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[[Category:New Reviews|Short Stories]]
[[Category:Short Stories|*]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robin Jones and Ashley Stokes (Editors)AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=UnthologyAll Tomorrow's Futures: No. 3Fictions that Disrupt|ratingauthor=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=Unthank Books have brought out their third annual short story 'unthology'. (See what they did there?) The series is described as showcasing the ''unconventional, unpredictable Benjamin Greenaway and experimental'' which is correct as far as it goes. They omit words that I personally would have included; words like 'refreshing' and 'excitingly different' because, if I needed to be convinced about short stories Stephen Oram (and, being a fan, I don'tEditors) they would be the clincher.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0957289707</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tania Hershman|title=My Mother Was An Upright Piano: Fictions
|rating=5
|genre=Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=It's said that 'Opening up new ways of thinking about the art shape of short-story writing is totally different from that of novels as the writer only has ten or so pages things to accomplish what others do in two to three hundredcome. Imagine, therefore, telling an entire story in prose conveying depth and meaning in fewer words than this review. It may be difficult but, apparently, not downright impossible as [[:Category:Tania Hershman|Tania Hershman]] has nailed it with honours. In fact her first collection [[The White Road by Tania Hershman|The White Road]] was commended by the Orange Prize judges of 2009.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906477604</amazonuk>}}''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joseph O'ConnorB0CDZRGT1M|title=Where Have You Been?|rating=5|genre=Literary Super Short Stories: Flash Fiction|summary=Irish novelist Joseph O'Connor has had quite a 2012. Earlier in the year he joined the ranks of such authors as Edna O'Brien, [[:Category:Roddy Doyle|Roddy Doyle]] and Seamus Heaney when he became a recipient of the PEN award for his outstanding contribution to Irish literature. What could possibly top that for a sense of achievement? Well this, his first book of short stories in 20 years, must come pretty close to at least equalling it, amply illustrating the reasons for the panel's decision.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846556899</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anita Desai|title=The Artist of DisappearanceMark C Wallfisch
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=I've often wondered what goes through an author's mind the next time they sit down Got a minute to write after winning a major literary prize. Does it put undue pressure on an authorbe amused, entertained, thinking that they will have to write something equally as good or better next time aroundchallenged? Some writers ''''These 100 stories are super short. None is more than 300 words. You can wilt under the pressure and future offerings are derided by critics as read one in a flash.'''not as good as (insert title here)'Some are funny. But some thrive under the weight of expectation and continue to write wonderful storiesSome are poignant. 1993 Booker Prize winner [[Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle|Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha]] falls firmly into this latter categoryAll are short.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009955562X</amazonuk>}}''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Helen SimpsonRachel Harrison|title=A Bunch of FivesBad Dolls|rating=54
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=It's been some time since I will come straight out 've read any horror. I had a couple of misspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing the books from a boy I fancied at school and scaring myself half silly with it at them to the top of this review and state point that I am a big fan couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of Helen Simpson. the vampires outside! So Don't worry - this bookshort story collection isn't like that! It doesn't have those jump scares, which is a selection of five stories from each of her five collections, is right up my street. All I’ve got to do now is convince you that you need and I didn't have to read it tooduring daylight hours only!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099561573</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Keith Gray|title=Next|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=That Keith Gray hangs out with all the cool people But it is creepy, you know. Hot on and I found most of that feeling came from the heels of one fabulous anthology of short fact that these are stories all about virginitywomen, [[Losing It by Keith Gray|Losing It]]living normal lives, comes ''Next''. The topic this time is life after death and it's another preoccupation for young people. What's next? What will it be like? How will those left behind manage that at least in part, the horrors arises from very normal situations such as a breakup, trying a new dieting app, going to a hen party and cope? Each of the cool people contributes an idea of what death may bringa coping with grief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849393001</amazonuk>1803363932
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Francis BennettB0CCCVRSGX|title=The Crabber Stories2|author=Richard F Walker
