The Crime Writers Association created its annual awards, The Daggers, the well known prestigious set of crime writing awards, that include the short story dagger. The CWA chair, Maxim Jakubowski, has compiled a superb collection of outstanding crime stories to illustrate to readers the art of mystery short story writing at its best. None of the stories are recent, yet all had passed me by, I had read none of them, so I really appreciated this opportunity to read them. As any crime and mystery afficionado will know, these authors are a talented group of writers, ensuring that you are in for a real treat. There are 19 short stories in this anthology:

Swiftwing 98 by Peter O'Donnell
Some Sunny Day by Julian Rathbone
Funny Story by Larry Beinhart
Herbert in Motion by Ian Rankin
Roots by Jerry Sykes
Martha Grace by Stella Duffy
The Weekender by Jeffery Deaver
Needle Match by Peter Lovesey
The Bookbinder's Apprentice by Martin Edwards
Homework by Phil Lovesey
Laptop by Cath Staincliffe
Fedora by John Harvey
Apocrypha by Richard Lange
On the Anatomisation of an Unknown Man (1637) by Frans Mier by John Connolly
The Trials of Margaret by L.C. Tyler
Nemo Me Impune Lacessit by Denise Mina
The Dummies' Guide to Serial Killing by Danuta Reah
#Me Too by Lauren Henderson

It has to be said that some of the stories veer into horror territory, such as Edwards offering, Mina writes of the worst nightmare that can befall a family, and a murderer on trial misreads a jury. A woman that boosts a laptop from a man she refers to as The Wolf at Manchester Airport, is to live to regret her actions, and a NYC male predator in the film industry, in the Harvey Weinstein mould, gets more than he bargained for. An art expert from the Tate Gallery dreads a party at Downing Street, a grandfather relates a heartbreaking 'funny' story to his young grandson from his life as a gifted thief and we get a glimpse into a ex-con security guard's job at a jewellery store. Two schoolchildren find themselves serving as ball boys at Wimbledon, at a tennis match where it appears a murder has taken place and a student takes revenge on a teacher as we discover from her homework.

I found it extremely difficult to pick favourites from this wonderful collection, but I did love Martha Grace, a woman ostracised from the community as a 'witch' and 'dyke', I enjoyed the black humour in Danuta Reah's story of the making of a serial killer and the twist in Deaver's The Weekender is absolutely terrific. I cannot recommend this highly enough, particularly to those who love the crime and mystery genre, and even to those readers who tend to shy away from short stories! Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.