Nowhere To Go ($2.99) by Iain Rowan contains eleven terrific short stories that have previously appeared in Alfred Hitchcocks’s Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Hardluck Stories and other classy joints.
Every story in this collection is a gem but particular favourites are ‘One Of Us’ and ‘The Remains Of My Estate’, both of which are great examples of deftly written social realism. Other standouts are the chilling ‘Chairman Of The Bored’, ‘The Chain’, a clever tale of blackmail and ‘One Step Closer’, the story of a man in the wrong place at the wrong time.
But there really isn’t a bad story in the bunch. Nowhere To Go is classy and clever Brit Grit at its best.
Sharp review, Paul. This one's going on the to-read list.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Paul. He's a top flight story teller.
ReplyDeleteJust discovered Iain Rowan recently. And he is top drawer. Proper top drawer. A Brit Grit superstar, is Mr Rowan. And what a nice bloke too . . . :)
ReplyDeleteGreat review, Paul - Iain's a gem.
ReplyDeleteYep, this is a smashing collection.
ReplyDeleteI'm pleased about this, as I've this to read on my Kindle... that said, I suspected it would be ace, as I've read some of his horror short fiction and that is great - try Lilies as a starter.
ReplyDeleteGood review.