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[[Category:Short Stories|*]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=A Fanfare of TalesGuadalupe Nettel and Rosalind Harvey (Translator)|authortitle=Patrick C ReidyThe Accidentals|rating=4.5

|summary=I love short storiesThis collection was truly enchanting in all senses of the word: spellbinding with its fantastical, so I'm always happy when a new collection arrives for reviewmagical elements and charming in its gentle portrayal of nature and human relationships. ''A Fanfare of Tales'' Guadalupe Nettel writes intelligently and precisely, her stories structured by Patrick C Reidy promises me ''a compilation of short stories wisdom that highlight appears to want to teach us something about the adventures of diverse characters as each encounters unforeseen challenges''world. I like this premise. So how does the book shape up? |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1524665983</amazonuk>1804271470

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Peter O'Donnell and Enric Badia RomeroMariana Enriquez|title=Children of Lucifer: Modesty BlaiseA Sunny Place for Shady People|rating=3.5|genre=Graphic Novels Short Stories|summary=Out of ninety-five diverse comic strip storiesMariana Enriquez writes horror that is disturbingly real, the publication achieving this uncanny familiarity by basing her paranormal plots on gritty realities: her settings include an abandoned field full of this book leaves just the last three yet disused refrigerators due to be presented in these fabulous large format paperbacks. So if you haven’t yet met with the sassy brunette with her curves an urban planning mishap, an overcrowded homeless shelter and her great a crime-solving mind, and ridden neighbourhood where safety meetings are routine - all within Argentina. The circumstances of course with her Willie, this is characters are so plausible that the last-but-one chance for you to do sosupernatural or otherworldly horror which seeps into these spaces adopts a similarly tangible texture. And if you have any interest in quick little action tales, or even dated kitsch, for both apply here, then you should eagerly be on board…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>178329860X</amazonuk>1803511230

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Martin Edwards (editor)Fyodor Dostoyevsky|title= Miraculous Mysteries (British Library Crime Classics)White Nights|rating= 5|genre= CrimeShort Stories|summary=Consider the following scenario: a policeman hears someone screaming and runs to a house on a particular streetAs always in Dostoyevsky, number 13, from where the noise character work is emanatingsublime. When he peeps through the letterbox he discovers One is never left wondering what a dead man in the hallway character is thinking or feeling because Dostoyevsky lays bare their innermost dispositions and temperaments with a knife in his throat. He goes to fetch help, but upon returning, finds that the street does not have a number 13 and that the body and the room he saw have both mysteriously vanished..remarkable clarity.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0712356738</amazonuk>0241619785

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Michael R LaneAllTomorrowsFutureCover|title= UFOs All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and GOD: A Collection of Short StoriesStephen Oram (Editors)|rating= 45|genre= Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=From stories ''Opening up new ways of young people caught up in a Robin Hood style operation gone wrong, to a believer in God having her faith shaken by thinking about the arrival shape of aliensthings to come.'' I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, author Michael R Lane has compiled I must confess that there have been more than a collection few decades of fascinating and clever short stories heretechnology in my lifetime. From farm I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to urban, me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from World War II to the Digital Ageme. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the places possibilities and times, people the probabilities and events in end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they'UFOs re talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and God'' spotlight the tender underbelly of the human condition who could deliver information in all its glory and despair on these varied stages of fictiona way I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>163491712X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Rick BassB0CDZRGT1M|title= For a Little WhileSuper Short Stories: Flash Fiction|author=Mark C Wallfisch|rating= 4.5|genre= Short Stories|summary=''For Got a Little Whileminute to be amused, entertained, or challenged?'' ''These 100 stories are super short. None is more than 300 words. You can read one in a collection flash.''''Some are funny. Some are poignant. All are short.'' Question: how do you review flash fiction? How do you give a flavour of twenty-five short stories 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 Rick Bass. As someone previously unacquainted with Bassall the flash fictions in a book of them? I don't know! Perhaps we could start by explaining that there really isn' work t a fixed definition of flash fiction but that for this new collection was , author Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a wonderful introduction to his quirky, unusual style which focuses on stripped back, simple fables featuring often mundane situations, mysterious characters and magical experiencesthree hundred word limit. The characters That's about a single page in each tale are beautifully crafted and the stories are dreamy, loose narratives covering everything from love to death to choices made and chances takenyour average paperback.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782273042</amazonuk>

