Ian Rankin. Beggars Banquet (2002) Rankin’s short stories are clever but not engaging. He knows how to tell the story, how to present a character through speech (both internal and external), and can set a mood or sketch a locale in a few phrases. But these stories all have the same pattern: they are designed to surprise and shock, and most of them depend on the twist in the plot for their effect. They were written for magazines and themed anthologies (the modern version of the pulps). The title should have an apostrophe, too. ** (2007)
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