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[[Category:Short Stories|*]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{Frontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.'' I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0CDZRGT1M|title=Super Short Stories: Flash Fiction|author=Mark C Wallfisch|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=''Got a minute to be amused, entertained, or challenged?''''These 100 stories are super short. None is more than 300 words. You can read one in a flash.''''Some are funny. Some are poignant. All are short.''

Question: how do you review flash fiction? How do you give a flavour of a fully rounded little story if that story is told in fewer than three hundred words? Or do you try to draw out themes from all the flash fictions in a book of them? I don't know! Perhaps we could start by explaining that there really isn't a fixed definition of flash fiction but that for this collection, author Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a three hundred word limit. That's about a single page in your average paperback.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Eliza RobertsonRachel Harrison|title=WallflowersBad Dolls

|summary=Eliza Robertson won It's been some time since I've read any horror. I had a couple of misspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing the Man Booker Scholarship books from a boy I fancied at school and Curtis Brown Prize while completing her MA in Creative Writing scaring myself half silly with them to the point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of the University of East Anglia. vampires outside! Don't worry - this short story collection isn'Wallflowerst like that! It doesn't have those jump scares, and I didn' t have to read it during daylight hours only! But it is already a bestseller in Robertson's native Canada. There is quite some variety across creepy, and I found most of that feeling came from the seventeen fact that these are stories. Broadly speakingabout women, thoughliving normal lives, there are and that at least in part, the horrors arises from very normal situations such as a few themes: moving on from lossbreakup, finding love in the midst of gentle madnesstrying a new dieting app, going to a hen party and interactions a coping with the natural world, often on the edge of Canada's British Columbia wildernessgrief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408856794</amazonuk>1803363932

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Edith PearlmanB0CCCVRSGX|title=HoneydewStories 2|author=Richard F Walker

|summary=American This is Richard F Walker's second volume of short story writer [[:Category:Edith Pearlman|Edith Pearlman]] brings us a compilation of stories that have only been seen separately . There are thirteen in magazines over the years. This follows on all and I took something from the huge success each of them. There isn't a single one that doesn'Binocular Vision'' (in 2013), t deserve to be among the others or brings down the overall quality. It can be tricky to review short story collection that led stories without giving too much away, so I'll just pick two to Ms Pearlman being presented with the National Critics' Circle Awardtalk about and I think they give a general flavour. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444797018</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Leslie Charteris I've got a couple of confessions to make. I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and John Telfer (narrator)|title=Enter then forget to return to the Saint|rating=4book.5|genre=Thrillers|summary=When you think of thrillers written by a man in his early twenties there There's a temptation got to believe that the books might not be, well, top drawer, but that would be a mistakevery compelling hook to keep me engaged. The first of Then there's science fiction: far too often it'The Saint'' novels was published in 1928 when Leslie Charteris was just twenty one and this collection of stories is dated 1930. You might expect s the rambunctious adventurer we meet, but not the subtleties of the slightly world-weary man of technology which takes centre stage along with the world, all-knowing about the evils to which men (and women) can sink, but they're all therebuilding. Admittedly It's human beings who fascinate me: the Saint is more boisterous technology and less subtle than he will become - but that speaks more about the later works than this world scape are purely incidental. So, what did I think of a bookof twenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00OS74GQU</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=J Robert LennonB09XZMCDVF|title=See You In ParadiseStories: 13 tantalising tales|author=Richard F Walker|rating=34

