Daring Detectives – Alfred Hitchcock (ed)

I unearthed this 1975 collection of deservedly well-known short mysteries in the aftermath of my recent book tragedy. The volume is over thirty years old now, and the stories’ original publication dates are far older – I’ve included them in the title/author information.

The day the children vanished: Hugh Pentecost (1958)
The nine students of a small town school vanish on their way home, along with Jerry Mahoney and the modified yellow station wagon/school bus he was driving. Last seen turning on to the two mile dugout track winding around the (guardrail protected) lake, the bright yellow vehicle never re-emerged. The town of Clayton didn’t take long to decide that the formerly trusted Jerry must have done something to their children, despite the distress of his young fiancée, and the stress seemed to push his retired-magician father off kilter.
Though the rationale is important, the centre of “The day the children vanished” is the disappearing act, which I couldn’t work out but which seemed familiar once revealed, either because I read this long ago or because another author’s employed the same sleight of hand. More interesting though is how well Pentecost portrays the understandable but disturbing swing in mood of the town as a whole and the power of fear. This alone makes me interested in checking the author, with whom I was previously unfamiliar, out further.

Through a dead man’s eye: Cornell Woolrich (1939)
Layoffs and downsizing are far from new, and nor is filial concern; when he overhears his detective father telling his mother that he’s looking at being demoted to beat cop because of austerity measures Frankie decides to help his dad out by bringing him the most prestigious crime and solution – murder. Fortunately, Frankie has a clue to one where the murder hasn’t even been discovered yet – thanks to the local boys’ hobby of swapping items for another of greater value Frankie is in possession of a glass eye. And why, he reasons, would someone get rid of a perfectly good glass eye unless they were dead?
Very much a product of its time, Frankie is plucky, determined, and significantly unchaperoned. Like boys across time he has scant regard for his own safety and is far more focused on helping his father, who he knows is “the best dick in town!” I very much enjoyed the reading experience, and though I don’t think a longer work by Woolrich would be to my taste this appetiser was very pleasing.

The disappearance of Mr Davenheim: Agatha Christie (1953)
Inspector Japp offers Poirot a wager – to find the missing senior partner of financiers Davenheim and Salmon, dead or alive, by the end of the week, without visiting the scene or investigating independently. The facts of the case are undisputed – Mr Davenheim returned by train from Victoria to his country manor at Chingside, wandered around the grounds for some time before tea, then told his wife he was going on to town to post some letters. He was, he said, expecting a Mr Lowen, who was to be shown in to the drawing room if he arrived before Mr Davenheim’s return.
Mr Lowen duly appeared; pleading a train, he left when, after an hour, Mr Davenheim failed to meet him. A subsequent search of the study he’d been waiting in revealed an empty and broken-into safe – a safe that was used to store the jewels Mr Davenheim had been in the habit of buying for his wife whenever he returned from business trips.
A somewhat convoluted mystery, “The disappearance of Mr Davenheim” includes the elements one expects from Christie – class, wealth, clever trickery, and the employment of the little grey cells to reveal all.

The grave grass quivers: MacKinlay Kantor (1931)
A young, unnamed doctor is interviewing for a position to replace the soon-to-retire Doc Martindale of Cottonwood. A sleepy town, he notes, to which Doc Martindale responds that there have only been four murders during the entire history of the town, and only two since 1861. That was the father and brother of young Martindale vanished, along with some $7,000 in gold. Their wagon and team were found, along with some blood, but their bodies were presumed dumped in the nearby river – though Doc always believed they’d been buried nearby.
“The grave grass quivers” is set sixty years later, and is less a mystery than an atmospheric, perfectly crafted vignette. There is, true, a murder (well, two), and the triumphant unveiling of the murderer decades after the crime, plus a unique indicator of the crime (that I somehow wasn’t surprised by, increasing the likelihood that I’ve read this collection before, albeit long ago). But the narrative unfolds gently and almost inevitably, rather than twisting like a contemporary mystery, and Kantor evokes splendid senses of both the time the story is set in and a brief but convincing feel of frontier life a hundred and fifty years ago. I might be interested in following up with Kantor, who is better known, according to Hitchcock’s introduction for “serious novels” – he certainly writes like an author comfortable with producing literature.

Adventure of the Grice-Patterson curse: August Derleth (1956)
Renown detective Solar Pons and his less bright assistant Dr Parker has been asked by Edith Grice-Patterson, grand-daughter of long-dead Colonel Grice-Patterson to come to the family home on Uffa to investigate the latest in a series of curses that have plagued the family – the mysterious strangling death, in a locked room, of her fiancé is but the most recent, following similar, motiveless, murders of her father and uncle. The family is also, somehow, able to keep dogs alive.
If both the protagonists and the set up are reminiscent of a more famous detective that is no coincidence – Derleth (with whose work I have previously been unfamiliar) has apparently created homage to Holmes, of which this is but a taste. The writing style is similarly evocative, and though the killer is different to that in the Doyle classic “The scarlet hat band” it is clearly inspired by that work. Certainly if you like Holmes you will like this – I confess I find myself more compelled by the recent BBC series. - Alex

The adventure of the seven black cats: Ellery Queen (1933)
Sent out to procure an Irish setter, famed New York city detective and author Ellery Queen discovers a pet-shop mystery – why has a bed-bound pensioner who hates cats been secretively buying a green-eyed black tom each week for the last month and a half? The question is quirky enough to intrigue Queen, who sets out for the nearby apartment that Euphemia Tarkle shares with her more mobile (and impoverished) sister, Sarah-Ann.
Sarah-Ann goes out every afternoon, leaving the door on the latch – this is always when Miss Curleigh brings the new cats around; today, however, there is no answer to her knock, and the door is locked. Procuring the key from the wife of building supervisor Potter reveals an empty apartment – empty except for the sight of a fleeing figure out one window. But where is the paralysed Miss Tarkle?
The core of this mystery is the rationale for the cats, and the answer is both practical and haunting, particularly if you’re a felinephile. The writing is compelling and engaging, and the mystery quite involving.
I have long enjoyed Ellery Queen, with whom I first became familiar through the mid-seventies TV series. I realise, writing this, that it has been many years since I last read one of the beautifully crafted, eponymous detective stories and will rectify this on my return to Australia next week.

