You cannot go wrong with reading any of Lee Childs books. Love these short stories, fast and easy to read but be prepared to not want to stop until you are done with them all.

This was a great collection of short stories by Lee Child, who never disappoints! He has been on my always-read list for quite awhile now and this book just reminded me why that is! I can't wait to read what he puts out next!

#SafeEnough
#NetGalley

Published by Mysterious Press on September 3, 2024

Safe Enough is a collection of Lee Child’s short fiction, excluding Reacher stories. In a forward, Child admits that he is a novelist who hasn’t mastered the art of writing a short story. I would agree that he often swings and misses, but enough stories in this collection count as base hits that Child has a decent batting average.

Many of the stories collected in Safe Enough set up a mildly interesting scenario before Child tries to deliver an O. Henry ending. The assassin in “The .50 Solution” is hired to kill a racehorse but makes a predictable departure from the plan. The journalist who narrates “Public Transportation” talks to a cop about a murder case that was closed for the sake of convenience, not because the crime was solved correctly. The true killer’s identity is predictable.

In other stories, Lee makes the formula work. “Ten Keys,” about a man who stole money and product from a drug distribution organization, telegraphs part of the surprise in its ending but manages a final unexpected twist. “Me & Mr. Rafferty” is narrated by a killer who leaves clues for Mr. Rafferty to find. The ending is genuinely surprising.

“My First Drug Trial” benefits from an ending that surprised me, but I’m ranking it as one of my favorites because of a weed smoker’s internal monologue as he talks himself into getting high before court.

A snobby FBI agent tells a Metropolitan Police inspector to read a Sherlock Holmes story as the source of clues to a murder. The murder turns out to be a misdirection. The element of surprise makes “The Bone-Headed League” a fun story.

I enjoyed a few others, as well:

For an assassin, “The Greatest Trick of All” is getting paid by a husband to kill his wife and getting paid by the wife to kill her husband — a trick that has disastrous consequences when it doesn’t work as intended. “Pierre, Lucien & Me” is an interesting take on an art forgery story that begins immediately after Renoir’s death.

One of my favorites, “Normal in Every Way,” is about an autistic file clerk in San Francisco in the 1950s who solves crimes by reading files and seeing connections that others miss. In “New Blank Document,” a reporter tells the story of a Black jazz musician who stayed in France after World War II, a place that allowed him to escape the racist place where his brother was murdered.

“The Snake Eater by the Numbers” is narrated by a rookie London cop who is tutored by a corrupt cop in the importance of clearance rates. When the corrupt cop fits up a mentally unwell Londoner who believes himself to be an American Marine, the rookie learns the meaning of street justice.

“Safe Enough” is written in a more literary style than is common for Child. The story of a disintegrating marriage, after the wife apparently killed her last husband, has some insightful thoughts about marriage but ends predictably.

“Addicted to Sweetness” benefits from interesting dialog about punishment inflicted in the West Indies upon people who stole sugar from their employers. The dialog enhances this story about the leader of a criminal organization who learns the downside of imposing tough punishments.

And I was unimpressed by several:

“The Bodyguard” is interesting only because the bodyguard fails at his job. “Section 7(A) Operational” begins with an intriguing story of an operative assembling a team for a dangerous covert operation. The story’s ending renders the setup pointless.

Another five or six stories don’t merit comment. Since I enjoyed more than half, I regard the good stories as outweighing their forgettable companions, but it’s a close balance.

RECOMMENDED

A great collection of Lee Child...none of which are Reacher (a pleasant surprise). Quick and fun read. Hope he does more of these (he said these are the best but there are lots)!

This is a collection of short stories bu Lee Child. Some of them were good but this was definitely not my favorite book. I much rather read the Reacher books.

Lee Child had developed the character of Jack Reacher, but also wrote short stories about mobsters, FBI agents, assassins and bodyguards. This volume collects twenty short stories that he's written over the years.

Our opening story is in fact called "The Bodyguard," and it's not what we expect. The tough guy who knows everything about being a proper bodyguard and wants a challenge meets his match when sold out, and the ending is a fun little twist. It sets the tone for the collection: characters often think they're safe, or safe enough, but can't predict everything that's coming. It's what they can't predict that brings the danger closer than they ever thought possible.

