A mixed bag of short stories and novellas, a couple of Banks which are the strongest, but some rather strange. ( )

This is a collection of 12 short stories, three of which feature Inspector Banks. The third Banks story is the best. Of the other 9, a couple are forgettable. This is a good read and a good introduction the the Inspector Banks series for someone wanting to know if they would like to read the Inspector Banks books. ( )

This is a good selection of short stories and a novella. They are not al Alan banks stories, but a wide variety of other reads. Most enjoyable. ( )

Enjoyable book of short stories, Banks makes a couple of appearances, and in Like A Virgin, we see him in his final case in London before moving North. Interesting too to see Robinson tackling tales on the other side of the Atlantic. ( )

I read mainly crime fiction novels but occasionally a short story anthology is brought to my attention by a fellow reader. Short stories often give the reader a different view of a writer's talents. Among my favourite writers who have also produced short stories are Ian Rankin and Ruth Rendell. I cut my teeth on the short stories of Somerset Maugham and Charles Dickens.

These eleven stories first appeared in the first decade of the 21st century. Only three of them, one of them a longish novella, feature Robinson's detective Alan Banks. The author says that most of them "were written at the request of one editor or another" and at the end of the anthology he gives detail about what led to the writing of each one. He says that he thinks of the stories as challenges, a chance to explore something he hadn't explored before. He says that he finds short stories difficult to write, and that they often take him into uncharted territory.

The story I liked best The Price of Love, the one that gives the anthology its name. Tommy Burford, whose police constable father was recently killed in the line of duty, has discovered something quite strange in the room of Uncle Arthur, his mother's new boyfriend.

It is worth it after you finish each story to take a moment to reflect, to ask who in this story, as the subtitle says, paid with his or her life. ( )