|summary=Lennon writes with a relaxed, easy style and his characters are instantly recognisable as people from everyday walks of life, without being ''A news vendor is crying out the headlines in any way stereotypical. Many the middle of the people night; a wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he tries walking around in his imagination; a stickler for correct grammar goes back in these stories are dealing with normal frustrations, and Lennon is cleverly detached enough not time to make them individuals that you're obviously supposed correct an iconic quote; a volunteer teacher proves the ideal person to root for (the only exception is have around in a lawless village; the industrialist in new boy on the eponymous tale, who pub football team is an archetypal capitalist fat cat). There are some very clever characterisations – in ''Weber’s Head'', for exampleuseful with his feet, the narrator is a flawed individual whose opinions of his housemate are gradually revealed to be unreliable and unfair. For me, the most unsettling story is ''No Lifeawfully familiar…'', because it portrays a decent couple at the mercy of people more powerful and influential than them. There is no supernatural or bizarre element at work here, just ordinary characters at the mercy of social power.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781253358</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Rebecca Lee|title=Bobcat and Other Stories|rating=3This collection of thirteen short stories by Richard F Walker has a lot to offer the eclectic reader.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=The first story in ''Bobcat'' Tying them together is the title storyidea that remarkable and strange, and this alone is worth the price of admission. Plaster it with prizeseven miraculous, put it in anthologies; it deserves every accolade it things can gethappen to ordinary people. And that ordinary doesn't mean boring or uninteresting. However, the last story echoes the first, Form and the five tales in between are strangely repetitive, most with Midwestern North American narrators tone varies so this little treasury of short fiction is never boring and 1980s university settings. Moreover, all seven are in the first-person; I would have appreciated more variety of perspectiveyou're never quite sure what's coming next.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1922182311</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kelley Armstrong1737030942|title=Otherworld NightsBag O'Goodies|author=Jolly Walker Bittick

|genre=ParanormalAnthologies|summary=Kelley Armstrong revisits her hugely popular 'Otherworld' series in this collection of short storiesSometimes, featuring many of the prominent characters from the series.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0356500667</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Robin Ince and Johnny Mains (editors)|title=Dead Funny|rating=4.5|genre=Horror|summary=In you deserve a world of nightmares, disasters, death treat and ignominy there is a book called mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's ''Bag O'Dead FunnyGoodies''. Invented purely to satisfy the remit built into its title, it collects some horror stories written by comedians, both household names and those more up-and-coming. Like all horror books it comes out at the time of I first encountered his writing about a year best suited for horror – Halloweenago, when we I read with the darkest corners in our roomshis [[Cape Henry House by Jolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]], with the longest evenings outside – but is only suited for Halloween because it is a worthless, hellish piece rollicking tale of drosswhat happens when five young men find a base for their partying. It never excitesRight now, it is the most selfI didn't want a full-serving vanity projectlength novel, so I turned to this anthology of verse and the only funny thing about it is that some idiot ever decided it was worth publishingshort stories. Now I know you know, courtesy of those bright shiny stars alongside this review, that this volume, Dead Funny, is not Bittick''that'' Dead Funnys writing has matured - and so have his characters. But just bear in mind the horror story this could have been, if these pages were not so surprisingly adept at taking those said nightmares, disasters, deaths and ignominy and presenting Well... most of them to us so competently.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773762</amazonuk>!

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Konstantina Souzou-Kyrkou1529418100|title=Black Greek CoffeeBruno's Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales|author=Martin Walker

|summary=If your experience of Greece is as I'm not usually a tourist then you'll almost certainly think fan of short stories - I find it in terms of history, mythology all too easy to put the book down between stories and startlingly white buildings against sapphire blue sky and sea. It looks idyllic, forget to pick it up again - but thereI am a fan of Martin Walker's [[Martin Walker's a darker side Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the temptation to Greek life, explored by Konstantina Souzou-Kyrkou, in read ''Black Greek CoffeeBruno'' - a neat metaphor for the lives she looks at: sharp, bitter but ultimately addictive. In twenty three short stories she illuminates the chauvinism and superstition, the concepts of s Challenge''honour'' and the status of women, the dominance of religion was hard to resist and the lives led by I'm rather glad that I didn'ordinary'' peoplet even try. They sound like grand themesFor those new to the series, but the stories are grounded in domesticity and there 's an excellent introduction that will be few people - in any country - tell you all you need to know about who's who have not been touched by one of and the problemsbackground to why Bruno is in St Denis.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784620351</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08NF79QXT|title=Doctor Who: 12 Doctors 12 StoriesCherry Blossom Boutique|author=Malorie Blackman, Holly Black and othersBrooke Adams|rating=4.53|genre=Confident ReadersWomen's Fiction|summary=How long do you keep your birthday presents for? A week, a month, a Thirty-one-year – or life? Is that time-scale differentold Liberty Rossini has had her shop, perhapsthe Cherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when youshe're nearly a thousand years old? I only ask because Doctor Who is, of course, both 51 (in our earthly, televisual representation) s nominated for - and 900 and more in human years as a characterwins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award. In 2013 we were given a great book that gave us a story for every Doctor Who we She've seen on TV, in honour of s delighted and the 50th birthday proceedings. But now is a year on, and wetwo people she're a further Doctor down s brought with her to the lineevent couldn't be more pleased. And so what was '11 Doctors Sonja, 11 Stories' is now '12 Doctorsher mother, 12 Stories'. So while many of us would have cherished and kept said birthday present, the only addition is the last, which like the rest was available as an eex-bookmodel and Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from. So itJessica's worth revisiting what I said about the book last time, then chucking in the (what might only be temporarily) concluding story at the end.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141359889</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Problems with People|author=David Guterson|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=thirty-four and Liberty's best friend: they'Problems with Peopleve known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica'' is a meandering exploration of the relationshipss husband, big Charles and smalltheir four-year-old daughter, that we form across Ava. Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a lifetime. Ranging from that of parent and child to that between landlord and tenant, Guterson’s observation of the complexities and nuances involved man in how we navigate these personal links is extremely sharp and true to her life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408859963</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08KKQ85FN|title=Burnt Tongues: An Anthology of Transgressive Short StoriesBut Never For Lunch|author=Chuck Palahniuk, Dennis Widmyer and Richard ThomasSandra Aragona