Each story is a carefully crafted and bite sized slice of life for those who are on the fringes of our society or those who dedicate their lives to catching them. It's fun to see how expectations are shuffled around and shifted, and that the characters don't always end up how we think they will.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to review this collection of short stories by Lee Child. As a huge fan of the early Reacher novels, I just couldn’t get into these stories. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I naturally gravitated to this author/book because of the well-known Jack Reacher series (not in this book). I knew it would be a good read. I thoroughly enjoyed the short story format too. Each story was unique and provided variety to appeal to a large audience—you are bound to find some favorites!

Thank you Lee Child, Penzler Publishers and NetGalley for this ARC opportunity!

Thank you, Netgalley, the author, and Penzler Publishers for the gifted e-book! ❤️ #gifted. My review is comprised of my honest thoughts.

Read this book if you like: Anthologies

These stories range from great to meh. I enjoyed most of them. I prefer the Jack Reacher books.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

Lee Child’s “Safe Enough” is a collection of short stories which delve into the complexities of human nature, showcasing its best and worst facets.

Known for his gripping thrillers, in this anthology, Childs' offers a series of meticulously plotted diverse narratives.

The stories in “Safe Enough” are a testament to Child’s vivid imagination. From an overlooked rookie cop relegated to the file room to a ruthless killer who targets the morally corrupt, each character is crafted with a depth that makes their stories resonate.

Lee Child admits that the short story format is not one in which he excels, however the standouts for me were the first stories - a methodical bodyguard who quits after being outsmarted and the tales about hired killers. These stories grabbed my interest and shined bright, however the second half of the book (such as the story about a hired art collector with no experience) had no particular "hook" to draw me into the story and capture my interest. I just found these stories flat and one-dimensional, and perhaps a bit experimental for this author.

When Lee Child focuses on what he does best (detective related stories, police procedurals, killers for hire, spy novels and international intrigue, etc). he hits the ball out of the park and the first half of this book is excellent.

However, this short story collection certainly showcases Lee Childs' diverse talent and bottomless imagination.

Let’s start by saying what “Safe Enough” by Lee Child isn’t: there is no mention of Jack Reacher in any of these short stories, not even a whisper. What we have is an assortment of short stories, from pretty good to ok, populated by an assortment of characters on both sides of the law.

If there is anything that these stories have in common, it’s that Mr. Child likes to put in an unexpected twist or catch at the end, so much so that you end up expecting something unexpected as you read through each story. Like most of these collections, it’s a mixed bag:

The Bodyguard: Meticulous planning will only get you so far.

The Greatest Trick Of All: A hitman tries to play both sides of the deal, which can ony work for so long.

Ten Keys: Cheating a drug dealer usually doesn’t turn out well. A good story even if you can see where it’s leading.

Safe Enough: A city boy working construction falls for a married woman in the rich suburbs, whose husband then disappears.

Normal In Every Way: A file clerk in the San Francisco PD has plenty of time to think about cases.

The .50 Solution: A hitman is tasked with killing a racehourse.

Public Transportation: A cop talks to a journalist about something not sitting right in his latest closed case.

Me & Mr. Rafferty: A serial killer wakes up and reviews his latest in a cat-and-mouse game with a detective.

Section 7 (A) (Operational): The setup for an operation in Iran? Maybe? Kind of confusing.

Addicted To Sweetness: Once again, cheating a drug dealer usually doesn’t turn out well.

The Bone-Headed League: The American knows the murderer is cribbing from a Sherlock Holmes plot, but fails to understand the target

I Heard A Romantic Story: A prince needs to be assassinated, but how far do the assassins go?

My First Drug Trial: Once again, kind of predictable as you wait for the twist. Getting high before a drug trial.

Wet With Rain: Cleaning up an operation’s loose ends by buying a house.

The Truth About What Happened: Vetting for the Manhattan Project. Ho hum.

Pierre, Lucian & Me: Trying to make a killing on Renoirs.

New Blank Document: A tale of a black man who chose living in France over coming back to the American South after WWII, and his reason.

Shorty And The Briefcase: A cop with a shot-up leg has some time to think about how clever the drug dealers can be.

Dying for a Cigarette: A smoking screenwriter compromises his principles

The Snake Eater By The Numbers: Cops trying to improve their clearing case numbers sometimes cross the line with disastrous consequences.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Penzler Publishers, Mysterious Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

An engaging collection of crime stories.