The footprint in the sky: John Dickson Carr (1940)
Mrs Topham next door is a shrew and a thief; arguing with her yesterday made sleep walking virtually inevitable. Dorothy Brandt rarely recalls anything that happens when she sleep walks – waking with the faint remembrance of snow is unusual – but is it possible it was she who killed the horrible woman?
The scene certainly gives every indication of that: the only footprints, clear and crisp in the shallow snow, are Dorothy’s tiny size 4 and lead without hesitation to and from the adjacent houses, with not another step marring the white perfection. The only anomalous note is a larger footprint, equally clear, in the snow atop a bordering hedge – one that could not possibly support the weight of the grown man such footwear would fit.
Carr’s well known but I haven’t read his other work. I very much enjoyed the unexpected dénouement and unique flavour of “The footprint in the sky” and may look up his other work in the future. - Alex

All Together Now - Monica McInerney

This collection of short fiction covers a range of topics but has several universal themes, chief of which is female relationships; this is unsurprising, as these connections also form the mainstay of McInerney's novels. There are also varyingly successful attempts to twist the tale in the last paragraph or two. In the introduction she briefly discusses the origins of each story, where her observations of events around her sparked creatively.
"Hippy Hippy Shake" is the shortest piece, at just over three pages; it describes a brief interaction between adult sisters, one of whom is going through yet another phase. The twist ending wasn't quite as dramatic as I suspect the author intended but it was fairly effective and a nice introduction to the collection.
Sisters also appear in "Spellbound" - Jill's attempts to bolster Lucy's spirits after yet another bad date pay off unexpectedly after she finds an old love spell int he bottom of a trunk: could magic be real?
In "Just Desserts" caterer Libby has rebuilt her career in Melbourne, after being betrayed by her business partner. When the opportunity for payback unexpectedly appears, Libby takes the higher ground; her younger sister Sasha, however, feels less constrained.
"Sweet Charity" revisits eccentric Lola; the interfering and well-meaning grandmother from The Alphabet Sisters sees the chance to turn the tables on a careless, self-important teenage boy more interested in being the centre of attention than in the feelings of those around him.
"The Long Way Home" tells the story of Shelley, who decided that the best way to recover from a secret tragedy and the end of her marriage was to join and 18-35 European tour group; the respite from her life gives her opportunity for reflection, and a chance encounter at an Edinburgh shopping centre helps her realise what's important.
"The Role Model" is the only non-family-centred story in the collection, and also the second-longest; it opens with four old friends who are relatively happy with their country town lives but tired of their frequent, fruitless attempts to lose weight. When the arrival of a new doctor and his much younger, very glamorous wife coincide with a new weight loss method the four women discover a very uncomfortable kind of success, that comes at a price too high for all of them to keep paying.
Jeannie took up cleaning to pay her way through school; she never expected that working for sisters Kate and Amanda would bring up issues so relevant to her own life, where family disharmony had also been the result of "Wedding Fever."
"Odd One Out" is a novella, previously published as a stand alone title and reviewed here.
The collection is light, though it deals with topics as serious as humiliation, judgment, death, divorce, and self-discovery. Though this is good if the aim is holiday reading, I felt as though the two most weighty contributions ("The Long Way Home" and "The Role Model") fell a little short of their potential. In the first I didn't connect with Shelley, which is always difficult in a story this short any way, and so her situation didn't resonate deeply enough with me to feel a connection with her; in the second both the diet instructors' approach and the total lack of empathy of the friends for someone outside their circle distanced me from the narrative, even though I recognised that was supposed to be the point. I was very pleased to revisit Sylvie Devereaux by rereading "Odd One Out" and quite look forward to reading more of McInerney's novels, which I think are stronger than her shorter fiction. - Alex

Quatrain - Sharon Shinn

This is a collection of four novellas, each set in one of Shinn’s universes.
Flight is a story of Samaria, a land where angels intercede with Jehovah when sickness, drought or flood afflict the populace, and giving birth to an angel is almost the only way for a woman to rapidly raise her status.
Salome is content with her life in a small town, a life she has devoted to raising her niece, Sheba; it’s not an exciting life, but Salome has had enough excitement to last her a lifetime. The arrival of three angels in the village is cause for great excitement, particularly among the young women – the angels’ beauty is surpassed only by their voices, and every girl hopes an angel will be smitten by her and whisked away to Windy Peak or another angle enclave.
Sheba is particularly restless, despite the affections of David, a local boy who loves he and who is a steadying influence. Salome sleeps in Sheba’s room, to prevent her sneaking to an angel in the night, and she tries to warn the girls that life as an angel seeker is not the glamorous and easy time they imagine. Yet she knows they will not listen, the same way she would not have listened before she left home to learn for herself about depravity she could never have imagined. “Flight” takes place just before the archangel Raphael is scheduled to step aside for his successor, Gabriel, and is a beautiful encapsulation of the rest of the series in miniature – the writing is coherent and believable, the characters vivid and rounded, we learn a little more about the world and its peoples, there are two romances, and there is betrayal, redemption, and a very satisfying ending.
We also learn more about the risks angel seekers take – a very high miscarriage rate, ninety percent likelihood of a human child if the pregnancy continues, and a thirty percentage chance of dying if the baby is angelic. And nobody cares about the non-angelic children, often not even their mothers; as we’ve seen in other books, the towns at the base of each enclave ran wild with unwanted, abandoned children. This is an aspect I hope will be a central focus in a future novel, but here, as in the rest of the series, it’s just an accepted and unquestioned fact. Yet the absence of discussion about this apparently inevitable aspect of Samarian life in no way detracts from the pleasure and engagement I had with “Flight.”

