considered better for filling in the details that Lehane didn’t show the significance of in the text.

The collection features historical fiction as well as contemporary tales; but most are pretty mediocre and forgettable. How unforgettable? I actually read this a few years ago and just didn’t remember much beyond some cursory details.

I also picked up Noir to Hide (no touchstone) by Hansen Scott. This one of a pair of novellas in the Temporary Detective set. A temp employee is assigned to a detective agency and finds himself caught in the crosshairs of a femme fatale, thugs and quite a bit of cold hard cash… The author shoehorns a lot of 40’s noir-style elements into this twenty-first century story, including similes, character stereotypes and trench coats & fedoras. The main character is also ostensibly twenty-nine years old but he behaves like he’s a 20-yo tops. Between the forced classic noir aesthetic and the disjunct in the MC’s age and behavior, the whole thing has an unwieldy feel to it. Not sure who the target demographic is; but I’m pretty sure it’s not a 50-something female.

A little bit of a disappointing start to this year’s MysteryKit; but looking forward to other readers’ selections and hopefully adding some promising ones to my wishlist. 🙂

Finished Serpents In Eden, a short story collection from the British Library Crime Classics. There are tons of these on Kindle Unlimited so looking forward to reading many more, both story collections and novels.

I read another volume from the same series as JayneCM, Guilty Creatures. This one features stries involving animals. Not the strongest volume in the series, but a couple of memorable stories.

>18 KeithChaffee: I am definitely going to get to more of this series. Have you read many of the novels? There are so many it is hard to choose which ones to read, so any recs gratefully accepted.

>19 JayneCM: I've read mostly story collections from that series, but I did like the Anthony Berkeley novel The Poisoned Chocolates Case.

>20 KeithChaffee: Ooh, seconding The Poisoned Chocolates Case -- I loved it!

>20 KeithChaffee: >21 christina_reads: Great! And I can use it for the food/cooking square in BingoDOG!
Interesting that it includes an alternative ending and solution. That is making me think I had seen a book described somewhere that had many possible solutions/endings, all from the same book as there is no final solving of the mystery. I cannot remember what it was called or even when it was written.

I've been trying to get through Constable David Maratse Omnibus Edition 1 for this but it just isn't tickling my fancy which is a shame as I thought it'd really be something I'd like. I'm thinking of switching to A Sampling of Sleuths (always worth potentially finding a new author to explore further)

For this challenge, I read Mystery Cats, a collection of mysteries all centering around cats. This volume includes Lilian Jackson Braun, Edgar Allan Poe, and Ruth Rendell.

>24 lowelibrary: I have a follow up volume to that one More Mystery Cats.

>25 LadyoftheLodge: I have both follow-ups More Mystery Cats and Mystery Cats 3 which have now been bumped up my TBR.

>26 lowelibrary: I like the term "feline felonies" that appears on the covers.

Bibliomysteries: Volume Two has been on the pile for awhile and I think it fits perfectly and fulfills my goals of reading my roots. These are stories of crime in the world of books and bookstores. Some interesting writers on the list including R.L. Stine, Joyce Carol Oates, and Ian Rankin.

I did end up switching to A Sampling of Sleuths. Not the best collection of mystery short stories but some very quite good. My favourite stories were by Connie Shelton (Inventions can be Murder), Sarah R Shaber (Pound of Flesh), and Susan Slater (The Totem). I didn't particularly like the story in this collection by Kate Flora as it didn't feel like a mystery but I did like the writing style so may look out for her works as well.

I have just completed my read of After-Dinner Story by Cornell Woolrich, written under his pen-name of William Irish. This collection includes the excellent "Rear Window" which Alfred Hitchcock made into a film starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly.

I just finished the last story in Crimespotting - An Edinburgh Crime Collection, which includes short stories by ten different authors, among them Ian Rankin, Margaret Atwood and Kate Atkinson.

>11 christina_reads: Thank you for adding this!

