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The Starlings & Other Stories
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About the Author

Murder Squad is a collective of six crime writers from the north of England. Ann Cleeves is a crime fiction author whose books include Raven Black and Silent Voices. Martin Edwards is the author of the Lake District Mysteries. Cath Staincliffe is the author of Dead to Me and creator of TV series Blue Murder. Chris Simms is the author of the DI Spicer series. Kate Ellis has written the the Joe Plantagenet series and the DI Wesley Peterson series. Margaret Murphy is the author of Darkness Falls and Weaving Shadows.

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Contributors: Ann Cleeves, Martin Edwards, Cath Staincliffe, Chris Simms, Kate Ellis, Margaret Murphy, Mary Sharratt, Valerie Laws, Toby Forward, Jim Kelly, Helena Edwards, Christine Poulson.
*Publisher: Graffeg*

The twelve stories included in this anthology are inspired by David Wilson’s photographs of Pembrokeshire landscapes. The authors are all experienced writers of full-length crime fiction, apart from Helena Edwards, who is a successful short-story writer, and Mary Sharratt, whose work is historical.

The photographs by David Wilson are dark, looming studies of beaches, twisted trees, lonely and sometimes derelict farms, brooding rocks and black clouds of birds. Even the innocent picture of two young men going surfing is dominated by marram-covered dunes like the heads of giants. It is no wonder, then, that they inspire such dark stories from the group. This is not a book to encourage tourists to the beauties of west Wales, despite this being the reason why many of the protagonists come there. There are certain recurring themes, with broken love affairs and revenge driving many of the stories, as one might expect. The power of water – rivers and sea – is often present. Then there are the pigs ... Less predictably, there are many references to children, especially the childhood experience of peer pressure and the feelings of outsiders. Perhaps it was the memory of childhood holidays which inspired many of the writers.

The lightest story is probably ‘House Guest’, in which the brief friendship of two isolated girls is central. In ‘The Wizard’s Place’, the viewpoint shifts between adult and children’s perspectives but it is the man’s memory of his own childhood which is key to the ending. Kate Elis’s ‘Secrets’ rests entirely on what children did and didn’t tell and, in the title story by editor Ann Cleeves, we have an insight into the childhood of her detective, Vera Stanhope, whose memories help her to solve the mystery.

Although the landscapes are full of myth and memory, all but one of the stories are contemporary. The exception is ‘Sirens’ by Mary Sharratt: a tale of a mother and two daughters whose skills and looks mark them out as ‘witches’ and which is powerfully and beautifully written. Mary Sharratt and Ann Cleeves stay on home ground but all the other stories are set in the Pembrokeshire landscape and powerfully evoke the lonely farms, the presence of the sea and the frequent culture clash between tourists and close-knit native communities with their ghosts and traditions.

Some of the stories try to pack too much into the small compass, perhaps, but most are well-paced and cleverly turned, with a great sense of place and atmosphere. They range from the pure horror of ‘Through the Mist’ and the cold-blooded efficiency of ‘The Man Who Didn’t Breathe’ to the sad, fallible human confusions of ‘Secrets’ – all haunting in their different ways.
*Caroline Clark @ www.gwales.com*

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