{{newreview <!-- remove 25/1 -->Frontpage|titleauthor=A Collection of Short StoriesRachel Harrison|authortitle=Gillian Fletcher-EdwardsBad Dolls

|summary=Marged Evans allowed a break-up with a lover to affect everything in her life. Osian wanted to invest in the present but Marged loved the past. Since they drifted apart, MargedIt's life has been carefulsome time since I've read any horror. I had a couple of misspent teen years reading Stephen King, ordered, unadventurous. But then Osian sends her borrowing the books from a Christmas card boy I fancied at school and everything changes. scaring myself half silly with them to the point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of the vampires outside! Don'Marged Evanst worry - this short story collection isn't like that! It doesn' t have those jump scares, and I didn't have to read it during daylight hours only! But it is creepy, and I found most of that feeling came from the first fact that these are stories about women, living normal lives, and longest that at least in this collection of short stories part, the horrors arises from Gillian Fletcher-Edwards. It's almost very normal situations such as a breakup, trying a new dieting app, going to a novella hen party and its initially slow pace sets off quite the masterclass in how one event can throw everything into unexpected - but lovely - chaosa coping with grief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1524662445</amazonuk>1803363932

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Sybil Marshall and John LawrenceB0CCCVRSGX|title= The Book of English Folk TalesStories 2|author=Richard F Walker|rating= 4|genre= AnthologiesShort Stories|summary= From ghosts to witches, to giants This is Richard F Walker's second volume of short stories. There are thirteen in all and fairies, ''The Book I took something from each of English Folk Talesthem. There isn't a single one that doesn' is a fascinating collection of t deserve to be among the others or brings down the overall quality. It can be tricky to review short stories retold by social historian and folklorist Sybil Marshall. Out of print for over three decadeswithout giving too much away, this beautiful new clothbound edition is complete with wood engraved illustrations by John Lawrence so I'll just pick two to talk about and is sure to capture the attention of I think they give a new generation of lovers of folkloregeneral flavour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1468313177</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shirley McKay1739593901|title=1588: A Calendar of Crime 22 Ideas About The Future|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (A Hew Cullan MysteryEditors)|rating=4.5|genre=Crime (Historical)Science Fiction|summary=A lot ''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of crime happens in St Andrews during 1588 flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and therefore in the life automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.'' I've got a couple of law lecturer and local investigator Hew Cullen tooconfessions to make. As we travel through the year with him, his recently wedded English wife Frances, doctor brother in law Giles I'm not keen on short stories as I find it easy to read a few stories and his sister Meg, then forget to return to the wise woman, we also encounter some of his most interesting casesbook. There's got to be a very compelling hook to keep me engaged. In fact Then there's one to match each of science fiction: far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with the yearworld-building. It's big festivalshuman beings who fascinate me: Candlemasthe technology and the world scape are purely incidental. So, Whitsunwhat did I think of a book of twenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, Lammas, Martinmas and YuleI loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973635</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary Telford and Louise VerityB09XZMCDVF|title=SinsStories: 13 tantalising tales|author=Richard F Walker