In Blood a young gulden, Kerk Socast, travels with his family through Geldricht from Golden Mountain to a city that houses all three races. With his father dead, his step-mother Tess remarried, and his step-mother’s husband’s eldest son Makk nearing his majority, Kerk’s position is fragile; he may legally be cast aside, a fact he has been aware of ever since his mother took his younger sister and fled Golden Mountain. It is his hope that, while away from the work he does for Brolt Barzhan, he may be able to find his mother.
I was unacquainted with the Geldricht universe, introduced in Heart of Gold, and this glimpse of it was fascinating. Kerk is bronze haired, golden skinned, and speaks goldtongue, a circumlocutory formal language that reflects the stratified, codified and rule-bound culture of the gulden. As a fatherless man Kerk has low status, though not as low as an unmarried, unattached woman. Resolutely patriarchal, gulden society grants men absolute power over their family members – females indefinitely, and males until they reach their majority at the age of twelve.
The Inrhio people are blue of skin and dark of hair, speak the more direct bluetongue, and have greater gender equality. We learn less about them than the Geldricht because, though third person, “Blood” is very much Kerk’s story. We take away almost nothing of the third race, who are albino, not even their name.
There are other elements here, including a very nice riff on the cruelty of older siblings toward younger ones that, as an eldest child, articulated a reality I wish I could share knowledge of with my youngest sibling – the only one who didn’t have that impulse. And twinned with that aspect of siblinghood is the delight and enduring love of siblings, the deep connection and wholeness of that relationship. I so liked the world that I’ve requested Heart of Gold and will be reading it shortly.

Gold is set some years after Summers at Castle Auburn. In the aftermath of the death of Prince Bryan, a peace has settled, but now a claimant for the throne has arisen in Tragonia, and he marches on the castle. As heirs to the throne, Princess Zara and her younger brother Keeson are in jeopardy and have been sent off in different directions for the duration of the battle. Orlain, a knight, is taking Zara to the aliori, a race of otherworldly creatures known to ensorcel humans. Vulnerable to gold, Zara has been draped in jewelery for her protection – earrings, bracelets, and a necklace welded closed in case, despite her protestations to the contrary, she tries to remove it herself. In addition her mother has provided Zara with potions to take each night, potions that will remind her of herself and her home.
I found “Gold” the weakest of the four stories, in no small part because of the realistic but unsympathetic self-centredness of Zara - she’s undisciplined and thinks rarely of others. The time she spends with aliori is appropriately dreamlike and bewitching, but I just didn’t really connect with the character or the story, and the ending felt unsatisfactory and, though inevitable, unlikely.

Flame is a prequel to the quartet of Gillengaria novels that tell of the uprising against King Baryn. Senneth is a mystic who has the gift of fire – she can raise and quench flames, and create a false fire that wreaths but does not harm living flesh or property. Though for the most part requiring only direction and force of will, she has learned that the combination of anger and magic wielding exerts a toll, and as the story opens she is recovering from a crippling migraine, this time caused not by emotion but by the fierce concentration needed to ensure that only the contaminated cottages burned, while the neighbouring homes lit up, a task complicated by a driving rain and sodden timber.
Senneth travels relentlessly, both unwilling and unable to call any place home. Since being banished from her marlord father’s home, she takes care not to stay too long with anyone, nor to put too heavy a strain on any friendship. Despite this, and despite the gratitude of the villagers that she burned cottages where quarantined people died – cottages too close to other building to be safely burned in any other way, and too contagious for villagers to pull down – it takes very little for the mob sentiment to turn. When spontaneous fires begin igniting, Senneth is draped in moonstones, which burn mystics, and locked in a bedroom, awaiting judgment.
“Flame” not only captures the distrust and fear of ordinary people encountering mystics but, more importantly, introduces Senneth to the people who will become her family, including her future husband. She already knows shapeshifter Kirra Dannalustrous, a fellow marlady but one accepted by her unconventional father, and she knows Kirra’s companion, who also transforms his physique, Donnal. The novella also acquaints Seenth with the valuable knowledge that she, alone of mystics, does not feel a burn when touched with moonstone, a fact that becomes important later in the series. But it is her introduction to King’s Rider Tayse that is the most rewarding for readers of the series, particularly the penultimate line:

She could already tell she was fated to have his escort for the rest of her trip.

- Alex

The Medieval Murderers: King Arthur's Bones

From the back of the book-

Five compelling interlinked mysteries from Michael Jecks, Susanna Gregory, Bernard Knight, Ian Morson and Philip Gooden.
During excavation work, an ancient leaden cross is discovered buried several feet below ground. Inscribed upon it are the words: hic iacet sepultus inclitus rex arturius… Could this really be the legendary King Arthur and his queen, Guinevere? ... As the secret of the bones’ hiding place is passed from generation to generation, those entrusted to safeguard King Arthur’s remains must withstand treachery, theft, blackmail and murder in order to keep the legend intact.

This collection of five novellas follows King Arthur’s bones from their discovery at Glastonbury Abbey in 1191 to the rediscovery of them in London in 2004. As might be expected from the authors’ pseudonym these tales take the form of mini murder mysteries. And as might also be expected in any anthology some stories appealed to me more than others but unlike other works of its type I did enjoy all of these to some extent.
I particularly liked the seamless way in which each story interconnected with those that went before. I also found realistic the way the history of the bones was slowly forgotten by those into whose hands they fell until at the end their relevance is completely unknown.
I was a little disappointed that in a couple of the stories the bones themselves didn’t play a central role. While these instalments were good enough as a fan of all thing Arthurian I would like them to have stuck a little closer to the theme.
Overall an enjoyable collection and a great opportunity to try a few authors I hadn’t read before.-Lynn

Poppy Z. Brite: Love in Vein-Tales of Vampire Erotica

From the back of the book-

Beyond fear, beyond horror, beyond temptation, there is a realm of the senses that only the boldest may enter. An acclaimed master of the dark fantastic, author Poppy Z Brite has brought together the genre’s most powerful and original writers to reinvent the literature of the macabre and give it a distinctly erotic spin.
A shameless celebration of unspeakable intimacies, the stories within explore out most sinister and irrepressible hungers, those that even lovers are forbidden to share.

