Good style and fun story ideas, but not believable and so little dramatic impact. ( )

Very enjoyable collection of PD James short stories, all with a twist. I found these much more enjoyable than her novels (which doesn't mean the novels aren't good). The characters are just as unlikeable but seem to work better for me in the shorter form, and the frequent use of first person (and often unreliable) narration sparkles. The themes are murder (obviously) but also power, power's outlet of blackmail, desire and revenge amongst the upper middle classes. Justice is rarely done and if so only extra-judicially. Highly recommended. This is the second volume of James short stories - I'm still waiting on the delivery of the first volume "The mistletoe murder". Thanks to Kemper Donovan of the "All about Agatha" patreon podcast as I'd not been aware of the James short stories until he covered "The mistletoe murder" in one episode. ( )

This book is a compilation of six murder-related short stories. I had not read anything by P.D. James so I thought this might be a good place to start. As in many short story compilations, some are more to my taste than others. There is only one traditional murder mystery. The others are psychological character studies of people who have gotten away with murder (which is clear from the outset). My favorite is the first story, Yo-Yo, and my least favorite is The Murder of Santa Claus, a typical “whodunnit” where it is too obvious what the outcome will be. I can see why this author was nominated by one of our group members as an author to read. Her writing is elegant and atmospheric. Recommended to fans of dark stories with unexpected twists. ( )

Excellent stories. ( )

Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales includes six murder mystery stories. This is the second collection of mysteries by P.D. James I have read and I definitely liked this one better than The Mistletoe Murder And Other Stories. While all of the stories involved a murder, they were not all the typical whodunnit. I liked that they were all different and distinct rather than blurring together. While I had my favorites in the collection, there weren't any stories that I didn't like. Overall, it was an entertaining read. I look forward to reading one of James' full length novels. ( )