Shorts and flashes

I've been reading and reviewing a lot of crime novels lately, as my previous blog post suggests. But not just novels. Short stories, too. My review of The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime is just up at Reviewing the Evidence:

Of the many reasons to love short stories, the one that packs the best punch is surprise. A novel might serve up two, or at best three, genuine gobsmacking surprises over four hundred pages. A good short story will deliver at least one, sometimes two. Over a collection like this, that's a minimum of forty surprises.

Find out which story was my favourite, and which was totally bonkers by popping across to read.

In writing news, my very short flash, Spring, is up at new venue The Night Light. It's a terrific site with lovely editors. Do send them your work if you think it's a good fit.

Tweet

Reviewing the evidence

I love reviewing books. To start with, you get free books. How cool is that? Then you get to spend more time reading, which is great. But best of all you learn about your craft, what works and what doesn't, how to get better. All for free.

My two latest reviews are Luther: The Calling by Neil Cross, and Plugged by Eoin Colfer. I loved both books, for very different reasons. Both are written in the present tense, which doesn't often work but does here, in both cases. That's about the only similarity between the two books. Other than I loved them both.

My Luther review is up at Eurocrime. Plugged is over at Reviewing the Evidence. What have you read or reviewed recently, and what did it teach you about what makes a great story/book?

Tweet