Short Sentence: 10 Stories of Dastardly Deeds

by Parker Bilal

From Obsession and Payback to Secrets and Lies, Deception and Bad Judgement, these thrilling tales will shock and surprise you with their cunning. Short Sentence was launched in 2012 by Bloomsbury Publishing, in association with the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook. Following a short story written by one of Bloomsbury's brilliant crime authors, competitors were challenged to take up the same theme and write of a dastardly deed using 1000 words or less. This is Bloomsbury's collection of the winning entries in parallel with the five brilliant authors, Parker Bilal, Conor Fitzgerald, Anne Zouroudi, Thomas Mogford and James Runcie.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Mystery, Crime, Ebooks

44 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 11, 2013

About the author

Parker Bilal is the pseudonym of Jamal Mahjoub. Mahjoub has published seven critically acclaimed literary novels, which have been widely translated. Born in London, he has lived at various times in the UK, Sudan, Cairo and Denmark. He currently lives in Barcelona.

Reviews

[Shannon M (Canada) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a free book on Kindle. Only 45 pages in print form.

A collection of ten very short (1,000 word) stories. Five established crime authors write a short story on a theme, and then other authors are asked to submit their own entries to match one of these themes. The winners among the submissions are published alongside the crime authors own tales.

There are no clunkers in this collection, but I particularly liked:
- Who’s Calling by Parker Bilal
- A Good Judge of Character by Conor Fitzgerald
- Secrets and Lies by Jan Snook
- Sanctuary by James Runcie

It takes one hour to read them all.

My only quibble is that there isn’t a biography listing their other works.

[Giedre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creepy. Definitely leaves you wanting more.

[Ted Tayler · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Terrific mix of short stories"

What a great selection of short stories. Something for everyone. An ideal companion for those days when you only have a few minutes to spare.

[Jay Phillippi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Start with a short story written by an established author in the field. Then challenge other authors to pick the idea and go their own nefarious way with the concept. That's the idea behind "Short Sentence".


In this case there are five established crime authors who lay down the concepts. Parker Bilal sets up "Deception", Conor Fitzgerald offers "Bad Judgement", Anne Zouroudi gives us "Payback", Thomas Mogford explores "Secrets and Lies" and James Runcie finishes us off with "Obsession". The entries into the contest had to be 1,000 words or less so this is a quick read (a total of 47 pages).

But what a read along the way! The five winning authors ( Sarah Evans, Jan Snook, Calum Macleod, Mary Waters and Alex Cooper) rise to the challenge and give you some reading to savor. This is the kind of writing that leaves you wishing there were more.

For fans of crime fiction this is a great addition to the reading queue.

For reviews of media of all kinds (books, movies and more) check out my blog at The View From the Phlipside

[Nikki "The Crazie Betty" V. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars
There were definitely some stories that were better than others in this anthology. I think my favorite part of this collection of short stories was the fact that they were antagonist POV stories. Some of the crimes committed seemed vanilla compared to some of the more gruesome and malicious stories that were told, but were still entertaining. My favorites included “Who’s Calling?” by Parker Bilal, “Secrets and Lies” by Jan Snook, and “Shadower” by Sarah Evans. My least favorites were “A Good Judge of Character” by Conor Fitzgerald and “Sanctuary” by James Runcie. There wasn’t anything particularly bad about these two stories, I just didn’t think they held their weight against some of the other, more graphic reads.

[A Reader's Heaven · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories (approx 1000 words each) that follow the themes of murder, revenge, lies and deception.

If you enjoy a quick read with your morning coffee, during your lunch break or of an evening, this collection is for you. If you are looking for character development, resolutions to crime or answers to challenging moral questions, then maybe you should avoid it.

Worth the read, that's for sure - just not enough stories (although it is free on Amazon.)

[Mark Mallett · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a free download and a very short book - most of you could read it during breakfast. (I don't eat breakfast so it took me a day.) There are 10 short stories, each with a twist or a bit of wryness. And each is not so much "a story" as a thought with some words around it. One I liked most contained the humorous musings of a doctor's receptionist in trouble with her boss. The whole thing was a fun diversion.

[Kirsty Haining · Rating 5 out of 5]

This freebie paired short stories from five Bloomsbury crime authors (Parker Bilal, Conor Fitzgerald, Anne Zouroudi, Thomas Mogford and James Runcie) with stories of the same theme written by the winning competitors in a short-story mystery writing contest. It was a quick read, but lots of fun.

[Mishy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick and easy read. Good for a holiday read :)

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some interesting tales - not a bad read for a short flight.

[Lillie · Rating 3 out of 5]

These short-short stories don't have much room for plot development, but something happened in all of them--generally the focus was on the crime, not the solution.

[Natasha Banton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I thought this was a really good book.

It was filled with many different short stories that are dark and devious. I found some of them to be chilling to the bone. I couldn't put the book down. They didn't take long to read and I thought that some of these stories were worth the reading.

It is a good read for people who likes crime novels from the authors Parker Bilal, Conor Fitzgerald, Anne Zouroudi, Thomas Mogford and James Runcie.

[Scooby And Nautilus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gripping! I couldn't stop reading them, very clever!

Slightly disturbing but, very very good. I love short stories and these are as short as they come! Found by accident but, glad I did!

[Shelley Amazon ca reviews as Purrrplehaze · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wee bunch of stories...

If you have the attention span of a knat, this book is for you!! A great eclectic bunch of short stories to pass your time on break, waiting in line....

I received a free copy of this book and I am thrilled to be able to give you my honest review.

[Jonathan Maas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeffrey Deaver style tales - but 5 minutes each

Quick hits - each tale is 5 minutes or so. Different authors, but a great book to carry with you for quick tales, though it is difficult not to go through all of them in a sitting or two!

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not scary or remotely interesting thank u, next.

[mark feenan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very short book. A few decent stories.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of 10 very short stories, each 1,000 words or fewer. Very quick read, but I was underwhelmed by most of the stories. 2.5 stars.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad collection of stories! It was free, so I didn't have high hopes for it, but overall I enjoyed the stories.

[Carey Smoak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting short stories. The "Grantchester" short story was particularly interesting to me.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the short stories work better than others.

[Suzanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only read it for my 40 Book Challenge as one category is for Short Stories, but I don't usually buy those .. did what it said on the tin, but nothing brilliant.

[Zoe Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short crime stories (some of them are very short!!).

It's what it says on my the tin. A fairly good read. I'd definitely recommend this for anyone who wants to get into crime fiction and isn't sure about the genre.

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading so many long novels lately, this was a breath of fresh air. The stories are extremely short making it a great work break read. I was expecting better with the stories from the reviews I'd seen. This was written in a very different way than the normal stuff and that made them more interesting.There were three in it that left me wanting more. Those authors have my attention now and I'm getting another book of theirs to see if they're interesting enough to follow closer attention to in the future.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very strong collection of short stories. There were only two I thought were a bit weird and I really enjoyed the other 8.

It amazes me what a good author can fit into such a short story. The first and last were probably the strongest of the bunch, both made me want a full length continuation of the stories.

[Pol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dastardly, indeed.

Excellent mixture of authors. If you are a mild- mannered person who likes to read about dastardly deeds without the gore or horror, then this is a good book to read. I, personally, dislike stories that go overboard with guts and that worry you into paranoia, but this collection of dastardly deeds is rather dastardly good.

[James Ephraim Stubbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

I though who's calling was the best rest felt subpar for me

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

A distraction from the mundane. A free download from Amazon.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I've seen someone else say, it's a collection of expanded thoughts. Some better than others, and I must admit some left me a bit confused. However it was a nice short holiday read.