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=John White was known to everyone as Crabber - a nickname which he once earned and which then stuck - and he grew up on the shores This is Richard F Walker's second volume of Long Island short stories. There are thirteen in the nineteen-fifties. It was a close-knit community all and a time when children had more freedom than they are likely to be allowed now. We watch as Crabber grows I took something from being a boy still suffering from the death each of his elder brother when we first met him through to them. There isn't a time when hesingle one that doesn's old enough t deserve to go on a hunting trip on be among the others or brings down the mainland with a local familyoverall quality. He tells his own stories, as truthfully as he It can and with the sort of insight which children have before life injects its cynicism.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00737IKIW</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stephanie Tillotson and Penny Thomas|title=All Shall be Well|rating=4.5|genre=Anthologies|summary=Twenty five years - a quarter of a century - is a long time. It's an incredible length of time as an independent publishertricky to review short stories without giving too much away, particularly one which specialises in publishing the best in Welsh womenso I's writing, but that's exactly what Honno have achieved. To celebrate the occasion they've published this anthology of twenty five short stories ll just pick two to talk about and non-fiction pieces. They've previously been seen in the numerous anthologies published by Honno but when combined I think they give an interesting and enlightening insight into the work of these great writersa general flavour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906784337</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1739593901
|title=22 Ideas About The Future
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Marc NashB09XZMCDVF|title=52FFStories: 13 tantalising tales|author=Richard F Walker
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=52FF ''A news vendor is a collection of short stories crying out the headlines in the flash fiction format. If you're new to flash fiction, you should know there are various definitions but here, Marc Nash chooses a format middle of under 1,000 words. This gives him some leeway and so the pieces are night; a wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he tries walking around in his imagination; a wide variety of styles - some experimental - but all of them exploring stickler for correct grammar goes back in time to correct an iconic quote; a single central metaphor and all with volunteer teacher proves the ideal person to have around in a darkness about them which lawless village; the new boy on the pub football team is sometimes explicit very useful with his feet, and sometimes only emerges after youawfully familiar…''ve had time to think and digest. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>B005IHMZR6</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Etgar Keret1737030942|title=Suddenly, a Knock on the Door Bag O'Goodies|author=Jolly Walker Bittick
|rating=4
|genre=Short StoriesAnthologies|summary=In the openingSometimes, titular storyyou deserve a treat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's ''Bag O'Goodies''. I first encountered his writing about a year ago, Keret is forced when I read his [[Cape Henry House by several people to create, and alterJolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]], a short short storyrollicking tale of what happens when five young men find a base for their partying. ItRight now, I didn's t want a plain metaphor for the history of Israelfull-length novel, but it proves that so I turned to this modern Scheherazade is not too far removed geographically from the originalanthology of verse and short stories. And what follows are probably the sort of short, tantalising, open-ended, rough-round-theBittick's writing has matured -edges and surreal results so have his characters. Well... most of being compelled to carry on telling tall tales on a nightly basis.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701186674</amazonuk>them!
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ray Fawkes1529418100|title=One Soul|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=When reading this it soon becomes very clear we're reading not one, but nineteen, stories. With each page divided into a regular 3x3 grid there are eighteen images on each double page spread, and every one shows an episode, or a beat, of a different character's life in turn, from being a babe-in-arms to death. However, the way they join up - everyone's figurative moment comes at once, at times the artistBruno's heavy black ink makes all eighteen images coincide into one image - proves there is a separate, individual tale around Challenge and behind the others, one which will end with the most delightful moral - that the ability to be anything one imagines is in our DNA.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1934964662</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewOther Dordogne Tales|author=Angela Carter|title=Burning Your BoatsMartin Walker|rating=54
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=I'Burning your Boatsm not usually a fan of short stories - I find it all too easy to put the book down between stories and forget to pick it up again - but I am a fan of Martin Walker' brings together Carters [[Martin Walker's early works and her uncollected short stories, alongside Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the collections temptation to read 'Fireworks', Bruno'The Bloody Chamber', s Challenge'Black Venus' was hard to resist and I'American Ghostsm rather glad that I didn't even try. CarterFor those new to the series, there's ability an excellent introduction that will tell you all you need to take the everyday know about who's who and transform it into the fantastic background to why Bruno is evident in stories that range from a cautionary tale of a musician in love with his instrument to a lost motorist whose journey ends in nightmarish circumstances in the Snow PavilionSt Denis.