• Author: Margery Allingham
• Series: Short Story Collection
• Genre: Murder Mystery
• No. of pages: 250
• Year Published: 1973
• Publisher: Agora Books
• Dates read: 17.10.19 – 23.10.19
• Rating: 2.5 stars

First of all, I would like to thank Netgalley and Agora Books for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I have not many read many short story collections, apart from the fairy-tale ones when I was really little. So, I thought this was a good way to introduce me to this format. So, below is the list of all the short stories and my ratings for them and I decided to talk about my favourite 3 and my least favourite 3.

He Was Asking After Yon – 3.5
Publicity – 2
The Perfect Butler – 3.5
The Barbarian – 2
Mr Campion’s Lucky Day – 3
Tis Not Hereafter – 4.5
The Correspondents – 4
He Preferred Them Sad – 2
The Unseen Door – 3
Bird Thou Never Wert – 3
The Same To Us – 3
She heard it on the Radio – 4
The Man with the Sack – 3
The Secret – 2
A Quarter of a Million – 1
The Pioneers -5
The Sexton’s Wife – 4.5
The Wink – 2.5

A really mixed bag of reviews for this collection, there sadly were only a few that really stood out for me. I found myself disliking most of the stories or just not being overall impressed.

My top 3 were:

‘Tis Not Hereafter – The atmosphere created was really good. From the get go it is set up to make you wary and worry for the main character. With the addition of the howling wind you really couldn’t off gone wrong. The ending was by far my favourite, it caught me off guard and it left me grinning from ear to ear.

The Sexton’s Wife – A heart-breaking, raw story that had me tearing up. There was not much to this story it was just 2 characters talking to eachother but the content in which they spoke of was so heart-wreching at times. This story really pulled me in.

The Pioneers – A story which talks about the break down of a relationship. The characters in this were really good, I found myself connecting with the MC very deeply and her POV was done so well. I found myself again, absorbed into the story wanting to know how it ends and what our MC will do wants it’s done.

My bottom 3 were:

Publicity – A story which follows a man’s lengths to maintain fame. While I loved looking into the psychology of the MC, his inner monologue was so irritating. I couldn’t connect with him and while I understand the intention was not to enjoy his character I felt it actually hindered the story.

The Barbarian – I can’t really tell you exactly what this story is about. All I know is that the story itself was set up really well but the pay off at the end was very disappointing and confusing!

The Secret – Just a very lacklustre story for me sadly. I didn’t enjoy the dialogue. The main male character was not my favourite character and I found him annoying. The plot didn’t make sense so when we got to the ending it didn’t pay off in the way it was intended.

The next book I will be reviewing is Requiem Infernal by Peter Feverhari. This book is inspired/based on the Warhammer 40,000 table top game and I have to be honest I know nothing about this game. I have been doing some research into it but hopefully it is still enjoyable without nothing loads about what is based on.