From the description of this book on the dust jacket:
More than fifty years ago, Peter Lovesey published a short story in an anthology. That short story caught the eye of the great Ruth Rendell, whose praise ignited Lovesey’s lifelong passion for short form crime fiction. On the occasion of his hundredth short story, Peter Lovesey has assembled this devilishly clever collection, eighteen yarns of mystery, melancholy, and mischief, inhabiting such deadly settings as a theater, a monastery, and the book publishing industry. The collection includes the career-launching story, as well as three never-before-published works.
The cover of this book is lovely: the cat, the books stacked up, the skull on the window ledge, the old-fashioned lamp and the teacup on the desk.
In February of 2022, I read the first ten stories in this book. My brief notes on those stories are in this post. I have now read the last eight items in the book:
- "The Deadliest Tale of All"
- "Gaslighting"
- "A Three Pie Problem"
- "Remaindered"
- "Agony Column"
- "The Bathroom"
- "The Tale of Three Tubs"
- "A Monologue for Mystery Lovers"
The first six of these are short stories. "The Tale of Three Tubs" is a nonfiction piece on George Joseph Smith and the brides in the bath. "A Monologue for Mystery Lovers" is a humorous poem.
My favorite story in this set is "Remaindered." The story is a bibliomystery, first published by MysteriousPress.com / Open Road Integrated Media in 2014.
Robert Ripple, the owner of the Precious Finds bookstore, died slumped over a box of Agatha Christie hardcover books that he had recently purchased. It was determined that the cause of death was coronary. This event led to the discovery of many secrets about the bookstore and the meetings that had regularly been held in its back room.
"Remaindered" was humorous, somewhat unbelievable and over the top, but a lot of fun. The ending was not obvious, at least not to me, although it was somewhat ambiguous. The story was the longest in the book at 42 pages. Almost novella length.
The other story I especially liked was "Agony Column," the shortest story in the collection at five pages. It consists of letters sent to an advice column by a woman who worries because her husband is taking two hour walks at night and is ignoring her when he is home. She receives answers from Dr. Wisefellow with advice and questions. It is humorous but I cannot say more without spoiling it.
12 comments:
Oh, I like the sound of this collection! Will see if I can find it without having to sell my firstborn...
I enjoyed Peter Lovesey's humor in his mysteries, too. What a long and successful career he had!
I'm familiar with his name and this sounds like a good collection. I like the cover, too. I think a good cover says a lot about a book.
Cath, I know what you mean about cost. I keep finding books I want and sometimes they are so expensive, in any format. I hope you do find a copy.
I agree, Anonymous. He was very talented but also lucky in his long career.
Kelly, I liked the majority of the stories in this collection, so I was happy with it. Most of these are relatively recent stories, considering his long career, and I would like to try some of the earlier ones.
A good sense of the book given,, over the two review posts...though of course a cat in the position would be consistently attempting to play with the pen in his hand...
Thanks, Todd. That's true, about the cat. It would be causing much more trouble, maybe sitting on the paper.
Oh, these sound great, Tracy! I especially like the sound of the agony column one. That's an interesting framework for a story. I'm glad you enjoyed these.
Margot, the agony column story was especially good. And it could have ended many ways.
This sounds very good and any writer who can catch the eye of Ruth Rendell is worth reading.
Kathy, I was very happy with the quality of the stories in this book and also the variety of topics.
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