The Man in BlackBy Elly Griffiths
Mariner Books, 2024. 310 pages. Mystery
From the internationally bestselling author of the Ruth Galloway Mysteries, an eclectic, thrilling collection of short stories, featuring many characters that readers have come to know and love.
Elly Griffiths has always written short stories to experiment with different voices and genres as well as to explore what some of her fictional creations such as Ruth Galloway, Harbinder Kaur, and Max Mephisto might have done outside of the novels. The Man in Black gathers these bite-sized tales all together in one splendid volume.
There are ghost stories, cozy mysteries, tales of psychological suspense, and poignant vignettes of love and loss.
I don't always like short stories, so I approached this collection with caution, even though I love author Elly Griffiths and her Ruth Galloway mystery series. A few stories in, I knew I had nothing to fear. I found this collection really charming, thought-provoking and spooky. There's a beautiful tribute to "Little Women", and I think my favorite story was told from the point of view of a cat! She does revisit characters from her series (yay!), but I don't think you need to be familiar with those to enjoy this book. For example, some of the stories featured characters from her Magic Men mysteries, which I haven't read yet. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who loves short stories, mysteries, and charming, odd British tales.
If you liked The Man in Black, you might also like:
By P.D. James
Alfred A. Knopf, 2016. 152 pages. Mystery
Four previously uncollected stories from one of the great mystery writers of our time--swift, cunning murder mysteries (two of which feature the young Adam Dalgliesh) that together, to borrow the author's own word, add up to a delightful "entertainment."
The newly appointed Sgt. Dalgliesh is drawn into a case that is "pure Agatha Christie." . . . A "pedantic, respectable, censorious" clerk's secret taste for pornography is only the first reason he finds for not coming forward as a witness to a murder . . . A best-selling crime novelist describes the crime she herself was involved in fifty years earlier . . . Dalgliesh's godfather implores him to reinvestigate a notorious murder that might ease the godfather's mind about an inheritance, but which will reveal a truth that even the supremely upstanding Adam Dalgliesh will keep to himself. Each of these stories is as playful as it is ingeniously plotted, the author's sly humor as evident as her hallmark narrative elegance and shrewd understanding of some of the most complex--not to say the most damning--aspects of human nature.
By Dorothy L. Sayers
Perennial, 2001. 474 pages. Mystery
One of the founding mothers of mystery, Dorothy Sayers first introduced the popular character Lord Peter Wimsey in 1923 with the publication of Whose Body? Over the next twenty years, more novels and short stories about the aristocratic amateur sleuth appeared, each one as cunningly written as the next. Now in single volume, here are all the Lord Peter Wimsey stories, a treasure for any mystery lover. From "The Fantastic Horror of the Cat in the Bag" to "The Image in the Mirror" and "Talboys," this collection is Lord Peter at his best -- and a true testament to the art of detective fiction.
MGB
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