The fact that it has taken me ten years to complete this collection of twenty short stories says more about what I think of them than any words could.
To be fair I have only vague memories of the first part of the collection but I didn’t find any of the offerings piqued my interest enough to follow up on any particular author. The same can be said of the final third of the collection which is fresh in my mind.
I think part of my disappointment in this book comes from the liberal definition of vampire. I was hoping for the traditional blood sucking monster, however, here the term vampire is used to describe any parasitic feeding from a human. While it’s not unheard of to use the term in this way it still skewed my expectations and lead to disappointment.
Also erotica, like humour, is personal and while I wasn’t surprised or offended by this collection, neither did I find it titillating. It simply wasn’t to my taste.
For me this was a ho-hum anthology that left me just a little flat.-Lynn

There Are No Ghosts in the Soviet Union - Reginald HIll

There Are No Ghosts in the Soviet Union
The title story in this six-novella collection is contemporary (for publication) - the USSR in the late 1990's. Inspector Lev Chislenko has been sent to investigate the death of a man who fell down a lift shaft. But when he arrives at the building in question he discovers an alcoholic lift operator, an older woman wracked by hysteria, and her savagely protective daughter, all of whom have the same ridiculous story - a man dressed in old-fashioned clothing, was thrust into the lift by another man, and fell through the solid floor, screaming as he fell. Unfortunately this story is confirmed by Comrade Rudakov, an engineer and Party member in good standing, and disastrously his statement is made in front of witnesses. In no time Chislenko is beset by problems on many fronts - the puzzle of the man who wasn't there, Party politics, and an increasingly attractive witness.
This is both an interesting story and a fascinating study of the paranoia, intrigue and machinations of the USSR. I confess I found the later a trifle more interesting than the former, and was scarcely surprised by the twist in the tale, but the characters were interesting and the narrative was smooth and brisk.


Bring Back the Cat!
Joseph Sixsmith, the London-born West Indian detective, has only just (metaphorically) hung his shingle. With only one case under his belt, Joe's keep for more work, but he draws the line at missing moggies, particularly when the owner is so unpleasant. From the beginning Joe is uncomfortable with the odd dynamics within the Ellison family - she does all the talking, he sits quietly reading his paper and wholly ignored, the teen daughter flashes an underage and underdone pair of breasts at him, and the spotty son sulkily slopes off to his room. But Mrs Ellison agrees to his outrageous fee, and he has nothing better to do, and when his initial investigation reveal a number of untold secrets, Joe's curiosity is tweaked.
More atmosphere and character development than mystery, Bring Back the Cat! is interesting enough and quite a change of pace from the first story in the collection.


The Bull Ring
Harry and his best mate, Bert, signed up through a combination of patriotic zeal and the belief that, with conscription around the corner, volunteer soldiers would get some preferential treatments. They had no idea how brutal just getting through basic training would be, particularly for Harry - Pierce, the canary in charge of them seems to have it in for him, bullying and berating Harry every chance he gets. Every time Harry turns around, there Pierce is, telling in his ear and denigrating him. After Bert all but shoots off his own thumb, it gets worse, as Harry's on his own. But perhaps Pierce is more effective than he realises...
More a study of war and character than a true mystery, there are strong streaks of non-graphic horror running through this testing tale. Of the collection it left the strongest resonance, and was very atmospheric.


Auteur Theory
We are warned in the opening line that nothing is as it seems, in this twisting tale that combines Hill's An Advancement of Learning with a glimpse at film production, tempestuous relationships, treachery, murder and self-deception. To say more would ruin the carefully plotted twists and turns.


Poor Emma
This period tale of intrigue and plotting involves sibling and marital relationships, entailed property, and the mislead expectations of several parties. Nobody comes out smelling particularly of roses, and I found keeping track of everyone a little more difficult than it might have been...


Crowded Hour
"At twelve noon there were three people in that house. By the time the clock struck one, two of them would be dead and the life of the third would have changed for ever."
As this collection goes on each story is successively more slender than the one before, and this is the thinnest in both verbiage and content. I quite liked the idea but was disappointed by the execution. - Alex

The Habit of Widowhood - Robert Barnard

In this collection of seventeen short stories, mystery writer Barnard unifies a diverse range of characters, over a hundred and fifty years, with domestic murder. Predominantly, though not exclusively, first person narrated, the characters include a sheltered young woman married off by her conservative parents ("Cupid's Dart"); a returned soldier who is a little too free with his favours; an adolescent girl who sees a way of using one act to solve two problems; a serial black widow; two first time black widows; a sadistic sodomite who enjoys a perfect Christmas; and innocent sister who learns more about hr adored brother after his death than she ever did while her was alive; a loyal dog; and Jane Eyre (set after Rochester's eyesight recovers).
Plots twists about, range from a bitter man playing with his malevolent family from beyond the grave; proof that people never really change, regardless of how log ago one's school days were; an elegant hoisting by one's own petard; four quite different cases of the biter bit; and the attractive lure of evil in a number of guises.
Though there are an almost uncomfortable number of treacherous women, as evidenced by the number of black widows, many of the men fare no better, and the fate of British wives prior to 1935 (when they were first allowed to own property) is sympathetically handled. Barnard's writing is accomplished, crisp and evocative. Despite the shifts in time and perspective, each story is utterly involving, accessible and interesting. I particularly liked is subtle malapropisms in one first-person tale, which added a layer to the character without being intrusive or overdrawn. I thoroughly enjoyed every one. - Alex

The Mammoth Book of Women’s Erotic Fantasies – Sonia Florens (Ed)

