17 August 2013

Review: SHORT SENTENCE: 10 stories of dastardly deeds, Parker Bilal et al

Synopsis (Amazon)

From Obsession and Payback to Secrets and Lies, Deception and Bad Judgement, these thrilling tales will shock and surprise you with their cunning. Short Sentence was launched in 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing, in association with the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook.

Following a short story written by one of Bloomsbury’s brilliant crime authors, competitors were challenged to take up the same theme and write of a dastardly deed using 1000 words or less.

This is Bloomsbury’s collection of the winning entries in parallel with the five brilliant authors, Parker Bilal, Conor Fitzgerald, Anne Zouroudi, Thomas Mogford and James Runcie.

My Take

This is one of those books that most people could read in an hour or so. 10 engaging short stories, most with a very unexpected twist at the end, just the thing for a coffee in front of the fire.

Apart from Bloomsbury's "five brilliant authors" Parker Bilal, Conor Fitzgerald, Anne Zouroudi, Thomas Mogford and James Runcie, the contributors were Alex Cooper, Mary Waters, Calum Macleod, Ian Snook, and Sarah Evans. Each of the contributors is thematically paired with a Bloomsbury "name".

I think the difference between the Bloomsbury authors and the "amateur" contributors is pretty clear, but nevertheless they are all very entertaining.

The idea is obviously to introduce readers to Bloomsbury authors (it has certainly given me some people to look for) and, even better,  the Kindle book is FREE.

My rating: 4.4

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kerrie - I agree completely. I found this to be quite an engaging collection. The stories were nicely done and some were expertly done. I like short stories, too, so this was a nice little read.

Mary Waters said...

Hey, Just found this reviews. Thanks folks and yes, I agree , you can tell the difference between professionals and amateurs; just glad i won!

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