This exciting collection of short stories features crime writers working with a "mystery tour" or travel theme. Showcasing the diversity of the contemporary crime-fiction genre, these 28 compelling stories will take you on a memorable trip - and you'll not even have to leave your armchair.

It has been too long since I've immersed myself in a tome of short stories. I know that they are not for everyone. Myself, I enjoy them a lot, I own a lot of anthologies, yet, inexplicably, I tend to read novels most of the time.

I read short stories to see how some of my favourite authors cope with the limited word count of the short story. I also read short stories to discover potential new to me authors.

My favourite stories in this collection were:
"Return to the Lake" by Anna Mazzola
"High Flyer" by Chris Simms
"No way back" by J.M. Hewitt
"Mystery tour" by Judith Cutler

Many of these short stories had a astonishing ending.
The story that most shocked me was: "A Clever Evil" by Sarah Rayne

One story that I didn't care for was: “Accounting for Murder” by Christine Poulson: a story told solely through a series of receipts for goods & services. This might have been a clever way to tell a story, but it wasn't to my taste.

New (to me) authors from this collection that I intend to read more of:
Anna Mazzola
Chris Simms
Ragnar Jónasson

These stories were concise and powerful. In my opinion, anyone who enjoys crime fiction will enjoy this collection, whether or not they are a fan of the short format. Recommended!

This is an anthology of new stories by members of the Crime Writers' Association. These stories reflect the theme of traveling and intriguing destinations. The authors are diverse ...some are well-known, like Sharon Bolton, Ian Rankin, and Peter Lovesey. The others are lesser known, but I recommend making a list of those names to follow.

Most of these stories were rated 4 stars or 5 stars, by my standards. Innovative, mysterious, suspenseful with great characters make for some terrific stories. I thought I would mention my very favorite here .. but, alas, there are more than one.. or two ...or three.

So..get your passport out and get ready to travel!

Many thanks to the numerous authors / Trafalgar Square Publishing / Netgalley for this collection of highly enjoyable short stories. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Good short story collection! There's something for all mystery lovers here. I especially love the wide range of settings for these stories.

I found an ARC of this on Netgalley and was immediately intrigued. The thought of reading 28 short mysteries by new to me authors just sounded like fun, and it was. I was transported to locations all over the world and watched the body count rise.
I couldn’t find a single really bad story. There were a few that I just couldn’t get into, but for the most part, they were very good. I now have a list of new writers to check out as well.

Great mix of mystery, horror and downright funny.

Ann Cleeve's The Queen of Mystery shows the ruthlessness of competition.

Chris Simms's High Flyer was a unique revenge story.

If I had to pick a favorite, and that's almost an impossible task with so many good stories, it would be the brilliant Ragnar Jonasson. How does just 4 pages scare you so badly?

I wish I had read just one or two stories a night to savor this anthology longer. But alas, I had no willpower with all this talent.  So many little gems of horror.  So pick one,  pick all. Not a bad or mediocre one in the bunch.

3.5 stars

This is a great anthology of shorties from authors who all signed on to a “mystery tour”. Right away you know you’ll be tripping over bodies stashed in dark corners all over the world.

It’s an opportunity to try on new (to you) authors & then hunt down the full length novels of those you enjoyed. There’s a wide variety of styles & sub-genres within the crime community. As with all collections, everyone will have their personal favourites but here are a few that stood out for me.

“High Flyer” by Chris Simms: sending out a “high” five to the female MC. You go, girl.

“Accounting for Murder” by Christine Poulson: a clever story told solely through a series of receipts for goods & services.

“Bombay Brigadoon” by Vaseem Khan: seriously, how am I supposed to resist a story featuring a cop-turned-PI whose partner is a baby elephant?

“A Mouthful of Restaurant” by Martine Bailey: a period piece that evokes the golden age of mysteries.

“Writer’s Block” by Paul Gitsham: a neat, entertaining story of being in the wrong place at the right time.

So now I have a few more authors/books to throw on Mount TBR.

Crisp writing and clever premises abound. The stories in this collection each bring a different flavor, some good, some great, some not so great. But overall I enjoyed getting my hands on this collection and look forward to more from the talented authors contained within.
As for my favorite amongst this collection, that's simple: Return to the Lake by Anna Mazzola. This story was wrought with suspense, mystery, curiosity and it made you think, made you suspect, made you wonder, in a very short period of time, what happened? And that ending... wow, that was one for the ages.