The Best British Mysteries IV

by Maxim Jakubowski

An exciting collection including new stories from previous BBM favorites and first appearances from Alexander McCall Smith, John Harvey, Lee Child and Robert Goddard. * Bite size chunks from Britain’s hottest crime writers * ‘An essential read for all crime fans’ Publishing News Following the huge success of the previous Best British Mysteries collections comes the latest batch of stories from the UK’s top-flight crime writers. The fourth collection features contributions from stalwarts of the genre along with exciting short fiction from up-and-coming authors.

Genres: Short Stories

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Maxim Jakubowski is a crime, erotic, and science fiction writer and critic.

Jakubowski was born in England by Russian-British and Polish parents, but raised in France. Jakubowski has also lived in Italy and has travelled extensively. Jakubowski edited the science fiction anthology Twenty Houses of the Zodiac in 1979 for the 37th World Science Fiction Convention (Seacon '79) in Brighton. He also contributed a short story to that anthology. He has now published almost 100 books in a variety of areas.

He has worked in book publishing for many years, which he left to open the Murder One bookshop[1], the UK's first specialist crime and mystery bookstore. He contributes to a variety of newspapers and magazines, and was for eight years the crime columnist for Time Out and, presently, since 2000, the crime reviewer for The Guardian. He is also the literary director of London's Crime Scene Festival and a consultant for the International Mystery Film Festival, Noir in Fest, held annually in Courmayeur, Italy. He is one the leading editors in the crime and mystery and erotica field, in which he has published many major anthologies.

His novels include "It's You That I Want To Kiss", "Because She Thought She Loved Me", "The State Of Montana", "On Tenderness Express", "Kiss me Sadly" and "Confessions of a Romantic Pornographer". His short story collections are "Life in the World of Women", "Fools for Lust" and the collaborative "American Casanova". He is a regular broadcaster on British TV and radio and was recently voted the 4th Sexiest Writer of 2,007 on a poll on the crimespace website.

Reviews

[Les Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've stated on other books how I find it difficult to *short stories, but as most of the stories are 4* I have marked it accordingly. However I have to add that there a couple of stories that are to me very low marked.

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

Home/John Harvey
The Greatest Trick of All/Lee Child
*He Loved to Go for Drives with His Father/Alexander McCall Smith
*Toupee for a Bald Tyre/Robert Goddard
No Flies on Frank/Danuta Reah
*Cain Was Innocent/Simon Brett
Punk/Ken Bruen
*Needle Match/Peter Lovesey
Real Gone/Ray Banks
The Pilgrim/Amy Myers
Street Party/Natasha Cooper
A Threatened Species/Barbara Cleverly --3
Lost in Darkness/Simon Avery & Ian Faulkner
Burying the Past/Judith Cutler
Puncture Point/Peter Turnbull
*A Blessing of Frogs/Gillian Linscott
The Jane Case/Michael Z. Lewin
Retrospective/Kevin Wignall
*The Spiteful Shadow/Peter Tremayne
Blue Christmas/Peter Robinson
Dirty Work/Allan Guthrie
The Holly and the Poison Ivy/Catherine Aird --2
In the Midnight Hour/Paul Charles
Test Drive/Martin Edwards --3
The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday/Adrian McKinley
Baba's Bites/Chris Simms
*Waiting for Nemesis/Robert Barnard
The Comical Revenge/Edward Marston --3
*Between the Lines/Colin Dexter
*Lost Causes/Anne Perry

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stories are great and others just meh. This is to be expected in a short story collection.

[Lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the stories were good but others I just didn’t get. Obviously each person is different but I wouldn’t bother with any of the other books in this series.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to compare the British Best Mysteries to the American Best Mystery short stories. I find I prefer the British writing. Maybe it's because I am a fan of Arthur Conan Doyle's "Sherlock Holmes" stories as well as Ian Flemming's Bond novels. The Brits have a longer and older history of mystery authors to draw on as inspiration than do the American writers. Overall the Brits win in this genre.

[Susan Kent · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't read many short story collections, mainly because I like to get drawn in by a story. But I did enjoy quite a few of the stories. I didn't read a couple - I started them but they didn't get my attention. The collection has introduced me to authors I haven't read before, so next time I go book shopping I will have some new names to browse.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I skipped over a few of the stories. The ones that took place in a much earlier era. I'm usually pretty good with Brit mysteries and thrillers, but I found some of these went right over my head. I still think novels are a wee bit better than the short stories.

[Candy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting tales. Some were thoughtful, some were fun, others were just just. I especially like "Cain Was Innocent" by Simon Brett. Interesting take on a tale many of us know by heart. The "Street Party" by Natasha Cooper didn't really make sense to me, but it wasn't bad, just really short.