In 1973 Nancy Friday published a groundbreaking text, My Secret Garden, a collection of women’s sexual fantasies that revealed women could be as daring, surprising and explicit as men. Over the next two decades she followed this up with three more collections, two of women's fantasies and one of men's. In all four cases the fantasies were presented thematically, biographical data was provided (including age), there was often an attempt by the narrators to explain or analyse their fantasies, and sections were interspersed with Friday’s analysis of the fantasies and fantasists.
This noughties revisit to the ground explored by Nancy Friday’s groundbreaking books skips straight over the clinical, objective phsychological analysis and interpretation of the writing and goes straight to the good stuff. The women represented come from Canada, the US, England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, Germany and Puerto Rico, with no further biographical information given.
Rather than the somewhat brief and fragmented scenes narrated by Friday’s research participants, that sometimes included more than one scenario, or which described an outline of the fantasy rather than the scene itself, these women also seem less compelled to explain or justify their fantasies, and the scenarios are lovingly and completely described. In most cases each entry runs over eight pages, with one as few as six, and a few going for more than a dozen pages.
While themes including light sadomasochism, domination, lesbianism, power play, men with men, exhibitionism, and group sex are present, the more taboos elements present in Friday’s collections (including bestiality, rape, underage and incest fantasies) are absent from this more mainstream work. There is, however, likely to be something for most people, and I certainly found a few of the works particularly well written, well imagined and effective. – Alex

Don't Try This at Home - Kimberly Witherspoon & Andrew Friedman (eds)

Inspired by famed French food writer and chef Brillat- Savarin's oft quoted observation that a the true food lover is one who manages to "go beyond mere catastrophe and to salvage at least one golden moment from each meal," this slender volume (subtitled Culinary Catastrophes from the World's Most Famous Chefs) collects the purpose-written remembrances of thirty three well-known chefs and food writers from around the world.After a brief career synopsis, each brief section aims to tell a story of culinary tragedy that (hopefully) has a glimmer of gold, from Jamie Oliver, Neil Perry, Anthony Worrell Thompson, Heston Blumenthal, Anthony Bourdain, Bill Granger and others.
Unsurprisingly, some contributions succeed more strongly than others - I particularly liked food writer Rowley Leigh's horrific tale of kitchen violence, so much so that I'm interested in tracking down his other work, and chef Gabrielle Hamilton's distressing tale of a would-be chef who was incompetent and blithely unaware of it, and blind. I also liked chef David Burke's story of triumph snatched from the jaws of defeat thanks to large quantities of polystyrene, and cookbook writer Tamasin Day-Lewis's accounts of her first forays into cooking while at college (the grouse scene was especially distressing and hilarious). Other entries were less captivating, or served to show the writer in a good light, or illustrate an aspect of restaurant life that patrons rarely see.
I wouldn't buy Don't Try This at Home, and probably won't feel the need to re-borrow it, but I did enjoy the ride and will sadly soon be disembarking my exploration of culinary literature. - Alex

A Touch of Dead - Charlaine Harris

Subtitled The Sookie Stackhouse Stories, this is, unsurprisingly, a collection of short stories featuring Harris' most popular heroine, a telepathic barmaid lusted after by virtually every male supernatural creature who crosses her path. The series is now up to its ninth installment and the stories, written for various collections, span Sookie's character trajectory over that time. Harris provides a time frame, and presents them chronologically. I would think that elements of each plot would be less satisfying for a reader unfamiliar with Harris's universe but enough background is woven in that that new readers won't be wholly lost. Familiar readers may welcome the return of characters who are now dead or estranged, and though Harris writes in the introduction that she was unsure when first approached to write a Sookie short that she'd be able to her justice in a more abbreviated format, I think she sells herself a little short. The stories fit into the overall narrative relatively smoothly, without creating events that would make the novels incomplete.

"Fairy Dust" takes place after the fourth novel, Dead to the World - Sookie is asked to investigate the murder of Claudette, a fairy who works as an exotic dancer, by her surviving triplets, Claude (also a dancer) and Claudine, and through a combination of telepathy, clever questioning and her knowledge of the Fae, is able to identify the killer and the motive.

In "Dracula Night" regional vampire Sheriff Eric Northman is excited by the potential visit to his vamp club Fangtasia, on the night honoured by vampires across the globe, of legendary vampire and birthday boy Dracula. Though his second, Pam, is sceptical, Eric has invested in ultra rare and extremely costly bottled blood and spared no expensive for the occasion. Sookie is surprised to receive an invitation, and even more surprised that Dracula (apparently) exists - in a move akin to the traditional belief that you should set a place at the Passover table in case Elijah drops by, in vampire lore Dracula turns up at one of the parties celebrating his birthday every year, and this year Eric believes it will be his.

"One Word Answer" introduces Sookie to Mr Cataliades, a part-demon lawyer who works for Sophie-Anne Leclerq, the Queen of Louisiana - he brings Sookie an increasingly unwelcome pieces of news, starting with the fact that her cousin Hadley is dead, that she was a vampire, that she was the lover of the Queen, and that she was murdered. The final, and most unwelcome, item of information id that Sookie is expected to deal with Hadley's killer a fellow vamp Mr Cataliades has brought along for the trip. Sookie must negotiate a delicate path between not offending the Queen, failing to honour her cousin, protecting herself, and maintaining her reputation.

In "Lucky" Sookie and new friend (and witch) Amelia Broadway are asked by insurance agent Greg Aubert to investigate who's been breaking in to his office in the evenings and going through his papers. They discover that the breaker in is unrelated to other events, which have creates a wave of unintended ill-fortune for a number of people, inadvertently caused by Greg.

"Gift Wrap" is a holiday tale that brings Sookie a special Christmas surprise in the guise of an imperilled stranger - a surprise that is more of a gift than Sookie realised, and about which I can say no more without spoiling the delicate unfurling of events.