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099592916</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anita Anand, Julian Barnes, Bella Bathurst, Alan Bennett and othersB08NF79QXT|title=The Library BookCherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams|rating=4.53|genre=LifestyleWomen's Fiction|summary=I Thirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had better begin by saying that I had a vested interest in liking this book since I am a chartered librarian myself and so am wholeheartedly in support of saving our nationher shop, the Cherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she's public librariesnominated for - and wins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award. But you donShe's delighted and the two people she's brought with her to the event couldn't need to be a librarian to enjoy this bookmore pleased. It Sonja, her mother, is rich with anecdotes an ex-model and Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from some wonderful writers . Jessica's thirty-four and Liberty's best friend: they've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica's husband, Charles and makes their four-year-old daughter, Ava. Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a pleasant read whether you're keen to save libraries or notman in her life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781250057</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexander MacLeodB08KKQ85FN|title=Light Lifting|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=Short stories may not be everyone's cup of tea. Sometimes, particularly with first time authors, there is an annoying tendency to be overly experimental. Not so with Alexander MacLeod's stunningly assured debut. True he has genetic 'form' in that he is the son of novelist and short story writer [[:Category:Alistair MacLeod|Alistair MacLeod]], but even so, the quality of this collection, is remarkable. The collection of seven stories is not overly themed, although certain issues and concerns do reappear, but what binds the stories together is a very human approach to adversity.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224093940</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewBut Never For Lunch|author=Peter O'Donnell|title=Modesty Blaise: Live BaitSandra Aragona
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Adam Ross's characters are driven - but I mean that in the wrong way. They're not the ones riding on If a crest of a wave of motivation, steering their course through life. No, instead they are passengers, and who or whatever is at woman approaching the wheel seems menopause can be likened to have lost the satnav. So, a Rottweiler in 'Futures'lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a middle-aged unemployed man finds himself giving life lessons and a kick up the backside to a teenaged neighbour just as his own career seems pampered peacock about to enter its nth phasebe released into the company of carrion crows or, with an airy-fairy psychic-oriented company that won't ever go as far as telling him what his job might be. A professor who has more to settle temporarily where his work takes him and not where he would likethe point, has about to wonder what to do when told of discover the action-packed adventures real world of a devil-may-care, come-what-may mechanicbus timetables and paying his own gas bills.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224087746</amazonuk>}}''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stella GibbonsB08CHJLNBS|title=Christmas at Cold Comfort FarmCapturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating=3.5|genre=Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=First things first. ThereHe's only one story in this collection about Cold Comfort Farm. This is a story about the farm before Flora Poste arrivesCharles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a 'prequel' if you like. It features the Starkadder family partner at ChristmasWickham Jones, with a dispute over a coffin-nail and it did make me smile. I suspect it is one for fans, howeverthe Mayfair letting agents. For instanceShe's Emilia, the appearance of a teenage Dick Hawktwenty-Monitornine, already librarian and archivist in love with Elfine, shoots a knowing wink at the devoted but would leave most readers coldheritage library next door. Emilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099528673</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michael Morpurgo|title=War: Stories of Conflict|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=Throughout historyThe Secret]] but she's moved on from new age books like that, war has blighted society and had long lasting impacts which leave you dependent on not only those directly involved but the innocent bystanders toosomeone else's philosophies, to something a little deeper. This collection Charles is more of stories, edited a [[Personal by the magnificent Michael Morpurgo Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, looks to explore the impacts of war on individual soldiersbut, above all, families and especially childrenhe's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian''. Every story approaches conflicts from a different angle and They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this ensures woman out of his mind? She's not his usual type at all: it's obvious to his friends. And given that even though there are a good number of short stories in the bookEmilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, you will never why does she feel as if it is becoming repetitive or dull. drawn to him? The stories do relationship's obviously a good job of conveying just how multinon-faceted and complex the concept of war is.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447205014</amazonuk>starter, isn't it?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andrew KaufmanMarie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title=The Tiny WifeCursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary FictionFantasy|summary=It all begins with a bank robberyCurses. Only this isnThey't your typical sort re there throughout tales of bank robbery since the robber demands faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this, or not money but instead each person in the bank must give him the item of most sentimental value to be able to do that they have with them. These range from photographs and a key through to a calculator...and Children can be cursed, as can princesses on taking these items he says he is also taking fifty percent the verge of their soulsmarrying, and older people too. It seems in a way there's no escaping it . Which is up to why the victims theme of this book of short stories is such a standout – we may well think we know all there is to find the way to get their souls backknow about this accursed character, that demonised place, or to die tryingand that other bewitched person. We'd be very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007429258</amazonuk>1789091500
