A fine assembly of characters make their appearance in Peter Lovesey’s collection of crime short stories, some murderers, some victims. For instance: a butcher, a belly-dancer, an agony aunt, an amorous bookseller — and more besides. Sleight of hand is also at work here, beware of assuming anything. There are some very cunning surprises. Peter Lovesey, the creator of television’s Sergeant Cribb, and winner of the Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger Award for The False Inspector Dew, will mystify, entertain and divert you with his first collection of short stories. Some of the sixteen have been published here and abroad in magazines and anthologies, and some are brand new. One has been televised in Tales of the Unexpected. Irony runs through them, sometimes muted, sometimes overt. The collection is a feast for connoisseurs of the crime short story