Title: Music of The Night Edited by Martin Edwards
Publisher: Flame Tree Press
Date Published: 22nd February 2022
Genre: Mystery/Short Story Anthology
Description:
Music of the Night is a new anthology of original short stories contributed by Crime Writer's Association (CWA) members and edited by Martin Edwards, with music as the connecting theme. The aim, as always is to produce a book which is representative both of the genre and the membership of the world's premier crime writing association.
The CWA has published anthologies of members' stories in most years since 1956 with Martin Edwards as editor for over 25 years during which time the anthologies have yielded many award-winning and nominated stories by writers such as Ian Rankin, Reginald Hill, Lawrence Block, and Edward D. Hoch.
Stories by long-standing authors and stellar names sit alongside contributions from relative newcomers, authors from overseas, and members whose work haven't appeared in a CWA anthology before. Among the gifted stars of today whose fiction featured in a CWA anthology at an early stage of their crime writing careers are Mick Herron, Frank Tallis, and Sarah Hilary. It isn't a closed shop, and never has been.
Review:
I want to thank Anne Cater for inviting me on this tour and Flame Tree Press for providing me with a copy of Music of The Night in exchange for an honest review.
The premise of this collection intrigued me and I thought by the end who would have thought music and murder when so well together!
What I love about the sorts of collections is a) I get to discover new authors who may have slipped under my radar and b) seeing every author's unique approach to the theme.
Some standouts for me were:
The Melody of Murder by Anthony M Brown. A serial killer is using bodies to recreate album covers. It was such a good premise. I would honestly have loved to see this as a full-length story.
Taxi by Chris Simms. A tale of revenge packed full of tension all the way through. I will definitely look up this author's books in the future.
Some Other Dracula by Christine Poulson. A murder mystery at a fancy dress party. Another new to me author who wove a clever mystery in such a short amount of words.
Not A Note by Kate Ellis. I'm already a bit of a fan of Kate Ellis so I enjoyed this little historical short. Even though it was a short story, it still got a couple of twists in there.
His Greatest Hits by L.C. Tyler. Another clever premise about a crime writer who's looking into a cold case at a funeral. I especially loved the fact this was set up like a song.
Bombay Blues by Vaseem Khan. A bite sized murder mystery about the death of a jazz musician, featuring characters from his Malabar House. An intriguing story that has made me put the first in the series on my wishlist.
A fantastic collection of short stories, I feel, has something that will appeal to just about any crime fiction lover out there.
About The Editor:
Martin Edwards (editor) is the author of eighteen novels, including the Lake District Mysteries, and the Harry Devlin0 series. His ground-breaking genre study The Golden Age of Murder has won the Edgar, Agatha, and H.R.F. Keating awards. He has edited twenty eight crime anthologies, has won the CWA Short Story Dagger and the CWA Margery Allingham Prize, and is series consultant for the British Library's Crime Classics.
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