My tastes tend toward the nastier, darker corners of the genre, where Mammoth delivers. Nigel Bird's An Arm and a Leg is, from what I've seen, his grittiest work yet, an inside look at rough-and-tumble Tranent and the fate of one unfortunate cat. Paul D. Brazill is brilliant as ever with The Guns of Brixton, where he seamlessly weaves together divergent storylines without sacrificing any of his sharp humor and style.
One of the great things about a collection of this magnitude is discovering new writers. I'd never heard of Mick Herron before, but he delivers with the clever and chilling Dolphin Junction. Herron weaves together the puzzle aspect of a whodunit with the fatalism and brutality of noir--certainly no easy feat.
Also smashing stories by the likes of Ray Banks, Ian Rankin, Jay Stringer, Allan Guthrie and so many more.
Definitely plan on reading this one. A lot of great names in one spot.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the hat tip. Glad you enjoyed GOB. Guthrie has the sickest story in the book, I think!
ReplyDeleteThat Guthrie character has a twisted mind!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder, Chris! I have this on my to read list, but haven't bought it yet. I've really been looking forward to it. I noticed on FB this evening when attempting to catch up (I've been terrible) that several people announced being included in Vol. 9. Too cool!
ReplyDeleteDamn fast download it is too! The old Kindle grabbed it like an express train's iron arm snatching a mail bag from the depot platform. Next step: READ THAT SUCKER! Cool.
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