|summary=Is there enough new ''A news vendor is crying out the headlines in the middle of the night; a wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he tries walking around in his imagination; a stickler for correct grammar goes back in time to say about correct an iconic quote; a volunteer teacher proves the seven deadly sins? We've seen them all shown ideal person to ushave around in a lawless village; the new boy on the pub football team is very useful with his feet, from school age and up to the movie awfully familiar…''Se7en'', which we sincerely hope was NOT shown  This collection of thirteen short stories by Richard F Walker has a lot to anyone at school ageoffer the eclectic reader. We can each recount Tying them alltogether is the idea that remarkable and strange, having been long familiar with themeven miraculous, even if we probably things canhappen to ordinary people. And that ordinary doesn't pin down when they were actually set in stone without helpmean boring or uninteresting. Similarly, is there anything new in the world of fairy tale? We know the tropes - characters identified by their status or gender (the woman, the husband), a clear set of rules to obey, Form and a moral as strong as, if not stronger than, the formulae involved. Well, tone varies so this volume demands we decide the answer to those questions as being positive ones, little treasury of short fiction is never boring and if ityou're never quite sure what's not always definitive in the writing here that there is something new, rest assured there will be something in the imagery that will definitely strike one as freshcoming next...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843516624</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Carys Bray and others1737030942|title=How Much the Heart Can Hold: Seven Stories on LoveBag O'Goodies|author=Jolly Walker Bittick|rating=3.54|genre=Short StoriesAnthologies|summary=This Sceptre collection does not have as simple Sometimes, you deserve a remit as it might appear; these are no straightforward love storiestreat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's ''Bag O'Goodies''. Instead I first encountered his writing about a year ago, when I read his [[Cape Henry House by Jolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]], they each take one aspect a rollicking tale of love – often one of the ancient Greek classifications – and provide what happens when five young men find a whole new way of thinking about itbase for their partying. After all Right now, the heart holds I didn't want a lot full-length novel, so I turned to this anthology of metaphorical weightverse and short stories. Bittick's writing has matured - and so have his characters. Well...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473649420</amazonuk>most of them!

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Helen Simpson1529418100|title=CockfostersBruno's Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales|author=Martin Walker|rating=3.54

|summary=This was I'm not usually a belated reunion for me, having been introduced to the author's snappy fan of short story collections courtesy the very first one while at uni. Mind, stories - I find it was a much more gentle and placid reunion than all too easy to put the one that starts this book – Julie down between stories and Philippa have had a shopforget to pick it up again -bought curry together, but have had to forsake I am a cultural chat for a trip haring along fan of Martin Walker's [[Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the London Underground chasing after a pair of glasses one of them left behindtemptation to read ''Bruno's Challenge'' was hard to resist and I'm rather glad that I didn't even try. The piece is definitely about For those new to the subject of ageing – series, there's an excellent introduction that will tell you all you need to know about time passed who's who and what might be remaining ahead – but you soon discover that not only do all the pieces here have titles that are unadorned place names, but they all concern that very themebackground to why Bruno is in St Denis. Can anyone, let alone Helen Simpson, sustain such a vaguely morbid topic over a full collection?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178470198X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David BecklerB08NF79QXT|title= The Road More Travelled: Tales of those seeking refugeCherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams|rating= 53|genre= Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary= Thirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the Cherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she's nominated for - and wins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award. She'The Road More Travelleds delighted and the two people she's brought with her to the event couldn' t be more pleased. Sonja, her mother, is an anthology of short stories ex- model and one poem Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from. Jessica's thirty- written in response to the refugee crisis as it exploded across our TV screens four and Liberty's best friend: they've known each other since university and newspapers throughout 2015. To the horror of the authorsLiberty adores Jessica's husband, the language used by many was aggressive Charles and dehumanisingtheir four-year-old daughter, describing this mass of desperate people as a swarm or a hordeAva. The stories together form Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a response to this otheringman in her life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0993147224</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Ransom RiggsB08KKQ85FN|title= Tales of the PeculiarBut Never For Lunch|author=Sandra Aragona|rating= 54|genre= TeensShort Stories|summary= A fork-tongued princess. A boy who ''If a woman approaching the menopause can control be likened to a Rottweiler in lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to be released into the currents company of carrion crows or, more to the sea. Cannibals who feast on point, about to discover the limbs real world of a village of peculiarsbus timetables and paying his own gas bills. These are just a few of the brilliant stories to be found in ''Tales of the Peculiar' You don't get many better opening sentences than that, all of which hold mystical information about the peculiar world do you? - a place familiar to many of us since its We first introduction by Ransom Riggs met His Excellency and The Ambassador's Wife in [[Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Sorting the Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by Ransom RiggsSandra Aragona|Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar ChildrenSorting the Priorities]]and we learned what it was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the Italian Government but the time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to become The Wife of Former Ambassador... They have left The stories Career and settled in this collection explore peculiar history Rome. Well 'settled' rather overstates the situation and folklore in a wonderfully imaginative waytheir dog, Beagle, has no intention of slowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and also include some beautiful illustrations to accompany each of the talesdeaf.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141373407</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08CHJLNBS|title=I'll Be Home For ChristmasCapturing Emilia|author=Benjamin Zephaniah and OthersBrooke Adams|rating=53|genre=TeensWomen's Fiction|summary=Publisher Little Tiger He's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and homelessness charity Crisis have got together and produced ''I'll Be Home For Christmas'a partner at Wickham Jones, the Mayfair letting agents. She' s Emilia, twenty- an anthology of short stories from some of nine, librarian and archivist in the most popular writers on the UK YA sceneheritage library next door. Emilia has read [[The stories are connected Secret by the theme of home. What does home mean to Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she's moved on from new age books like that, which leave you? Is it your housedependent on someone else's philosophies, the physical place where you live? Is it your family? Your friends? Home can mean different things to different peoplesomething a little deeper. Charles is more of a [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, canbut, above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads ''t it? The book opens with a powerful poem by Bookbag favourite, Benjamin ZephaniahGuardian''. The following stories are disparate - some telling tales of hardship and fear They're obviously not at all compatible, some warming the cockles so why can Charles not get this woman out of your heart. But his mind? She's not his usual type at all of them are about : it's obvious to his friends. And given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles'homes superficiality, why does she feel drawn to him? The relationship's obviously a non-starter, isn'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847157726</amazonuk>t it?