Welcome to a compilation of stories from the author who created the iconic character of Jack Reacher, where the reader meets a series of different protagonists. A professional bodyguard, an assassin for a criminal cartel, a quirky rookie police officer who has an under-appreciated talent, a journalist pumping a cop for information, and others, each a little novel in and of itself, with a crime as a catalyst and a twist at each ending you won’t likely see coming. You can read a story at a time, or all in one swoop, as is true in any compendium of short stories. But where most collections have a variety of authors and as such explore a range of styles within the genre, here the reader is getting variations on the voice of author Lee Child. Devotees of the Jack Reacher series will definitely want to pick up a copy of Safe Enough (although Reacher is nowhere to be found within the covers), as should fans of authors like MIchael Connelly, James Patterson, and Gregg Hurwitz among many others. Even if short stories are not normally your thing, this collection may just change your mind. Many thanks to NetGalley and Penzler Publishers/Mysterious Press for allowing me early access to this collection of little gems culled from author Lee Child’s forays into the short story format.

Safe Enough by Lee Child is a series of vignettes, one right after the other. In the “table of contents” there are titles. In the actual text there are not. They are cynical and usually with a twist. They are entertaining enough, but difficult to read an entire book of quips. Most are not enough for a book, or even a short story. This is obviously stuff that has been floating around in his head for some time.

I was invited to read Safe Enough by Penzler Publishers. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #PenzlerPublishers #LeeChild #SafeEnough

Up until Safe Enough the only short stories I’d read from Lee Child were Reacher short stories. So I already knew Child could write quality short stories, but I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect from this collection. Well dang! What a wild collection of short stories. The stories feature a wide range of characters from cops to bodyguards to hitmen and more, and the situations these characters find themselves in are just as varied. But what isn’t in question is that Child delivers satisfying story after story, most involving a fun twist of sorts, with my personal favorite involving a hitman and a train ride. There are some fun characters in here that I wouldn’t mind seeing again…perhaps showing up in a Reacher novel somewhere down the line? I’d like to thank Penzler Publishers | Mysterious Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC of Safe Enough.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R23VMVUMBPKRA5/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_SRTC0204BT_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

This collection of 20 short stories was very well written and engrossing. Each story was complete, and each one also made me wish it would go on forever. Each one was spellbinding, so that I couldn't put it down and had to keep reading one more page, and one more story. They were clever, and funny, and sharp, and fascinating. I have read everything I can find written by this author and am always on the lookout for more.

Confession time: I've always detested reading short stories. Oh sure, there are exceptions - compilations such as 2014's "FaceOff," penned by many of my favorite mystery/thriller authors and "MatchUp," ditto (the latter edited, not insignificantly, by this author, who also co-wrote a short story with another favorite author, Kathy Reichs, for that book). But on the whole, if there are fewer than 300 words I don't even bother.

The author, too, used to be something of a stranger to short stories (not that he avoided them - he was just too busy writing other things). It was the 1997 success of his still-popular Jack Reacher series, he says in the introduction to this book, that introduced him to short story writing - at the time, a novel concept for an (ahem) novelist. Asked to write a short story, his first, he came up with one for an anthology - then another, then another and another and so on. The collection here, he explains, is his "editor's pick" of the litter.

That brings us to now, when I requested and happily received a pre-release copy of this collection in exchange for a review (an honest one, honest)! And despite my misgivings about short stories, I found I can be swayed; in fact, given the entries here, it was pretty darned easy. Each one seemed to be more enjoyable than the one before it - well, at least till I got to the next to the last one, which I liked least of all (still good, though). They're all exceptionally well crafted and clever as well as exceptionally brief - I read the entire book in not much over a couple of hours, in fact. I know that because I read almost nonstop - that's how much I enjoyed what to me used to be unenjoyable.

Alas, what I can't do is provide details on the stories themselves; their brevity means nothing noteworthy can be extracted without giving away too much (in review language, that means no spoilers allowed). So I'll be brief as well; I loved this book and I think you will, too.

Safe Enough by Lee Child is a wonderful novella.
This was a great book. I loved every paragraph, every sentence and every word of this masterpiece.

Lee Child compiles 20 short stories into one amazing book! I was not sure I was going to enjoy these as much as his Jack Reacher series but they were just as good! Reading each story only takes a few minutes and he is able to pack some much action into these stories. Awesome read!

Lee Child gives us a collection of crime novels in a wonderful short story collection.. Each is told from the criminal’s perspective, as he explains how he got away with it, or at least was “safe enough.”

Highly recommended for all mystery and thriller enthusiasts. #SafeEnough #NetGalley #SaltMarshAuthors

I love Lee Child and this was so good! I love the short stories. It made it such a fast and enjoyable read. Thank you for the opportunity to read this arc.