|summary=Saying certain things out loud just don’t sound right. Some things are so disturbing ''If a woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a Rottweiler in lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to be released into the company of carrion crows or politically incorrect that you are best off leaving them inside your head, or better yet not thinking of them at all. When these words are spoken they could lead more to the sensation of Burnt Tongue; an aftereffect of knowing what you said was wrong. Are you prepared point, about to enter discover the real world of Transgressive Fiction that aims to disturb, alienate, disgust bus timetables and question?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178329552X</amazonuk>}}paying his own gas bills.''

{{newreview|title=You don't get many better opening sentences than that, do you? We first met His Excellency and The Best British Short Stories 2014Ambassador's Wife in [[Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Sandra Aragona|author=Nicholas Royle (editor)|rating=5|genre=Short Stories|summary=I’m a keen reader Sorting the Priorities]] and I we learned what it was like a massive tome. But every so often, I drift into a mode of finding it hard to settle be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the time has come for HE to anything retires and at such times, I like for Sandra Aragona to read short storiesbecome The Wife of Former Ambassador. I also enjoy them when I’m horribly busy .. They have left The Career and don’t have settled in Rome. Well 'settled' rather overstates the situation and their dog, Beagle, has no intention of slowing down any time to read much moresoon, despite being sixteen and deaf.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773673</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08CHJLNBS|title=Any Other MouthCapturing Emilia|author=Anneliese MackintoshBrooke Adams|rating=43|genre=Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=With He's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a title like partner at Wickham Jones, the Mayfair letting agents. She's Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and archivist in the heritage library next door. Emilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she'Any Other Mouth'', you know s moved on from the outset new age books like that this is, shall we saywhich leave you dependent on someone else's philosophies, to something a rather niche booklittle deeper. It’s not Charles is more of a [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all about orifices, thoughhe's shocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian''. Partially autobiographical They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this is the messy, ludicrous, wildly entertaining story woman out of a girl who’s just a little bit differenthis mind? She's not his usual type at all: it's obvious to his friends. Ok And given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, make that why does she feel drawn to him? The relationship's obviously a lot different.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908754575</amazonuk>non-starter, isn't it?

 {{newreview|title=RevengeFrontpage|author=Yoko Ogawa Marie O'Regan and Stephen Snyder Paul Kane (translatoreditors)|title=Cursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesFantasy|summary=A woman waits for a long time at a village bakeryCurses. They're there throughout tales of faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this, or not to be able to do that. Children can be cursed, her mind only as can princesses on the strawberry shortcakes she wants to buyverge of marrying, and the strange reasons that make the purchase so important to herolder people too. A boy is invited by a girl at school to a posh French restaurant – with strawberry shortcakes on the menu – It seems in order for him to provide moral support as she meets her estranged father for the first time. Nearby, a woman enjoys an unusual relationship with her elderly landlady, who keeps finding unusually-shaped carrots in her vegetable gardenway there's no escaping it. A man reflects on an unusual relationship with a writer who for a couple Which is why the theme of this book of years at least was short stories is such a step-mum standout – we may well think we know all there is to himknow about this accursed character, even as she went dotty in talking to herself. Unusual relationships, vegetablesthat demonised place, motives – and strawberry shortcakes – are prevalent in this fascinating look at a sunlit yet dark world, which makes for a superlatively clever readthat other bewitched person. We'd be very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099553937</amazonuk>1789091500