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Rebecca SchiffMarie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title= The Bed MovedCursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales|rating= 4.5|genre= Short Stories Fantasy|summary= Rebecca SchiffCurses. They's collection re there throughout tales of short stories was a revelationfaery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this, or not to be able to do that. It has everything I want from a collection: humourChildren can be cursed, (often as can princesses on the verge of the black variety), heartbreaking sadnessmarrying, and moments of shocking clarityolder people too. These stories feel like the revealing of the inner workings of It seems in a young American womanway there's psycheno escaping it. In fact, in Which is why the last theme of this book of short piece, entitled ''Write What You Know'', it feels that the narrator/author stories is such a standout – we may well think we know all there is telling us the experiences which have led to this collection. ''I only know about parent death and sluttiness'this accursed character, she tells us. She goes on to talk about her knowledge of Jewish people who are assimilated, liberal and sexual guiltthat demonised place, and I think it is no exaggeration to say that these are the underlying themes to practically all of the stories hereother bewitched person. We'd be very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>147363184X</amazonuk>1789091500

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Simon Van BooyStibbe_Xmas|title= Tales of Accidental GeniusAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating= 4.5|genre= Short StoriesHumour|summary=A diverseChristmas – 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, haunting and humorous collection of short fictionif that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it's all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, Simon Van Booy offers a collection of stories highlighting how human genius can emerge through acts of compassionand get too friendly with it to want to eat it. With characters ranging from an eccentric film directorChristmas, an aging Cockney bodyguardthough, the teenage child is of Nigerian immigrants, course also a divorced amateur magician and time of great boons. It's cash in hand for a Beijing street vendor, ''Tales lot of Accidental Genius'' takes the reader on many, incredible journeysplump people who can hire red suits and beards, and conveys more in it was always a few pages than many authors would struggle godsend for postmen with all the thank-you letters to do aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a whole novel. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780749716</amazonuk>child, and as for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and sell them any other time of the year?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Amnesty International0954899520|title= Here I StandA Winter Book|author=Tove Jansson|rating= 5|genre= TeensLiterary Fiction|summary= Every so often Amnesty International gets together a number of great authors Tove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the 1940s and produces an anthology later becoming television characters of writing. This timethe simplicity, they've done it for younger readers with ''Here I Standnaivety and sheer 'goodness'that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, simple stories, simple goodness. Twenty-five contributions explore where we are with human rights in today's society: 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 sacrifices many made to win them; natural world and the sacrifices simple life that still need to be made to spread them; not only informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how, where and why these rights are under attack and how deep is the need to defend themworld might be. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>140635838X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Anna Metcalfe1911115847|title= Blind Water Pass and other storiesNights of the Creaking Bed|author=Toni Kan|rating= 54|genre= Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary= Anna Metcalfe's debut 'Nights of the Creaking Bed'' is a collection of short stories is a treasure trove by Toni Kan. The series of stories tell of the lives and lusts of an assortment of languagecharacters living in and around Lagos, culturesNigeria. Nigeria, in this collection, is imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the shadows and beautifully written prosepeople are killed for nothing more than a wrong look. The