Butchers & Other Stories of Crime

by Peter Lovesey

Butchers And Other Stories Of Crime16 Butchers * Vandals * The Corder Figure * Private Gorman’s Luck * The Secret Lover * Did You Tell Daddy? * The Bathroom * Arabella’s Answer * How Mr Smith Traced His Ancestors * Fall-Out * Belly Dance * Trace of Spice * The Virgin and the Bull * The Staring Man * Woman and Home * The Locked Room

Genres: Mystery

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Peter Harmer Lovesey, also known by his pen name Peter Lear, was a British writer of historical and contemporary detective novels and short stories. His best-known series characters are Sergeant Cribb, a Victorian-era police detective based in London, and Peter Diamond, a modern-day police detective in Bath. He was also one of the world's leading track and field statisticians.

Reviews

[Cameron Trost · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable collection of suspense stories with twists at the end, some less obvious than others. The writing here probably isn't as polished as in his later work but the tales are entertaining, the characters interesting, the atmosphere mysterious, and there are several original plots. Recommended for the fan of the suspense tales.

[David Hallstrom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Butchers is the first collection of short stories from the masterful Peter Lovesey. Lovesey excels in the long form detective novel. The short stories, while not as meaty as the novels, have all of the strengths of Lovesey's longer works: well-developed characters, strong plot lines and ironic twists. Without giving away any plot detail, I noted a device used in a later novel. This is a most enjoyable read.

[MH · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of twist-ending murder stories from the late 70s and early 80s, largely from the Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen mystery magazines, written with a confident, light touch and a dry, dark sense of humor. Lovesey keeps finding new ways to make the twists work - the best of these stories are genuinely, remarkably surprising (even once you become familiar with his style), and the buttons on some of these stories are just perfect.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've really enjoyed Lovesey's 'Peter Diamond' series, but this collection of short stories just wasn't for me. Similar to those old 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' TV series shorts, these stories usually hinge upon a single key clue, ending with an ironic twist of some sort. If you like that sort of thing this will be fine, but for me these stories have not aged well. I read this about a month ago and I'm already forgetting details about it, oh well.