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Stibbe_Xmas|title=Dead Man's HandAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=John Joseph Adams (editor)Nina Stibbe|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesHumour|summary=''Dead Man's Hand'' features short stories with themes ranging from Christmas – the time travel and vampires of traditional trauma. You only have to theology; at first glance think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it definitely appears sat on the downstairs loo to be an eclectic mix. These stories are linked by defrost overnight, and if that failed the genre of the weird west, which is defined by its elasticityhair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. John Joseph AdamsNowadays it' helpful introduction outlines the main features of the weird west s all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and provides a clearvisit it, insightful guide and get too friendly with it to want to this little-known genreeat it. Far from being mismatchedChristmas, the eclectic nature though, is of course also a time of this collection is great boons. It's cash in fact the greatest strength hand for a lot of the weird west genre. Unconstrained by narrow generic conventionsplump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the authors thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in this collection have plundered long-hand as a child, and as for the deepest depths makers of their imaginations. The result? A colourfulMeltis Newberry Fruits – well, memorable did they even try and, above all, ''imaginative'' collection sell them any other time of fiction.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783295465</amazonuk>the year?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0954899520|title=The ListenerA Winter Book

|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=Until very recently Tove Jansson was probably only known 's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the English-speaking world for her Moomin stories. Then along came ''Sort 1940s and later becoming television characters ofthe simplicity, naivety and sheer 'goodness' books and their wonderful translatorsthat would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, simple stories, foremost among them: Thomas Tealsimple goodness. And we started to understand what it What is often forgotten outside of her native Finland is that she was about a serious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that she had a feeling for the natural world and the simple life that not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the woman…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908745363</amazonuk>world might be.

 {{newreview <!-- 19/5 -->Frontpage|authorisbn=Lightfall Literary Agency (Editor)1911115847|title=The Obsidian Poplar and Other StoriesNights of the Creaking Bed|author=Toni Kan

|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=I'll confess that I was a little nervous about 'Nights of the Creaking Bed'The Obsidian Poplar and Other Stories''. There's is a common misconception that collection of short stories are easy - something run off quickly before the author gets on with doing the proper job by Toni Kan. The series of stories tell of a full-length work, but the truth is rather different. A short story has none lives and lusts of the luxuries an assortment of a longer work: plot development has to be done quicklycharacters living in and around Lagos, characters have to come off the pageNigeria. Every word must earn Nigeria, in this collection, is imbued with its keepvery own heart of darkness. A book can be written - Danger stalks the shadows and people are killed for nothing more than a short story must be ''crafted''wrong look. But what made me particularly nervous here was that all the authors are students - Kan writes with a vitality and the editor was convinced passion that there are ten allows these cynical stories to achieve a glimmer of them who are good enough to be included in the bookhope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00JH1B94E</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrea Camilleri, Carlo Lucarelli and Giancarlo De Cataldo1529014484|title=JudgesExhalation |author=Ted Chiang|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=I'll confess that it was Over the name of [[:Category:Andrea Camilleri|Andrea Camilleri]] which brought me to this book. I'm past twenty-eight years, Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a long-time science fiction fan it is likely that you have already come across some of his Inspector Montalbano series and a recent reading of a spin-off [[Montalbano's First Case the work by Andrea Camilleri|novella]] had proved to me that the concise nature of his full-length novels was no flukeTed Chiang. In If you haven''Judges'' we had another novella - worth buying for its own sake - and the bonus of two more stories from better-than-decent Italian authorst then take this opportunity to do so now. All that was needed was a glass of wine and a comfortable chairTrust me; your imagination will be grateful. Did the book live up to expectation?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857052977</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1794467440|title=Lying Under the Apple TreeWatchwords |author=Alice MunroPhilip Neal|rating=4.5

