I found this book on my bookshelf recently and I have no idea where it came from so I guess thats another mystery, I probably got it from a charity shop somewhere and flung it on the shelf a few years ago.

I haven't read any other books by the author Faye Kellerman but I understand she is quite popular with crime fiction fans so I thought it might be helpful to try some of her short stories first before paying full price for a full length novel. I am certainly glad I took this option as I have been most disappointed with this short story collection.

The first few have some connection with the Decker family who seems to be the main protaganists in some of her novels. The main character is Peter Decker being a typical cop figure, big, athletic and as mentioned more than once with 'a big ginger moustache'! Not sure of the relevance of this but Kellerman doesn't want us to imagine him without it. Perhaps she was hoping for Tom Selleck to play the film version.

After the first few stories the Decker family features less often but sadly that doesn't improve the quality of the stories, in particular is one that is blatently supposed to be Jack the Ripper although he's never mentioned by name. This one was written with Kellermans son, I think my daughter would have been more help and she's only 6 weeks old. 'I'll get ye a pint o gin' didn't strike me as very authentic olde englishe speake I'm afraid.

My main gripe with the stories however is a lack of any real outcome to the stories, they just kind of peter out after a few pages. I like a twist in the tale or at least a clever idea in the earlier narrative but some of these almost feel like discarded plot strands from a longer book. I read a book of short stories by Cory Doctorow before this book and there is no comparison between the two, the writing felt lazy and the plots far fetched. She would do well to read a couple of Jeffrey Archer or Sir Arthur Conan Doyle collections for some pointers on how effective a short story can be.

Needless to say I won't be investing in any of her longer works any time soon which is a shame as I imagine her reputation must be based on better work than this.

If you are still keen after all this Amazon will beg you to take a copy off their hands for a penny plus postage.