CRIME YELLOW: Gollancz New Crimes 1

Jakubowski celebrates the sixth anniversary of his New Crimes series (the first five were published by Robinson and Constable) with an unusually dour collection of 16 new stories. For the most part, the best items are brief and acerbic: Mat Coward's serial-killer confession; Martin Edwards's tale of an old lady and her home; Howard Douglas's anecdote of adultery and revenge; Susan Kelly's dexterously sinister spin on Much Ado About Nothing. (A welcome exception to this rule: a deft Sherlockian pastiche by Robert Richardson.) The stories by familiar authors---Ed Gorman, Jo Bannister, Lesley Grant-Adamson, Russell James, Michael Z. Lewin, Janwillem van de Wetering--tend to be less inventive, less pointed, or just less condensed. Still, the move to Gollancz coincides with one of the more worthwhile entries in Jakubowski's uneven series.