|summary=Munro packs an extraordinary amount into a short story. Some This satisfying collection of them are quite long for short stories, and they are not the sorts of stories that might suit reading on your daily commute; they demand more attention than that. Her observations of human behaviour are acute, and the most innocuous of them will set you thinking has a great deal. Most of provenance at least as beguiling as the stories warrant a pause for thought and need a little time for absorption of detail.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593777</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Stories provenance of World War One|author=Tony Bradman|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=World War One, or the Great War as antique watches that inspired it was known at the time, was a cataclysmic war. Millions died and life was changed forever for the survivors - for the women of Britain, and for the working classes and ruling classes alike. 2014 is the centenary of its outbreak and the redoubtable Tony Bradman has gathered together a dozen of our best writers for young people to create an anthology of short stories to commemorate the anniversary.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408330350</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|title=Something Like Happy|author=John Burnside|rating=4Philip Neal lost a watch.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=How do you pick It was a name for watch he was fond of and had been told was like a short story collection? It seems 1930s Cartier. Instead of mourning its loss, he began to me the ''collect vintage watches that resembled it...and other storiesAnd that'' add-on is like picking s how he became a favourite child, a promotion of one portion of watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to the content above the restAntique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. [[:Category:John Burnside|John Burnside]] has got The eBay purchase was a title story herefake, but such is the mood of the book friendship that he seems to have nailed grew between the matter, buyer and picked the most apposite name. ''Something Like Happy'' could in a way be repairer of watches was not and the title seed of an idea for practically every piece herea book was born.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099575590</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1529006031|title=Brief Loves That Live ForeverReturn to Wonderland|author=Andrei MakineVarious Authors

|summary=Our unnamed narrator is inspired to think back through his life on In following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, when the girls first book she was in [[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and women he has been in love withAnthony Browne|hit 150 years of age]], partly because of a time spent I found that I didn't really find too much favour with an associate – a time marked by a seemingly most unremarkable encounter with a further woman – whom he deemed had never been lovedit. The associatewacky-for-the-sake-of-it did not gel, you seeand I don't remember loving it more as a child. But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book. I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that come at the core from a tangent, had spent half his adult life in Soviet camps for political instruction – our narrator himself was an orphan in that show the benefits of the 1960s' Soviet Unionoblique glance. This snappy volume takes us I've always preferred coming to an author's output through episodes in several lives at different points during their least obvious, allegedly throw-away pieces, and since it's the second half of communist rule same with franchises – and finally explains I'd more likely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the import whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, for obvious reasons). 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 unremarkable encounter…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780870493</amazonuk>love in mind could only provide for success after success?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elizabeth Haynes1846974658|title=Promises to Keep: A Short StoryThe Long Path To Wisdom|author=Jan-Philipp Sendker

|summary=Jo is haunted by On my travels around the death of world, I have a teenage asylum seeker whilst tendency to end up in police custody any bookshop that is selling English-language books, and she only hangs on to her fragile sanity by running. Whilst she's out in while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the woods (where she'd been warned that she 'next person, what I'm reallylooking for is the 'local' shouldn't go) she discovered a young boy living rough and she knew that she had to do everything in her power to keep him safe. There were complications. Her partner was DS Sam Hollands who had a direct involvement with asylum seekers - and – the boy living rough in cookbook maybe, the woods was maps definitely, but above all: the younger brother of the dead teenagerfolk tales. Sam wanted If I ever get to get her relationship with Jo back onto an even keelBurma, but one night she returned from work I won't need to find a stranger in her househunt, I can read before I go.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00I9GXP2M</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B077969HN8|title=The Rental Heart and other FairytalesAlternative Medicine|author=Kirsty LoganLaura Solomon|rating=34.5

|summary=To start Laura Solomon's publisher describes the short stories in ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with, are these stories strictly fairytales? a twist of surrealism''. On the evidence I'm rather glad that I didn't see this until ''after'' I'd finished reading as I'm not normally a fan of this collectioneither, it is at times a distinction that seems open but I've come to debate, a category that lies waiting for definition. But at two conclusions about the book: what the same time, such publisher says is the genrecorrect -switching (and at times gender-switching), that I really enjoyed it is a subtitle that serves better than most. The title story examines a lifecomedy is not ''too''s romantic history via a twist on black and the idea that we give our heart away to every lover – what do we have when they are gone surrealism is gentle and perhaps best described as a new one takes their place? Elsewhere, a landed lady takes advantage twist or flick of her servant, and another cultured madam hires a clockwork companion to shrug off the suitors, with obvious, narratively logical resultsreality when you were least expecting it. A medical worker and her pregnant partner share a caravan together, all the while knowing a different circumstance might Your comfort zones are going to be closer than first thought. We have the beginnings of love lives, the end of hatred, and the end of invaded in the world in these pagesnicest possible way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773754</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=9386897504|title=Further Encounters Tales of Sherlock HolmesLove and Disability|author=George Mann (Editor)Laura Solomon

