In Our Crime by Jude O'Reilly #InOurCrime #ShortStories #Anthology @judithoreilly #BookReview

 

In Our Crime: An anthology of crime short stories for 2023 from thriller writer Jude O’Reilly

An entertaining collection of award-winning crime and mystery short stories from bestselling writer Jude O’Reilly.

Nine engaging short stories from cosy crime to mystery to outright horror.

MURDER MOST FOUL

 PACT WITH THE DEVIL

and THE 'TRUE CRIME' DISCOVERY OF A YOUNG GIRL’S BONES

A magic trick that ends in murder and mayhem. A drowned scoundrel found floating in a spa. A serial killer’s widow who just wants to be left alone and a grumpy vigilante with no one to love. Mixed with arson, revenge, and a brave mother's battle against catastrophic grief.

IN OUR CRIME – it's got something for everyone.

In Our Crime: An Anthology of Crime Short Stories by Jude O'Reilly was published on 15 November 2023. My thanks to the author who supplied my copy for review. 

I have enjoyed Jude O'Reilly's writing for many years. Her Michael North thriller series published by Head of Zeus is excellent.  I was delighted when Jude gave me a copy of this anthology whilst at Newcastle Noir last year, and look at that cover!  It's a stunner. 

In Our Crime is a collection of ten short stories in the crime genre, and whilst they may all be crime, they are all incredibly different. Set in different eras, with many themes, this is a wonderful collection that I've been dipping in and out of for the past few weeks. 

Some of the stories in this collection have won prizes; The Silent Mrs B was joint winner of the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize, 2023. How To Catch A Bullet won the Crime Writer's Association Margery Allingham prize, 2023. Others have been shortlisted for numerous awards. 

I cannot pick a favourite story because I enjoyed every single one them. They range from cosy crime, set in 1920s Harrogate, to some darker themes in And So It Begins, and all of them are perfectly produced. I'm sure that writing short stories is very difficult; creating characters that you feel as if you know, with a intricate and gripping plot in so few words is a fine art and O'Reilly has made it her own. Each and every one of these stories are entertaining and extremely satisfying, there's no rushed endings, or vapid characters. I was invested in all of them.

If you are looking for a book filled with intriguing and unexpected stories, look no further. Highly recommended. 

Jude O’Reilly is the author of three action thrillers. Her latest book Sleep When You’re
Dead was an FT Best Book of the Year. Lee Child has described her writing as ‘terrific’and David Baldacci as ‘a sheer delight’. Her thrillers, which also include Killing State and Curse the Day, track the adventures of all action hero Michael North, a young, sexy, reckless British government agent who has been dubbed the modern Bond. 

Using the pen name Judith O'Reilly (see what she did there), Jude has also written two memoirs, Wife in the North and A Year of Doing Good. Wife in the North reached number three in the UK bestsellers’ chart and was a top ten bestseller in Germany. It was serialised by The Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph, was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, and was based on Jude’s eponymous blog which, at the time, was named as one of the top 100 blogs in the world by The Sunday Times.

Jude is an award winning short story writer whose latest book is an anthology of crime short stories called In Our Crime.

She is also a former political producer with BBC 2’s Newsnight and ITN’s Channel 4 News. She’s a former education correspondent with The Sunday Times where she also covered politics, undercover reporting and general news. She lives in Durham with her family and a miniature poodle called Joey.

www.judithoreilly.com

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