stories are bound together Kan writes with a loose theme of communication, or miscommunication, across characters vitality and cultures, and the narrators of passion that allows these cynical stories are as different as human beings themselvesto achieve a glimmer of hope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473631815</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Wendy Brandmark1529014484|title= He Runs the MoonExhalation |author=Ted Chiang|rating= 3.5|genre= Short Stories Science Fiction|summary= This is Over the first time I had read any of Wendy Brandmark's past twenty-eight years, Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction, and I was intrigued at the theme of the stories. She sets out writing short stories about different cities in the US, Denver, Bronx, New York, Cambridge and Boston, but also weaves in setting the these magnificent stories in different eras. So we have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a collection science fiction fan it is likely that you have already come across some of stories ranging from the 1950work by Ted Chiang. If you haven's t then take this opportunity to the 1970'sdo so now. Trust me; your imagination will be grateful.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907320601</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Birgul Oguz1794467440|title= HahWatchwords |author=Philip Neal|rating= 34|genre= Literary FictionShort Stories|summary= I was interested to receive this book for review as I knew it was written in a modern, interesting style, being effectively a This satisfying collection of short stories, but appearing more in has a novel structure. I was, however, rather disappointed with provenance at least as beguiling as the book. Whilst it does have some very fine examples provenance of prose writing within the stories, I felt disconnected from the narrator, who is the daughter antique watches that inspired it. Philip Neal lost a watch. It was a watch he was fond of a recently deceased man who and had been told was involved in like a Turkish military coup in 19801930s Cartier. There is therefore a lot of examples Instead of the narrator relating the conversations they had shared regarding ''revolution''mourning its loss, and the way this had affected the daughterhe began to collect vintage watches that resembled it. And that's upbringing and childhoodhow he became a watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to the Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. Another 'story' then delves into The eBay purchase was a seemingly disconnected wander through fake, but the town, whereby we see friendship that grew between the buyer and the narrator working at gutting fish, repairer of watches was not and talking about the seed of an idea for a man she finds repulsive, but who appears to be in love with herbook was born. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>9462380740</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chuck Palahniuk1529006031|title=Make Something Up|rating=5|genre=Short Stories |summary=What are we to make of that subtitle-seeming writing on the front cover – ''stories you can't unread''? Does that not apply Return to all good fiction? Clearly it is here due to the reputation of the author, and the baggage his name brings to the page. We'd expect a dramatic approach from anything Palahniuk writes, and an added frisson, an extra layer, from which we might be forced to shrink back. But a lot of the contents don't quite go that far. Yes, things are dramatic, when society starts attaching defibrillators to itself, to create the perfect, simple, care- (''The Price is Right''-, and Kardashian-) free happiness. A man buys a horse for his daughter – but boy is it the wrong horse to buy. A man falls in love – yes, sometimes the plot summaries of these stories really are better off for being short (speaking of which, don't turn to the three-page entrant here as a taster, it'll put you off by dint of being, almost uniquely here, a nothing story). A call centre worker can't convince people he's on the level and even in their country – until someone starts riffing back to him. A housing estate report conveys bad regulation violations, but not as bad as the happenings at a 'Burning Man'-styled festival, in a very clever couple of tales. But many too are the instances where that extra step has been taken.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587688</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewWonderland|author=Martin Edwards (editor)|title=Murder at the Manor: Country House Mysteries (British Library Crime Classics)Various Authors

