Monday 18 January 2021

The Usual Santas

Finished January 16 
The Usual Santas: a Collection of Soho Crime Christmas Capers foreword by Peter Lovesey


This collection of 18 short stories is arranged into three sections. The foreword by Peter Lovesey talks about the real crime statistics around Christmas and about Soho Press's focus on international crime fiction, and how the combination brought submissions from many authors, resulting in choices which include setting on four continents.
The first section is Joy to the World and includes six stories around the theme of acts of kindness at Christmas. The stories here are by Helene Tursten, Mick Herron, Martin Limón, Timothy Hallinan, Teresa Dovalpage, and Mette Ivie Harrison. 
The second section is Silent Night and its six stories are focused on the darkest of holiday noir. Authors here are Colin Cotterill, Ed Lin, Tod Goldberg, Henry Chang, and James R. Benn.
The third section is I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, and includes tales of holiday secrets. Contributions here come from the writing pair Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis, Sujata Massey, Gary Corby, Cara Black, Stephanie Barron, and Peter Lovesey.
I like these anthologies as they are a great way to get a taste of authors you haven't tried before. For me, that was the majority of the authors here, and I found a few that definitely intrigued me. 

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