Collection of short stories and a couple of novellas mostly featuring some form of PI/crime setting. Some work better than others, but none are standout, I'm not sure it's the authors best writing style because I have enjoyed some of her novels.

Perhaps the most innovate is the secret lives of cats which is quite clever. The Retrieval Artist is a novella set at the end of a series of novels but was apparently written earlier. This is much more SF than the others, and a sufficiently clever idea that I may check out the rest of the series - some aliens have very different cultures when it comes to grudges and consequences. In more than a few of the stories a degree/chucnk of romance creeps in which usually doesn't work well in the genre. It's particularly an issue here because short stories need to be very focused and punchy to work well, all of the characterisation and background that supports a full novel is just distraction and so dilutes the effect of the story. My least favourite are Alternative History, and again there's too much dilution of the central theme for it to work well.

Overall it isn't the highlight of the authors work, despite may of the stories apparently winning awards in their own rights. ( )