|
Tales of the Unexpected is a
collection of sixteen superb short stories, all of them very different,
but sharing one thing in common - the unexpected ending.
The stories are:
Taste
When Mike Schofield has
gourmet and wine connoisseur Richard Pratt over to dinner, he likes to
play a little game with his guest - a guessing game - with a small wager
on the side. Mike serves the gourmet with claret (which must be from one
of the great years) and he must name the breed and vintage of the wine
just by taste and smell alone. The bet? A case of the wine and Mike has
never won. This time he feels sure that things will be different, but his
guest wants to raise the stakes and wants his host to bet the hand of his
daughter in marriage.
Lamb to the Slaughter
The tale of a
devoted wife with a dead husband, a leg of lamb in the oven, and a
house-full of policemen.
Man from the South
"You like to
bet?" the old man asks. "Sure I'll always bet," the younger man replies,
but it is an unusual bet: the little finger of his left hand against the
old man's Cadillac.
My Lady Love, My Dove
Arthur and
Pamela are having the Snapes over for the weekend to play bridge, but when
Pamela tells Arthur what else she has in mind for the weekend he thinks it
is the nastiest trick he has ever heard of.
Dip in the Pool
Another tale of
gambling and greed. It's amazing the lengths that some people will go to
just to win, and Mr Botibol has bet all of his money on the ship's
auction.
Galloping Foxley
A business man
travels the same route to work for thirty-six years, always taking the
8.12 train to the city. There is always the same crowd at the station. It
is unchanging and unchangeable. That is until the new boy turns up one
morning, and every morning after, causing the business man to remember
traumatic incidents from his childhood.
Skin
A man living on the streets
discovers that he was priceless work of art tattooed onto the skin of his
back.
Neck
Sir Basil Turton has been able
to avoid his would be suitors easily, and has been free to concentrate on
his love of art. Then Natalia enters his life, sweeps him off his feet,
and along to the registry office.
Nunc Dimittis
Spurned by his lady
love, a man concocts an unusual revenge. He pays for her portrait to be
painted.
The Landlady
The room is very cheap
and Billy Weaver is more than happy with it, even if his new landlady does
seem a little eccentric. But no one ever really knows what goes on behind
closed doors, does one?
William and Mary
William and Mary's
relationship has certainly changed somewhat since poor William
died.
The Way Up To Heaven
Mrs Foster has
terrible fear of being late. Even the thought of it makes her so nervous
that her left eye starts to twitch. Mr Foster might almost seem to be
deliberately making her late.
Parson's Pleasure
Mr Boggis is a
rather unscrupulous antiques dealer, and on a weekend he dresses up as
parson to gain entry to people's homes and search for a bargain. Then one
day he finds something very rare indeed.
Mrs Bixby and the Colonel's
Coat
When her lover, the Colonel, gives Mrs Bixby an extremely
extravagant gift she has to go to unusual lengths to stop her husband from
getting suspicious.
Royal Jelly
At six weeks old Albert
Taylor's baby weighs two pounds less than when she was born. Then
beekeeper, Albert, starts mixing royal jelly into her milk.
Edward the Conqueror
When a stray
cat turns up at their home Louisa quickly come to believe that it is the
reincarnation of the composer Franz Liszt. Edward though, is more
sceptical.
I read the paperback version of Tales of
the Unexpected. It ran to 282 pages and I found it a very handy to
delve into when I had little free time in between doing other things. It
would be hard for me to pick a favourite from the stories above, but, if
pressed, I would probably have to go with either The Landlady or
Man from the South. I particularly liked the characters in
Man from the South and how they interacted with each other.
The Landlady is nicely unsettling and will always come to mind
whenever I have to rent a room for the night.
HOME | 
Steve-Calvert.co.uk