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ludwig Bechstein, Axel Sceffler and Julia DonaldsonStibbe_Xmas|title=The GloomsterAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe
|rating=4.5
|genre=General FictionHumour|summary=WeChristmas – the time of traditional trauma. You only have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, and if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it've s all been there. Finding fault with everything around us, having to make sure it's suitably free-range and perhaps picking on one particular irritant organic – but not too organic that gets us so rattledyou can go and visit it, tetchy and narked all we get too friendly with it to want to eat it. Christmas, though, is of course also a time of great boons. It's cash in hand for a lot of plump people who can do is invoke "Hell hire red suits and damnation!" down on beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all creation the thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long- includinghand as a child, and as for the makers of courseMeltis Newberry Fruits – well, ourselves. After all, our lot is so bad it won't make anything much worse.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571274242</amazonuk>did they even try and sell them any other time of the year?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lloyd Jones0954899520|title=The Man in the Shed|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=The title is certainly attention-grabbing and I hoped that the book would live up to my expectations. It did. The man in 'The Man in the Shed' is not blessed with a name. His name (whatever it is) is not important or relevant to the tale. It's all about ''why'' he's in the shed in the first place. This particular shed's in a garden of a house inhabited by a family which includes the young narrator. It's pretty clear that the marriage is going through a rocky patch right now. So who, you could reasonably wonder, is the odd one out here - the husband or the man in the shed. Jones tells us in his own way. He's a writer who catches your attention early, or he did in my case. No fancy statements or lazy cliches but good old plain English but with flair.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848544820</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewA Winter Book|author=Judith Hermann|title=AliceTove Jansson|rating=45
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=Tove Jansson''Alice'' is a collection of five short storiess worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, linked thematically since they all deal with written in the subject 1940s and later becoming television characters of deaththe simplicity, but they are also linked because the central characternaivety and sheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, Alicesimple stories, simple goodness. What is often forgotten outside of her native Finland is that she was a serious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that she had a feeling for the natural world and the same in each story. So rather than feeling simple life that not only informed those child-like short stories the book has a hint trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the novel to it, yet the stories are never completed or fully told so it's a novel where you're not always sure what's going onworld might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668529X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jamil Ahmad1911115847|title=The Wandering FalconNights of the Creaking Bed|author=Toni Kan
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary="In the tangle ''Nights of crumbling, weather-beaten and broken hills, where the borders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan meet, Creaking Bed'' is a military outpost…" Thus begins collection of short stories by Toni Kan. The series of stories tell of the tale lives and lusts of Tor Bazan assortment of characters living in and around Lagos, the Black FalconNigeria. To Nigeria, in this desolate place come two wandererscollection, a man is imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the shadows and people are killed for nothing more than a woman seeking refugewrong look. Refuge is denied them, since it places duties Kan writes with a vitality and passion that the fort commander cannot accept, but instead he offers them shelter from the wind allows these cynical stories to achieve a glimmer of a hundred and twenty days. For as long as they want it. Shelter, and foodhope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241145155</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cees Nooteboom and Ina Rilke (Translator)1529014484|title=The Foxes Come At Night And Other StoriesExhalation |author=Ted Chiang|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=There's a bold statement on Over the front cover frompast twenty-eight years, Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, as these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a science fiction fan it happens, one of my favourite authors, [[:Category:A S Byatt|A S Byatt]] saying is likely that Nooteboom is ''one you have already come across some of the greatest modern novelists'' so I thought that I was in for a treatwork by Ted Chiang. But I didnIf you haven't enjoy the first short story. Not the greatest of starts. I was disappointed then take this opportunity to say the least and was wondering what all the fuss was about. Then I started to read the story entitled ''Thunderstorm'' and things started to pick up. I appreciated the sparse and elegant languagedo so now. Lines such as 'Five people at an outdoor cafe: two women Trust me; your imagination will be grateful... a solitary black man ... a couple at a table nearby. Enough for a film.' How lovely and evocative is that last line, I'm thinking. I read it twice as it was so good.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857050230</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue Gee1794467440|title=Last FlingWatchwords |author=Philip Neal
