Review of the Book The Man in Black and Other Stories by Elly Griffiths (#review)

I want to welcome Elly Griffiths to Books R Us. Elly is the author of numerous novels that include The Ruth Galloway Mysteries, The Brighton Mysteries and other works. She recently published a collection of short stories called "The Man in Black." The Book will be available on October 15th. 

 

About the Book:

 

Elly Griffiths has always written short stories to experiment with different voices and genres as well as to explore what some of her fictional creations such as Ruth Galloway, Harbinder Kaur, and Max Mephisto might have done outside of the novels. The Man in Black gathers these bite-sized tales all together in one splendid volume.

In the title story, Ruth Galloway crosses paths with a mysterious man in a bookstore, setting in motion a rescue mission that hinges on the legends and lore of Norfolk.

Looking into the past, a young magician in 1920s Leeds wonders just what happened to his missing landlady in “Max Mephisto and the Disappearing Act.”

In “Justice Jones and the Etherphone,” a witty girl detective investigates the dire prediction of a fortune teller in dreary postwar London.

A flashback in time reveals Harbinder Kaur as a Detective Sergeant surviving her first day on the job at Shoreham DCI.

To celebrate the holidays, Ruth gets her very first Christmas tree, and her beloved cat narrates his own seasonal story in “Flint’s Fireside Tale.”

And readers can armchair travel with stories set on the Amalfi Coast, in Capri, and in Egypt as Ruth and DCI Nelson experience their very own version of Death on the Nile.

The Man in Black illustrates the breadth and variety of Elly Griffiths’s talent for blood-chilling, page-turning stories all with her trademark humor and heart.

My Thoughts:

I recently had the opportunity to review "The Man in Black," a collection of stories by an author whose other works I haven't read. The book features a mix of themes, including mystery, magic, ghost stories, Christmas traditions, and tales of love and loss. While I didn't enjoy every story, one highlight for me was "Flint's Fireside Tale," which offered a unique perspective by being told from the point of view of Ruth Galloway's cat. This story made me smile and wonder what my cats might think when I interact with them. However, I felt that I would have better understood the characters' backgrounds if I had read some of the author's other novels.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

Disclaimer:

The publisher gave me a copy of the book for my honest review, and I was not compensated for my review.