I never did post what I'm hoping to read for this:
- Death Cruise: Crime Stories on the Open Seas / Lawrence Block

I finished Death at Sea, a collection of short mysteries featuring Inspector Montalbano and set in Sicily.

I finished The Best American Noir of the Century ed by James Ellroy & Otto Penzler. This was a very mediocre collection of noir stories. I had a few DNF's and didn't really have any major stand outs. Some of the better stories were by Patricia Highsmith, Harlan Ellison & Lawrence Block.

February is up!
https://www.librarything.com/topic/357392

I read Rumpole on Trial by John Mortimer a collection of short stories.

I'm going to count The Great Cake Mystery by Alexander McCall Smith here even though it's a children's book and probably not a short story for them.

I read The Beat Goes On by Ian Rankin, a collection of short stories featuring Inspector Rebus.

I just read "The Kidnapping" from Tales: Short Stories Featuring Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford by Charles Todd.

I just finished Miss Marple – The Complete Short Stories and they are marvellous.

I finished reading the 21 short stories in the 1951 Pocket Books edition of Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. My first reading of most of them.

Reading one story each day.

Yesterday it was "A Retrieved Reformation - Criminal: Jimmy Valentine" by O. Henry,
from The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century.

Today I read "Long Gone" by Sue Grafton, from Sisters in Crime 4

Death Cruise: Crime Stories on the Open Seas / Lawrence Block (ed.)
4 stars

These are mystery short stories mostly set on cruises.

But. Short stories so mostly not memorable by the end of the book, though I really enjoyed most of them as I read them (hence the 4 stars, which is higher than I rate most short story collections). One had a short author’s note at the end, which made me happy because I did wonder (the story took place on the Queen Mary, and there were some interesting stats and uses of the ship during WWII). Unfortunately, one of the last stories (and potentially also the longest), I didn’t like, but almost all the others I really liked. Might help that I have enjoyed the cruises that I’ve taken, so the setting is familiar and enjoyable for me.

>44 LibraryCin: This is a BB for me! Thanks.

I read Phoenix Noir from the Akaschic collection. My review:
This collection of sixteen noir short stories placed in Phoenix and the surrounding areas by authors including Megan Abbott, Lee Child, James Sallis, Diane Gabaldon and other known writers. Some stories, such as Gabaldon's and Child's, are more traditional detective stories. Luis Alberto Urrea's has a modern Romeo & Juliet angle, and Abbott's is a fictionalized account Bob Crane's death in Scottsdale.
Good writing, though some of the stories just peter out to an unsatisfying end, and I skipped over most of Sallis' because it featured graphic child abuse that was gross.

>45 LadyoftheLodge: Enjoy!

Still reading a story a day from various collections.

Yesterday -
"Tam and the Body Snatchers" by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. From Cat Crimes through Time.

Today I read "The Tuesday Night Club" by Agatha Christie. Miss Marple: the Complete Short Stories.

Yesterday I read
"Smothered and Covered" by Tom Barlow in The Best American Mystery Stories 2013

Today's story -
"Thrown-Away Child" by Thomas Adcock. From Death in Dixie, edited by Billie Sue Mosiman

Yesterday's story -
"Strange Jest" by Agatha Christie. From Three Blind Mice and Other Stories

Today I read
"Lucky Dip" by Liza Cody, from A Woman's Eye edited by Sara Paretsky.

I finished up Bibliomysteries: Volume Two by Otto Penzler. Stories about mysteries related to books written by a wide variety of authors. I may put some of the other volumes on my TBR.

I was surprised by how many collections of mystery short stories I had on my shelves. I've enjoyed reading a story a day so much I plan to continue the habit. It's nice to get the whole story in one sitting.

Yesterday's story was "Death Scene; or, The Moor of Venice" by P.M. Carlson, in Sisters in Crime 2.

Today I read "The Case of the Pietro Andromache" by Sara Paretsky, in Women on the Edge.

>52 nrmay: I have several anthologies and short story collections on my shelves. I am going to borrow this idea for my next year's challenges.