Product Description

Why exists this fascination with crime and why, above all, exists this fascination with crime on the part of female writers? Bestselling novelist Elizabeth George poses this question in her Introduction, answers it with her customary elegance and illustrates it with a rich and varied collection of international writers, some household names; others buried treasures waiting to be rediscovered. The stories have locations as diverse as Africa and the Caribbean, London and Los Angeles, San Francisco and Switzerland. Some are modern; some period. Some feature well-known sleuths - Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, Jemina Shore - or notorious villains - Jack the Ripper; others are tales of 'ordinary' people caught up in out of the ordinary events. All of them share in common a desire to explore mankind in a moment on the edge. The edge equates to the crime committed. How the characters deal with the edge is the story.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1358620 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 560 pages

Review
'Elizabeth George makes an authoritative editor for a collection of women's short crime fiction... The interest for the novice and the aficionado alike will be in the attitudes of, to and about women across that span of time... This volume serves to introduce a number of writers whose work is overdue some attention.' -- Sunday Herald (Glasgow) 'Literary, surprising and compulsive.' -- Mslexia '[an] inspiring collection. Together, they provide a revealing sociological picture and, more importantly, some stiletto-sharp reading.' -- Good Book Guide 'Twenty-six crime stories from some of the best women practitioners of the genre... A satisfying collection for these long, rain-soaked days.' -- Irish Times A TRAITOR TO MEMORY: 'This can only add to her growing reputation as doyenne of English mystery novelists... consistently inventive ... the most ambitious of the lot.' -- Publishers Weekly (US) 'Absorbing ... the pleasure of the book is the slow, surprising and often shocking unravelling of the various links between the main character' Marcel Berlins

This is one of the best crime anthologies you are likely to read. The word 'crime' should be used loosely, as Elizabeth George, herself a noted detective-story writer, has sought to escape from the narrow confines of the genre to embrace short stories that are psychological thrillers or just plain mysterious, as well as those that fit the classic whodunnit mould. George is at pains to point out what every lover of the genre already knows: that there should be no division between literary fiction and that popularly classified as crime writing. After all, as she points out in her introduction, heinous deeds have formed the backdrop to great works such as Hamlet and The Odyssey. Hence it is no surprise to see writers such as Nadine Gordimer, Joyce Carol Oates and Antonia Fraser included alongside the likes of Sara Paretsky, Minette Walters and Ruth Rendell. George was an inspired choice to edit this wonderful 25-story collection, as she has the ability to step outside the box and come up with the unexpected. Particular favourites? The seedy glamour of Christianna Brand's double-crossing theatrical couple in Clever and Quick; Judith Ann Jance's retiree couple, whose divergent responses to a Native American artifact bring down strange retribution upon them; the noir-ish situation of the writer faced with a drunk woman who vanishes, in Charlotte Armstrong's St Patrick's Day in the Morning... the list goes on. Perhaps one of the best things about this anthology is the way George has rehabilitated some female writers whose work, in the early part of the century, was largely overshadowed by that of their male counterparts such as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, but who deserve far more than a slide into obscurity. Undoubtedly you'll finish reading with a shopping list of yet more books to buy - and George's useful potted biography before each story will point you in the right direction. (Kirkus UK)

Review
'Elizabeth George makes an authoritative editor for a collection of women's short crime fiction. . . The interest for the novice and the aficionado alike will be in the attitudes of, to and about women across that span of time. . . . This volume serves to introduce a number of writers whose work is overdue some attention.' (Sunday Herald (Glasgow) )

'Literary, surprising and compulsive.' (MSlexia )

'Twenty-six crime stories from some of the best women practitioners of the genre. . . A satisfying collection for these long, rain-soaked days.' (Irish Times )

'A little gem of a book.' (Leicester Mercury )

Synopsis
Why exists this fascination with crime and why, above all, exists this fascination with crime on the part of female writers? Bestselling novelist Elizabeth George poses this question in her Introduction, answers it with her customary elegance and illustrates it with a rich and varied collection of international writers, some household names; others buried treasures waiting to be rediscovered. The stories have locations as diverse as Africa and the Caribbean, London and Los Angeles, San Francisco and Switzerland. Some are modern; some period. Some feature well-known sleuths - Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, Jemina Shore - or notorious villains - Jack the Ripper; others are tales of 'ordinary' people caught up in out of the ordinary events. All of them share in common a desire to explore mankind in a moment on the edge. The edge equates to the crime committed. How the characters deal with the edge is the story.