Since the demise of magazines like Saturday Evening Post that used to publish short stories, there have been fewer short story forums available, which is rather a shame. A collection of short stories is handy to have on the bed side table when you don’t want to get involved in a full length novel. It’s a useful volume to have in your briefcase while you’re waiting for a meeting, taking a short train or taxi ride, or sitting in the dentist’s waiting room trying not to think of the cost of a porcelain crown.


Fortunately, some of the small independent publishers are still presenting collections, such as “Writings on the Wall”, edited by Valerie Patterson, author of “The Lincoln Room” (the book that probably put a lot of people off going to the library after dark).


“Writings on the Wall” features offerings by a number of members of the Writers’ Wall group. The selections vary from the short and (sometimes) humorous pieces by Gordon Grace to the longer, gritty tale by the editor herself, warning women of the perils of “A Sharp Dressed Man”. There’s the whimsy of “Psychic Detectives” and a war story set in another time and place in “Valor’s Way”. There’s something for everyone in this collection, even a story for children about an adventurous hamster.


Worthy of particular note is the youngest writer in the group, the 15-year-old Cathy Zhang, who will curdle your blood with her story about the imprisoned sisters. See how quickly you can figure out what’s really going on here—and then wonder if you’ve really figured it out after all.


Scattered through the story collection are a number of poems, rather like the raisins in an apple cake: totally different to the rest of the mix, but still tasty.


by Karen Treanor, Reviewer, New Mystery Reader Magazine