Author : Hilary Mantel
What is it about : A pick of a few of the best short stories from this award-winning Author - fanciful, tightly-bound, authentic and cleverly constructed. In the titled story : sitting down and sharing a cuppa with the assassin of the Prime Minister and having a good old chin wag while he went about his business before he pulled the trigger, would count as rather "fanciful". How about starting your much-anticipated vacation in a far-away exotic land and being picked up at the airport, by a "Moustache Pete" of a cab driver and ended up with an extra passenger in the boot ? Yeh, a story tightly-bound indeed.
Some thoughts after having read the book : The Author sure knew how to spin a tale; from unlikely topics to even more unlikely outcomes. On display were solid writing techniques - show don't tell; plain low-key dialogues in a high-octane situation; story kept on the boil until the last paragraphs when it finally boiled over. The hallmarks of good short stories were all to be found here : taut, no time-wasting, forgo the character building and a quick kill at the end.
Would I recommend this book to you : Because of the break neck pace and suspense-all-the-way, an ideal book for the impatient readers - no need to flip first to the end to find out the ending. A very rewarding and satisfying experience it was indeed. Perhaps take it on the plane as an alternative when the in-flight movies get boring.