|genre=Crime (Historical)Short Stories|summary=I'm not big on short storiesIn following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, but two factors nudged me towards this when the first book. Firstly, itshe was in [[Alice's broadly golden age crime, one of my weaknesses Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and secondly, the editor is [[:Category:Martin EdwardsAnthony Browne|Martin Edwardshit 150 years of age]], a man whose knowledge I found that I didn't really find too much favour with it. The wacky-for-the-sake-of golden age crime is probably unsurpassed -it did not gel, and heI don's done us proud, not only with his selectiont 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, but with that show the half-page biographies benefits of the writers, which precede each storyoblique glance. ThereI's just enough there ve always preferred coming to allow you to place the an author 's output through their least obvious, allegedly throw-away pieces, and to direct you to other works if youit's the same with franchises – I'd more likely go for Bree Tanner're tempteds short novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, for obvious reasons). It's an elegant selectionFor another thing, from the well known and the less well knownthere was every reason to expect some kind of greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, all set surely pieces written with that love in and around the country house.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0712309934</amazonuk>mind could only provide for success after success?

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joe Abercrombie1846974658|title=Sharp EndsThe Long Path To Wisdom|author=Jan-Philipp Sendker

|genre=FantasyShort Stories|summary=On my travels around the world, I often feel have a tendency to end up in any bookshop that short stories are an indulgence on is selling English-language books, and while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the part of the authornext person, they get to write down a lot of their ideas that donwhat I't m really fit into a larger storylooking for is the 'local' – the cookbook maybe, the maps definitely, but above all: the folk tales. The stop/start nature of them never sits well with me, just as If I am starting to ever get to know a character they are gone. One way of solving this would be Burma, I won't need to use characters that a fan will already know; perhaps explore the pasthunt, or the futureI can read before I go. That sounds great for a fan, but how do you do this whilst also catering for a new reader?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0575104678</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sara TaylorB077969HN8|title=The ShoreAlternative Medicine|author=Laura Solomon

|summary=The first story we hear from Laura Solomon's publisher describes the Shore, short stories in ''Alternative Medicine'' as ''black comedy with a group twist of isolated islands off the coast of Virginia, is from Chloe, whosurrealism''s telling her sister about what she overheard in the store. SheI'm rather glad that I didn't see this until ''after'' I'd been there buying chicken necks so that they could go crabbing. Normally they used bacon rindsfinished reading as I'm not normally a fan of either, but theyI'd already eaten thoseve come to two conclusions about the book: what the publisher says is correct - and I really enjoyed it. Cabel Bloxom had been murdered and The comedy is not ''they done cut his thang clean offtoo''. The girls are motherless black and Chloe the surrealism is fiercely protective gentle and perhaps best described as a twist or flick of her little sister Reneereality when you were least expecting it. She's the first of Your comfort zones are going to be invaded in the strong women we'll encounter in these stories, which interlink to give a greater picturenicest possible way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009959188X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary Higgins Clark9386897504|title=Death Wears a Beauty MaskTales of Love and Disability|author=Laura Solomon

|summary=In 1972, Mary Higgins Clark began writing I've always believed that less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a novella entitled ''Death Wears great deal of skill and talent to write a Beauty Mask.'' She struggled with short story which holds the story reader and put it aside, where it lay forgotton keeps them coming back for several decadesmore. When the author rediscovered the manuscript amongst some old files, she decided that she liked it There are far too many collections of short stories which are all too easy to put down and was ready to complete the longforget after you've read a couple of pieces. I've recently read a couple of novellas by Laura Solomon -awaited ending. [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha'Death Wears a Beauty Masks Deal]] and [[Hell's Unveiling by Laura Solomon|Hell' joins some of her other works, both old s Unveiling]] and newenjoyed them, in so I was intrigued to see what she could do with an entertaining collection of short stories full of mystery and suspenseeven shorter form.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471143228</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Danielle McLaughlin1986586898|title=Dinosaurs on Other PlanetsGoing To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing|author=K D Knight

