Music of the Night - from the Crime Writer’s Association

Music of the Night is a new anthology of original short stories contributed by Crime Writer’s Association (CWA) members and edited by Martin Edwards, with music as the connecting theme. The aim, as always is to produce a book which is representative both of the genre and the membership of the world’s premier crime writing association.

The CWA has published anthologies of members’ stories in most years since 1956 with Martin Edwards as editor for over 25 years during which time the anthologies have yielded many award-winning and nominated stories by writers such as Ian Rankin, Reginald Hill, Lawrence Block, and Edward D. Hoch.

Stories by long-standing authors and stellar names sit alongside contributions from relative newcomers, authors from overseas, and members whose work haven’t appeared in a CWA anthology before. Among the gifted stars of today whose fiction featured in a CWA anthology at an early stage of their crime writing careers are Mick Herron, Frank Tallis, and Sarah Hilary. It isn’t a closed shop, and never has been.

Martin Edwards (Editor) is the author of eighteen novels, including the Lake District Mysteries, and the Harry Devlin series. His ground-breaking genre study The Golden Age of Murder has won the Edgar, Agatha, and H.R.F. Keating awards. He has edited twenty eight crime anthologies, has won the CWA Short Story Dagger and the CWA Margery Allingham Prize, and is series consultant for the British Library’s Crime Classics. In 2015, he was elected eighth President of the Detection Club, an office previously held by G.K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie, and Dorothy L. Sayers.

The CWA (Crime Writers' Association) was founded in 1953 by John Creasey, and organises the prestigious CWA Dagger Awards which celebrate the best in crime writing. The CWA is a pro-active, thriving and ever-expanding community of writers based in the UK but with a reach that extends worldwide

Review

‘Music of the Night’ is a beautiful short story anthology that unsurprisingly centres around the theme of music. There is a very eloquent introduction by Martin Edwards that talks about the role of music in crime fiction and which authors have used it in their works. Music I find is ingrained into our psyche and therefore will always feature in any genre of fiction - I love you can even find Spotify playlists for books and they include all the music mentioned within that prose! I always thought that the Peter Robinson series would make a good playlist!

All the contributors to this anthology are members of the Crime Writers Association and there are some big names included! I think those that are able to write an effective short story are very talented as how do you convey plot points and deep characters within a short space. I know I couldn't do it! But these stories are as varied as they are brilliant. From ‘The Meolody of Murder’ by Anthony M Brown, where a killer recreates album covers, to Kate Ellis reluctant piano student, to Ragnar Jonasson’s silent room all the stories were amazing. But my favourite had to be ‘Wrong Notes’ by Andrew Taylor which focuses on a young reporter who is covering a school concert! Who can't love it when there is a character ‘Mr Thornhill’ who is a policeman - my dad's name and occupation!

This is a great book to dip in and out of and a group of stories that I thoroughly enjoyed reading!