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{{infoboxinfobox1
|title=Our Little Secret and Other Stories
|sort=Our Little Secret and Other Stories
|author=John E Flannery
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Yes
|paperback=
|hardback=
|audiobook=
|ebook=B007CKT6PG
|pages=283kb
|publisher=John Flannery Press
|date=Febraury February 2012
|isbn=
|website=|videocover=B007CKT6PG|amazonukaznuk=<amazonuk>B007CKT6PG</amazonuk>|amazonusaznus=<amazonus>B007CKT6PG</amazonus>
}}
It's over eighteen months since we first encountered John Flannery and his debut collection of shorts stories, [[Toby's Little Eden by John E Flannery|Toby's Little Eden]]. A golf course near Manchester and the characters who populated it came sharply to life and we laughed and we smiled along with them. Things are different in ''Our little Little Secret and Other Stories'' as we encounter violent death, suicide, delusion and mental illness. It's a good read but it's certainly not a comfortable one.
In the first story we encounter ''The World's Greatest Dad'' - or at least that's what it says on his coffee mug. He and his family have been used to the better things in life but bankruptcy has humiliated him. His way out is one that he can never regret: he murders his wife and daughter and then kills himself. It's stream-of-consciousness writing and very effective. In ''Our Little Secret'' a schizophrenic girl is in a London Underground Station and she and her internal voice are discussing her future- or what remains of it. It could have been trite but I was struck by the way that Flannery established the girl and her voice as two very distinct personalities in relatively few words.
My favourite story was ''A Very Special Delivery'' as a box - about a metre square - is delivered to the home of Arthur and Florence Watkins. It's a piece of delightful whimsy as we work our way through their thought processes. There are gifts in ''Peace and Goodwill'' too as the paths of Harry Manning and Don Pickering cross twice in one evening, with fatal consequences on the second occasion.
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