Like most anthologies I found A Touch of Dead somewhat mixed. I recognised the strongest story, "One Word Answer" and found I'd read it before. I quite liked "Gift Wrap" but was a little uncomfortable with the manipulation, albeit benign, involved, and felt the section spelling out Sookie's personality a little heavy-handed and obvious. All in all not a bad collection and an enjoyable enough way to spend an hour but I think I prefer the novels. - Alex

Jonathan Biggins: As It Were-A Satirical and Humorous Look Through History

This collection of short essays presents a fictionalised potted history of everything from the creation of the universe (In the beginning God created the committee and things went downhill from there) through to the destruction of the earth (leaving the continuance of the human race to a space station full of overly political correct personnel).
This collection of stories is best read with considerable breaks between instalments. The writer’s style is amusing in small doses but becomes tiresome very quickly. Though perhaps, that is just me. Humour is a very personal thing and written humour is quite difficult to carry off.
Like any collection the quality of the individual essays varied. I found some pieces very funny but much of it left me flat. This was all a bit too hit or miss for me and I can’t say I’ll be following up this particular author any time soon.-Lynn

David Blair (ed): Gothic Short Stories

This is a collection of 20 Gothic stories covering the spectrum from the supernatural through insanity to just plain violent horror. It includes both works by famous authors (Poe, Dickens, Hawthorne) and gems from lesser known writers. It is well annotated with explanations of references unfamiliar to a modern reader and a short biography of each author’s writing life.
These Gothic tales are classics. They illustrate the development of the genre from the eighteenth through to the early twentieth century. Like any anthology there were some stories that appealed to me more than others but I believe each earned its place in this collection.
I enjoyed the stories not only for their own sake but also recognising them as the basis of many modern stories enabled me to see how individual tales could be adopted and grown.
A well selected and presented collection I would recommend to those with an interest in Gothic Literature.-Lynn

Greenberg and Davis (eds): If I were an Evil Overlord

From the back of the book-

The fourteen original tales in this volume run the gamut from humorous to serious, fantasy to science fiction. These are stories for anyone who has ever played the role of an Evil Overlord, or has defeated an Evil Overlord, or would like to become an Evil Overlord. After all, isn’t it more fun to be the “bad guy?”

It has taken me the better part of a year to get through this collection of short stories, which says more about their appeal to me than any words could. It’s not that I didn’t like them, for the most part I did. I found the humorous additions funny and some of the more serious efforts thought provoking but I simply didn’t find the collection particularly compelling. The book was very easy to put down and equally as easy to overlook. Though I could probably remember plot points of the individual stories no single story stands out in my memory in either a positive or a negative way. This anthology wasn’t bad as much as unremarkable. -Lynn

For Alex's review of If I Were an Evil Overlord, click here

Love is Hell - Melissa Marr, Scott Westerfeld, Justine Larbalestier, Gabrielle Zevin and Laurie Faria Stolarz

This collection of five novellas is linked by the twin themes of adolescent romance and paranormal//supernatural elements.

"Sleeping with the Spirit" - Laurie Faria Stolarz
As soon as they moved into the new house, Brenda began strange dreams and waking with mysterious bruises and marks. She hears a male voice calling her name and becomes afraid to sleep, and then she starts seeing an attractive boy about her age - he says his name's Tyler and that he's been waiting for her. It doesn't take Brenda long to discover that her home was the site of a grisly murder - Travis was slaughtered and his mother bashed by her boyfriend, now serving time, twenty years ago. Brenda knows about sadness and death - her parents never talk about Emma - and she and Travis find common ground. But Travis is still here because he's left something undone, and to help him means Brenda will lose him.I found "Sleeping with the Spirit" mildly interesting but not particularly memorable. Equal parts mystery and romance, it somehow failed to fully be either.

"Stupid Perfect World" - Scott Westerfeld
Kieran's happy with his life as it is - he's got a project in Antarctica, building a snow hut, and he's doing well in school. except for Scarcity class, that is - it's bad enough having to turn off all the overlays and only seeing things that are there. But suddenly his final project proposal's due and Kieran's given the concept no thought at all. When swotty Maria Borsotti suggests he try sleep, Kieran jumps at the chance - it's not as good as the common cold, physical transport or any of those other old time inconveniences, but how hard can it be?
The most enjoyable of the collection for me, Westerfeld brings his gift for character, humour and self-discovery to a fascinating new future, and provides all the Scarcity students with a wholly new way to look at their world.

"Thinner than Water" - Justine Labarlestier
Jean lives in a quaint town, visited by tourists who marvel at their traditional ways and their belief in the fairy folk, the green men. The old ways are far less appealing when actually lived, however, and Jean longs to leave. She wants to go to university and be a doctor, not marry young and bear children, her whole life the size of the village. She has a plan, too – she’ll leave at Lammas, when she has the whole day off from the family bakery. Her parents expect her to handfast, and Lammas is the traditional time for arranging these trial marriages. They’ll never suspect her of getting a lift out of town with the non-traditional family of her best friend. But then she meets Robbie, the orphan boy found in a cradle boat and rumoured to be sent by the green men, and she finds they have more in common than she dreamed.
This is a powerful and far darker story than the two that precede it, and I found myself thinking about it for days afterward. The strength and violence of emotion, the depth of despair and longings for freedom were beautifully expressed, and I particularly liked the job Larbalestier did of combining traditional Gaelic tales with a contemporary world.

“Fan Fictions” – Gabrielle Zevin
Neither dark nor light, fat nor thin, smart nor stupid, beautiful nor ugly, Paige is nondescript and ignored. She likes to read, and retreats to the library when she has nowhere else to go. The new librarian recommends a book, The Immortals, which sounds uninteresting, but while looking at the new releases she becomes aware of someone watching her. Aaron’s eyes are violet with grey and silver flecks, he is somehow old-fashioned but glossy, and he seems interested in her. Aaron encourages her to think for herself, work out who she is at her core, and not always follow the rules. Except for one – she can never tell anyone his secret, or he will leave, forever.
“Fan Fictions” is not only an interesting story in itself, with a heroine identifiable on some level to many readers, but is also a fascinating portrayal of conflict between image and prestige on one hand and integrity and devotion on the other. There’s a line blurring that discussion here would ruin, but that adds a really interesting base note of uncertainty about truth and perception – though very different in tone, subject and style, I was reminded of We Have to Talk About Kevin. I am definitely interested in reading more of Zevin’s work.