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Sue Gee is well known for her novels, but this is her first This satisfying collection of short stories. Short story collections are not for everyone. I've always enjoyed them since they fit easily into has a busy life, leaving you feeling provenance at least as beguiling as if you've lived through a whole story in just a short space the provenance of timethe antique watches that inspired it. It's easier to find the time for a quick story sometimes than to sit down with a four hundred page novel!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773061</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John E Flannery1529006031|title=Toby's Little EdenReturn to Wonderland|author=Various Authors|rating=34.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=John E FlanneryIn following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, when the first book she was in [[Alice's debut collection contains four short stories Adventures in Wonderland (although one is more of a novella150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and a series Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of amusing sketches about the ground staff at a new Golf Course in north Manchesterage]], I found that I didn't really find too much favour with it. They're more varied than they might appear at first glance and demonstrate Flannery's ability to get straight to The wacky-for-the heart -sake-of the story without wasting words -it did not gel, and to develop character I don't remember loving it more as economically as possible, whilst still holding the reader's imaginationa child. But I knew as soon as would suggest I began ''The Ghostwriter'' that am the perfect audience for this book. I wasn't going had every chance to be disappointed as enjoy these short stories that come at the core from a man who has written successful thrillers is possessed by tangent, that show the spirit benefits of Charles Dickensthe oblique glance. ItI've always preferred coming to an author's a neat riff on John Braineoutput through their least obvious, allegedly throw-away pieces, and it's idea that novelist wait the same with franchises – I'd more likely go for an idea to descend on them and Graham GreeneBree Tanner's belief short novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that novelists are like mediumsremains just a hunch, for obvious reasons).|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445777940</amazonuk> For another thing, there was every reason to expect some kind of greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written with that love in mind could only provide for success after success?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dorothy Parker1846974658|title=The SexesLong Path To Wisdom|author=Jan-Philipp Sendker|rating=54
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=From On my travels around the young woman who examined her handkerchief in minute detailworld, I have a tendency to the soldier's leave which didn't live end up to expectationin any bookshop that is selling English-language books, through and while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the thoughts of next person, what I'm really looking for is the early hours of 'local' – the morning to cookbook maybe, the actress who proved a disappointment to her fan and on to the glorious culmination of maps definitely, but above all: the child who should never have been called Lolita we have five wonderful short storiesfolk tales. TheyIf I ever get to Burma, I won're in a book that's no bigger than most short stories but buy it and it could well be the best buy that you make this yeart need to hunt, I can read before I go.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>014119619X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Aidan ChambersB077969HN8|title=The Kissing GameAlternative Medicine|author=Laura Solomon
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=A WW2 naval soldier, guarding Laura Solomon's publisher describes the short stories in ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with a twist of surrealism''. I'm rather glad that I didn't see this until ''after'' I'd finished reading as I'm not normally a prison island for those found guilty at courtmartialsfan of either, is forced but I've come to wonder if he two conclusions about the book: what the publisher says is winning his own battles against those arriving correct - and leavingI really enjoyed it. A soldier remembers calming memories, The comedy is not ''too'' black and the surrealism is gentle and those causing tension, perhaps best described as he rests up before actiona twist or flick of reality when you were least expecting it. And for a highly-charged young man, there may be too much risk Your comfort zones are going to be found invaded in his high-octane downtimethe nicest possible way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099532220</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Saunders9386897504|title=The Vernham Chronicles|rating=4|genre=Humour|summary=Set amidst the rolling British countryside around Vernbury Vale is the little village Tales of Vernham. Anyone who lives in a village will recognise it immediately, with its cobbled streets Love and Tudor buildings. There was some damage during the war (which might, or might not have been down to a lighthouse folly constructed by a local landowner on his lake) but the gaps have been filled with some beautiful, er, mock Tudor buildings. Almost unique and nearly beautiful as the village is, it's not the star of The Vernham Chronicles. The stars are the people who live in Vernham.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907499598</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDisability|author=John H Watson, Tony Reynolds and Chris Coady|title=The Lost Stories of Sherlock HolmesLaura Solomon