|summary=Hot on I've always believed that less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a great deal of skill and talent to write a short story which holds the heels reader and keeps them coming back for more. There are far too many collections of short stories which are all too easy to put down and forget after you've read a couple of pieces. I've recently read a couple of novellas by Laura Solomon - [[Encounters of Sherlock Holmes Marsha's Deal by George Mann (Editor)Laura Solomon|Encounters of Sherlock HolmesMarsha's Deal]] comes another collection of brand-new tales written and [[Hell's Unveiling by some of the brightest creative minds from the genres of science fiction Laura Solomon|Hell's Unveiling]] and crime. In this anthologyenjoyed them, Holmes and Watson are pitched headlong into twelve different mysterious scenarios and invited to unravel secrets and unmask villains as only they know how. During their adventures they come face so I was intrigued to face see what she could do with a mountain monster, take a murderous boat trip, meet Moriarty’s siblings and an even indulge in a little space travelshorter form. The game is afoot!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178116004X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Rose (writer of short stories)1986586898|title=Posthumous Going To The Last: Short StoriesAbout Horse Racing|author=K D Knight

|summary=These sixteen short stories have one thing In the opening story, a man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with cash in common: lives, his pocket - and plenty of themhis wife. We jump from In ''A Grey Day'' an owner struggles with the earthy banter problem of a road crew building speed humps whether or not to an interview pre-broadcast run his horse in the Gold Cup when the ground is against him. My favourite was ''The Story of a classical piece where the interviewer isnH''t getting , the kind story of answers for which he hopesFoinavon. On the way we meet the least-mentioned Beatle, visit H is depicted as a world where kind horse who only wanted to please people are paid . After changing hands on various occasions he came to read for the many that don't yard of John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and the man trying to remember his father through art to name but considered a fewno-hoper. For good measure there are In one of the most dramatic runnings of the race, a couple of Kafkapile-esque experiments that also work as ripping good yarnsup occurred at the 23rd fence.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773576< Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and galloped to the line, winning the race at odds of 100/amazonuk>1.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=9386897296|title=Doctor Who: 11 Doctors, 11 StoriesHell's Unveiling|author=Eoin Colfer, Michael Scott and othersLaura Solomon|rating=3.5|genre=Confident ReadersShort Stories|summary=ItA little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's basic knowledge that Doctor Who has changed a lot since first being seen fifty years ago – Deal]] and I donwas delighted by the opportunity to read the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''. It't mean s probably not much of a spoiler to say that Marsha bested the title characterdevil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but the nature of the programmedevil is not one to take defeat lying down. It has gone from black He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and white, and cheaply produced, and declared disposable, to being an essential part particularly on Marsha (who's thought of the BBC, full-gloss digital, and accessed as a 'goody two shoes' in all manner of waysHell). So with the celebratory programme still ringing in our earsAlthough a strong person, she's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. Daniel is framed for a crime he didn't commit and leaving people pressing a red button sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to see a programme about three Doctorslive with Marsha. Then, erof course, pressing a red button, we turn to there are all the other aspects children who are not only targeted but - worst of all - subverted to the birthday bonanzadevil's evil ends. Such He's out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and as this bookwith many foster children, which has also mutated in its much shorter lifespantheir self-esteem is very fragile. This is no small-scale operation, from being a loose collection of eleven short eeither -book novellas written by the blazing lights of YA writingdevil has set up a training complex on earth, complete with an elevator to a huge and brilliant paperback collecting everything within one set of coversHell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141348941</amazonuk>

{{newreview|title=Of Lions and Unicorns: A Lifetime of Tales from the Master Storyteller|author=Michael Morpurgo|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=''Of Lions and Unicorns'' is a collection of short stories Move to [[Newest Spirituality and extracts from Morpurgo’s most popular books. The book is split into five sections, which focus on recurring themes in his writing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007395353</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Rags and Bones|author=Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=Anthologies|summary=Some of today's top authors have come together to retell classic tales - from fairy stories to Victorian-era fiction. As usual with this kind of anthology, it's a fairly hit-or-miss affair, but the hits here are so strong that they're well worth picking up the book for. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472210522</amazonuk>}}Religion Reviews]]