“Love Struck” - Melissa Marr
Alanna has always loved the sea. When a strange boy approaches her at a party on the beach one evening, something in her senses an offness, and it’s not just his strange remarks about someone or something called Murrin. He feels predatory and makes her feel trapped, and she runs. But Vic is not done with her yet, and the fact that Murrin wants her for his own is enough to mark Alanna as a target.
Like Larbalestier, Marr combines ancient lore with a contemporary setting. The story is interesting enough, but I was distracted form it by terminology - having known them always as selkies, I was thrown every time I read ‘selchie’ but have since found either term is appropriate for this kind of fairy folk. I did enjoy “Love Struck” but was more impressed by the three central stories than the bookend novellas. - Alex

Issac Asimov's Utopias - Gardner Doizois + Sheila Williams (eds)

The collection of not-quite-Utopian-for-everyone FSF shorts covers a variety of potential perfect worlds and asks what happens if the fit isn't perfect for you. In "Mountain Ways" Ursula Le Guin explores a mountain-dwelling society where group marriage is not only the norm but a requirement - two men, two women, one marriage - and where one woman finds men wholly repellent. In addition to the interesting premise (which was also the basis of Neanderthal culture in sawyer's parallax trilogy), I'm happy to have been introduced to the concept of moiety,

In "Out of Touch" Brian Stableford looks at an unexplored aspect of immortality - what happens to the last mortals, too old for treatment to prevent aging? Jake's son and daughter-in-law don't understand him and have little patience, his beloved wife and most of the few friends he had are dead, and nothing much gives him any pleasure until he hitches a ride with another old man. I hope any longer works by this author have at least a little lightness because, though eminently readable and quite interesting, "Out of Touch" was not exactly uplifting.

In "Getting to Know You" by David Marusek, Zoranna is testing a new interactive AI belt while visiting her sister Nancy in Indiana. Though instructed to return the belt because of unexpected glitches int he programming, Zoe decides to hold on to it for a while, and discovers having someone (or something) in your life that knows you better than yourself is a profoundly disquieting experience. This plot is interwoven with a really interesting, rather depressing view of the future, a dysfunctional family relationship, and a frightening glimpse into what might happen to us when current careers become obsolete.

Like "Out of Touch," Mike Resnick's "One Perfect Morning, With Jackals" is about a father/son relationship where communication and acceptance are not a two-way process. A creature of Ngai, a Kikuyu, Koriba has taken the African name his son has discarded (for his more Western middle name, Edward) and is leaving Earth for a colony that will return to traditional customs and beliefs, leaving behind a white-dominated world that acknowledges artificial national boundaries and identities instead of tribal mores. he will also be leaving behind a son of whom he's proud, but who he does not understand. This is apparently a prequel to a string of stories about Kirinyaga, an attempt at Utopian recreation of a Kenyan-based space colony. I enjoyed this one but not enough to seek out the stories it precedes.

In "Canary Land" Tom Purdom's protagonist George has left Earth for the moon, but he has only limited resources and has to rely on a download music program for a living. When heavies pressure him into infiltrating an isolation zone, where new animals, plants and insects are quarantined for years to ensure they pose no harm to the moon's delicate biosphere, he does so knowing he may end up quarantined himself.

Steven Dedman's "Transit" is an adolescent, cross-cultural love story. Aisha, an Islamic girl, is travelling with her father from al-Goharan to Earth to make hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca every Muslim ought to make during their lifetime. Alex lives on da Vinci and e has never thought about worlds different than er own - the novelty of a monosexed person is interesting, but even before e discovered that, e was attracted to Aisha. I think I enjoyed this short story, and the complex world building that underlies it, the most of the collection, and hope there's a longer tale set in this universe.

"Smart Alec" by Kage Baker is the story of a small boy, neglected by his wealthy parents but cosseted by his carers, who at the age of four is taken from the yacht that is the only home he's ever known and plunked into London. An exceptional child, he adapts to the new rules and ends up turning a monitoring AI toy into something quite different. "Smart Alec" is perhaps the most intriguing story in this collection, combining both the frightening end point of a nanny state with a really devastating portrait of what happens when self-absorbed adults decide to reproduce. It ends on a point that could be a very interesting new plot, and the whole thing would be a great starting point for a novel-length work.

I'm not sure why I lost interest by the time I got to "Nevermore" by Ian R MacLeod and "Bicycle Repairman" by "Bruce Sterling." I suspect it's in part because I bolted the whole anthology, a genre better dipped in and out of, but also because so many dystopian vision among apparently Utopian worlds was a little exhausting. While I could see how some of the worlds would be Utopian, at least for some, others seemed fairly unpleasant for the majority. - Alex

Things You Should Know - AM Homes

Homes is, according to the back jacket, "a sublime short-fiction writer whose stories are like sharp and luminous rips in the social fabric she so accurately describes."
Perhaps, but if so my brief Homesian experience was atypical. In fairness I read only one of the eleven stories in this slender volume, "The Chinese Lesson" wherein a nameless protagonist narrates in first person the ongoing search for his demented and wandering mother-in-law, Mrs Ha. In the process he also reflects on his marriage, culture and identity, and projects motivation.
Perhaps because of my current state of mind, I felt no connection with this story or its characters. Nothing happened, nothing changed, and I just felt a mild irritation that left me wholly disinterested in reading any of the rest of the collection.
This was particularly disappointing as I'd picked up Things You Should Know after my eye was caught by another Homes work, a novel called This Book Will Save Your Life, which sounded potentially interesting. Based on my experience thus far I've returned that, too, but may attempt Homes again when I'm in a fairer state of mind. For now, though, the deepest of ehs. - Alex

