Matt McAvoy Book Review

I love short stories, especially when they’re well written, and this intriguing anthology is just that.  From what is clearly an interesting and creative mind, Stephen Murphy delivers a dozen and a half or so of what can only be really described as vignettes, and for the most part slice of life, even if some of those fictional lives are a good deal more interesting than others.  The tales are not action packed or exciting, but rather more anecdotal or perhaps suggestive.  They are more about the underlying premise than any explicit occurrences, and the narratives are rather more ambiguous in their entry and exit points.  But that is all fine. 

Murphy is a fine author, his style sardonic and humorous for the most part, and perhaps melancholy in a small other.  The premises of these tales range from downbeat drama to suggestive cautionary tale, to eye-opening urban fantasy, but one element is consistent throughout, and that is Murphy’s eloquent pen and his alluring, easy-paced style.  This is Sunday afternoon reading, perhaps to be read indoors on one of those chilly or blustery days.  It didn’t reach the giddy heights of some short story volumes, but it is certainly a worthy showcase for an author with a lot to offer, who clearly knows the writing craft.