|genre=Short Stories |summary=Seeing as this book is clearly a talented author hitting In the ground runningopening story, I will dispense a man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with any major preamble. We start little money but comes away with a tale of a daughter affected by the emotions of her parents as they separate – and the influence of a certain schoolcash in his pocket -teacher – from the mother's point of view. An ancient input shows how alien, and the modern day domesticity how regular, the isolation of a woman can feel, as events are peppered by minor acts of destructionhis wife. But men can be alienated too – especially one, a reluctant guest at a party for children hosted by someone he once had In ''A Grey Day'' an affair owner struggles with – he feels the new form problem of this influence whether or not to run his horse in the light of another one he has had to try and abandonGold Cup when the ground is against him. My favourite was 'All About Alice' – thatThe Story of H''s what the title character wants to say but has nobody to speak it to, but is it her – mid-40s and single, living with her father – that is most removed from her dreams or her old friend and now child factory, Marian? And we complete a lap of the calendar with the wintry tale story of Foinavon. H is depicted as a man unable kind horse who only wanted to tell his work superiors of the problems please people. After changing hands on various occasions he faces at home – a new home, recently built like so many one sees while driving round Ireland.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473613701</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Christopher Fowler|title= Bryant and May - London's Glory|rating= 4|genre= Crime|summary=In came to the depths yard of John Kempton. H (or Foinavon) was entered in the last [[Bryant Grand National and May – The Burning Man by Christopher Fowler|B&M review I wrote]] I said '' Of course, it's unbelievable, farcical. But then you don't come to considered a Bryant and May story for realismno-hoper. You come for absurdity.'' Naturally, I stand by that comment. Fowler has concocted his characters and has no shame in shunting them up and down In one of the time-line most dramatic runnings of British history as he sees fit.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857523457</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Alexander McCall Smith|title=Chance Developments: Unexpected Love Stories|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Sometimesthe race, if I'm in a cafe by myself, I like to watch pile-up occurred at the people around me and imagine stories about their lives23rd fence. Just a single sentenceFoinavon, overheardwho had been many lengths adrift, can lead to wonderous tales of mystery cleared the fence and intrigue whilst I sip my cappuccino! So I was delighted to sit down galloped to read the latest offering from AMSline, not only because he wrote it, but because he wrote it after looking winning the race at 5 different black and white photographs, and then imagining the stories behind them. Who are all these people, and what are their stories? Each story is unique, and yet they all have one abiding link..odds of 100/1.love.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846973295</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Joannah Yacoub9386897296|title=When Mr Putin Stole My Painting: Ten Short StoriesHell's Unveiling|author=Laura Solomon

|summary=Put yourselfA little while ago I really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and I was delighted by the opportunity to read the sequel, if necessary''Hell's Unveiling''. It's probably not much of a spoiler to say that Marsha bested the devil in ''Marsha's Deal'', in but the mind of someone wanting devil is not one to publish their first collection of short storiestake defeat lying down. What do you choose He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as the contents – besides just saying the best available? a 'goody two shoes' in Hell). Do you try and find Although a theme, or connecting happenstance or stylestrong person, she's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. Daniel is framed for a crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to pin them together? live with Marsha. Are they based on you nowThen, someone else somewhen elseof course, or there are all the diverse people other children who are not only targeted but - worst of all - subverted to the devil's evil ends. He's out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and places you have once met? as with many foster children, their self-esteem is very fragile. Joannah Yacoub seems This is no small-scale operation, either - the devil has set up a training complex on earth, complete with an elevator to have gone for the latterHell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704373971</amazonuk>