A Garden of Eden and Other Criminal Delights - Faye Kellerman

The title story is a purpose written tale involving Kellerman's chief protagonist, detective Peter Decker, his wife Rina Lazarus, gardening and a mystery - the mystery is very much less the focus of the story than the relationship between these much loved and long-lasting characters, and also plays second fiddle to the plants.
This short story collection also includes a mystery involving Decker's daughter Cindy, newly graduated from the police academy, a mystery unrelated to the Decker/Lazarus family, and two autobiographical vignettes in its seventeen-item quiver that has a uniting theme of family.
Some of the work is certainly darker than Kellerman's usual fare, with two particularly uncomfortable pieces - "Mummy and Jack" about an intertwined, interdependent, dysfunctional mother/son relationship, and "Bonding," which combines teen prostitution, quasi-consensual incest and murder.
Although husband Jonathan is better known, I've always enjoyed Faye's novels more, partly because of the stronger domestic aspect but also because of the way she weaves Judaism through both the text and the plot. Her novels combine character development with the mystery plot, adding layers of depth to each new installment.
I was therefore disappointed by the thinner, less intricate and less surprising plots in this collection. Even allowing for the shorter, and therefore less complex nature of the writing, I found both the ideas and the execution somewhat pedestrian. This may in part be because some of the entries were co-written with Kellerman's children, including novelist Jesse, or perhaps just because I was in the wrong frame of mind at the time of reading. In any case I think I'll stick to Kellerman's novels from here on in. - Alex

Burstein and De Keijzer (eds): Secrets of Mary Magdalene- A Guide to Her Story, History and Heresy

When one of the editors outs himself in the first chapter as a Da Vinci Code fan I expected this book to offer yet another weird and wacky conspiracy theory propelled interpretation of Christianity based on spurious evidence and dubious facts. What I got was a collection of articles, interviews, essays and book extracts from a wide variety of credible sources (ranging from feminist historians, through journalists and novelists, to theologians both practicing and academic).
Divided into sections covering topics such as what the biblical gospels actually say about Magdalene, her role as the apostle to the apostles, how her reputation as a repentant prostitute came about, traditions of women and the sacred, and depictions of her in art, legend and lore through medieval to modern times, this book provides an interesting overview of the many theories about who and what Mary Magdalene actually was.
Though dry in places (some of the articles are from academic papers) and a little repetitive towards the end (the facts are few and can only be presented in so many ways making repetition inevitable) I found this book to be a fascinating, if somewhat heavy read.
I would recommend this book to anyone with a serious interest in the subject as a great starting point for farther research. But for those with a mere passing curiosity it may be better to start with something less intense. And if you’re looking for biblical conspiracy theory look elsewhere entirely.-Lynn

Places I Never Meant to Be - Judy Blume (ed)

A decade old, this is an ecclectic collection of short stories on a variety of themes around young adults finding themselves in places they never meant to be (hence the title), and united by the commonality that all the YA authors represented have been censored. Each story is followed by a reflection on censorship - the author's experiences of being censored, a recollection of works censored when they were a young adult, or simply a description of what censorship means to them.
I found this last element the most valuable, as I found the stories themselves to be uninteresting for the most part - they didn't deal with censorship, or with themes that are often censored, and going in with the expectation that they would coloured my perception of the writing.Many of the expected writers are featured, from editor and contributor Blume to Norma Klein, Norma Fox Mazer, Paul Zindel and Walter Dean Myers, as well as a few authors I hadn't read. There were some notable omissions, too, including the amazing Chris Crutcher - Blume says some authors were approached, though she doesn't name them, who can't (or don't) write short stories, which could explain this.
Some of the contributors are explicit about where they think the limits of censorship for young adults should be - restrict your child's reading as you see fit, but leave my child alone. I don't have kids, but that's where I live, too. - Alex

The Flight of the Iguana – David Quammen

This collection of essays, subtitled A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, is at the softer end of the genre, mixing a sizeable amount of the writer into the writing. Almost necessarily dated (the collection was first published two decades ago), most of Quammen’s essays are still relevant and interesting today.
Sometimes this is because of the timeless subject matter- “Thinking About Earthworms,” for example, looks at Darwin’s lifelong (and unknown to me) interest in worms, an interest that trumped his far more well known writing on evolution, segues into a reflection on the disadvantages of a population that thinks about the same things rather than one composed of people interested in a diversity of things. “Talk is Cheap” explores our concept of what makes something human, a question we’re no closer on – at least by consensus – than we were then, and also looks at our lack of regard for the chimpanzees researchers taught to sign, brought up alongside humans, and then abandoned. Two essays - the title essay and a companion piece - look at why evolution on islands is so different, an observation no less true now than when Darwin first noted it.
Other essays caught my attention because, though contemporary when published, they reminded me of things I’d long forgotten – the plague of Crown of Thorn starfish along the Great Barrier Reef, for example, or the 1985 rescue of a pod of whales trapped in ice by a ship full of Russian sailors
Other essays are chilling in their relevance to today - an essay on African bed bugs foreshadows the ‘intelligent design’ vanguard currently rampaging through the US, another on piranha clearly depicts that unforeseen effects of disrupting native habitats, and “Island Getaway” explains why saving wildlife can be an exercise in futility. “The Bearded Lizard” and “The Desert is a Mnemonic Device” discuss Salvadoran and Guatemalan refugees, and when Quammen observes that the State Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service frame their desperate flight from tyranny so as to undermine the validity of their status, involving “a trick of perspective,” I was reminded of how far a distance we’ve travelled – sadly in the wrong direction.
Throughout it all Quammen maintains a wry tone – in “The Lonesome Ape” he discusses a book by anthropologist Jeffrey H Schwartz, where a key theory is presented “at much greater (somewhat tedious) length” than can be done justice in an essay. A little later Quammen observes that much of the book is “intently disputable. It is also fresh, imaginative, torturous in its logic, abundantly researched, turgidly expressed (The Red Ape can’t be recommended, alas, as bedtime reading)…” The Flight of the Iguana is also fresh and imaginative, lucid in its logic, substantially researched but inspiringly presented, and is not recommended for bedtime reading only because it’s difficult not to read ‘just one more’ essay before switching off the light. - Alex