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=It is a truth universally acknowledged I've always believed that less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a successful detective character will have far too many cases in his career for it great deal of skill and talent to be at all realistic. The worst case in point are write a short story which holds the Hardy Boys, who have had two hundred or reader and keeps them coming back for more adventures and are still not 20. Slightly more literary, but no less busy it can seem, was Sherlock Holmes, for Watson declaimed There are far too many times that he did not write collections of short stories which are all too easy to put down all that manand forget after you's exploitsve read a couple of pieces. Tony Reynolds here gives us eight more casesI've recently read a couple of novellas by Laura Solomon - [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and [[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Hell's Unveiling]] and enjoyed them, making Holmes' workload so I was intrigued to see what she could do with an even more impressiveshorter form.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685618</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Polly Samson1986586898|title=Perfect LivesGoing To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing|author=K D Knight
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=The eleven short stories in Perfect Lives are about In the opening story, a group of people living man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with cash in his pocket - and his wife. In ''A Grey Day'' an English seaside town. Each story owner struggles with the problem of challenged relationships, devastating discoveries and objects and people with a history is carefully and beautifully crafted, stands alone and works well whether or not to run his horse in its own right, but the connections between all Gold Cup when the stories offer an extra, fascinating dimensionground is against him. Each story made me want to look at the others again to understand how they all connect My favourite was ''The Story of H'', to piece together the different bits story of Foinavon. H is depicted as a kind horse who only wanted to please people's lives in each story. This format also offers an opportunity After changing hands on various occasions he came to see some of the characters from several different perspectives, and perhaps make the short stories more satisfying to those who are dissatisfied by their brevity, as some yard of the same characters reappear, so offering some of the advantages of the novel while staying in the short story formJohn Kempton. There are four stories told H (or Foinavon) was entered in the first person by an unnamed woman who is married with two young sons, Grand National and then considered a no-hoper. In one of her sons has a story the most dramatic runnings of his own (Ivan Knows). There are a variety of narrative viewpoints – women, menthe race, a little boypile-up occurred at the 23rd fence. Foinavon, a teenage girlwho had been many lengths adrift, first cleared the fence and third persongalloped to the line, winning the race at odds of 100/1.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1860499929</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shena Mackay9386897296|title=The Atmospheric Railway: New and Selected StoriesHell's Unveiling|author=Laura Solomon|rating=43.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=This volume of short stories, first published in 2008 but new in paperback, has a lot to offer those familiar with Shena MackayA little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's previous work Deal]] and readers coming I was delighted by the opportunity to her stories for read the first timesequel, with a generous thirty six stories - thirteen recent stories collected in book form for the first time are combined with twenty three from Shena Mackay''Hell's previous collectionsUnveiling''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099469677</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sheila O It'Flanagan|title=A Season s probably not much of a spoiler to Remember|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=We first meet say that Marsha bested the Lodge ownersdevil in ''Marsha's Deal'', a likable couplebut the devil is not one to take defeat lying down. They find running their upmarket country house type hotel both exhilarating He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and exhausting. The novel is bang up to date so Oparticularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a 'goody two shoes'Flanagan gets in the whole recession/banker-bashing thing early onHell). As the festive season loomsAlthough a strong person, the unthinkable has happenedshe's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. Empty roomsDaniel is framed for a crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to live with Marsha. They're Then, of course, there are all the other children who are not used only targeted but - worst of all - subverted to empty rooms, at any time of the yeardevil's evil ends. Normally the Lodge He's out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and as with many foster children, their self-esteem is a full housevery fragile. But then a slow and steady trickle starts as our characters book in This is no small-scale operation, either - and the story starts properdevil has set up a training complex on earth, so complete with an elevator to speakHell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755375157</amazonuk>
}}