Today, I am really excited to be a part of the blog tour for Music Of The Night, a compilation of short stories with music as a connecting theme. I must thank Anne Cater of Random Things Tours and Flame Tree Press for the copy of the book to take part.
The Annual Crime Writers’ Association anthology is always a thrilling read and eagerly anticipated by readers and authors of crime and mystery fiction worldwide.
Music of the Night is a new anthology of original short stories contributed by Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) members and edited by Martin Edwards, with music as the connecting theme. The aim, as always, is to produce a book which is representative both of the genre and the membership of the world’s premier crime writing association.
The CWA has published anthologies of members’ stories in most years since 1956, with Martin Edwards as editor for over 25 years, during which time the anthologies have yielded many award-winning and nominated stories by writers such as Ian Rankin, Reginald Hill, Lawrence Block, and Edward D. Hoch. Stories by long-standing authors and stellar names sit alongside contributions from relative newcomers, authors from overseas, and members whose work haven’t appeared in a CWA anthology before.
A book that has plenty to choose from, with twenty-five stories from various authors, some I know others I discovered in this collection. I was quite excited to start reading this, and being short stories, I enjoyed the fact I could dip in as time allowed.
The connecting theme of music is as individual as each of the stories that are included. I really enjoyed Abi Silvers’ contribution-Be Prepared. I am a guide leader, so to read a guide/ scout camp based story made a nice change, and Guides are taught to be independent as well as to take control of situations, great to see Abi Silvers took that idea and ran with it!
The others vary so much from a prisoner creating a mix tape for his return to prison to a vinyl collector that’s a killer. Paul Gitsam’s short story No More I Love You’s, was another that caught my attention. Annie Lennox and the Eurythmics! I am from that generation. This story was fab and it put a smile on my face with the banter. I want more from this author now.
Some of the stories are longer, some shorter. One thing I can definitely say is that none of them made me put the book down or skip a story. They are all well written, and some of them linger in the mind after you have finished them.
I have definitely got better with short stories over the last two years and am very glad I got to read this compilation. There is a lot of talent in the pages of this book.
Story List
Abi Silver – Be Prepared
Alison Joseph – A Sharp Thorn
Andrew Taylor – Wrong Notes
Antony M. Brown – The Melody of Murder
Art Taylor – Love Me or Leave Me
Brian Price – The Scent of an Ending
Cath Staincliffe – Mix Tape
C. Aird – The Last Green Bottle
Chris Simms – Taxi
Christine Poulson – Some Other Dracula
David Stuart Davies – Violin – CE
Dea Parkin – The Sound and the Fury
Jason Monaghan – A Vulture Sang in Berkeley Square
Kate Ellis – Not a Note
L.C. Tyler – His Greatest Hit
Leo McNeir – Requiem
Martin Edwards – The Crazy Cries of Love
Maxim Jakubowski – Waiting for Cornelia
Neil Daws – The Watch Room
Paul Charles – The Ghosts of Peace
Paul Gitsham – No More ‘I Love You’s’
Peter Lovesey – And the Band Played On
Ragnar Jónasson – 4×3
Shawn Reilly Simmons – A Death in Four Parts
Vaseem Khan – Bombay Blues
About the Author
Martin Edwards (editor) is the author of eighteen novels, including the Lake District Mysteries, and the Harry Devlin series. His ground-breaking genre study The Golden Age of Murder has won the Edgar, Agatha, and H.R.F. Keating awards. He has edited twenty eight crime anthologies, has won the CWA Short Story Dagger and the CWA Margery Allingham Prize, and is series consultant for the British Library’s Crime Classics.
FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to full-length original fiction in the horror and
suspense, science fiction & fantasy, and crime / mystery / thriller categories. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices. Learn more about Flame Tree Press at http://www.flametreepress.com and connect on social media @FlameTreePress
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