View source for Stories 2 by Richard F Walker

{{infobox1
|title=Stories 2
|author=Richard F Walker
|reviewer=Jill Murphy
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=A second collection of short stories from Walker - a wonderful variety ranging from shocking to biting to satirical. There's lots of humour here, both goodhearted and bleak. And plenty to give you pause for thought.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=215
|publisher=Independently published
|date=July 2023
|isbn=979-8851751042
|cover=B0CCCVRSGX
|aznuk=B0CCCVRSGX
|aznus=B0CCCVRSGX
}}

''Richard F Walker returns with Stories 2, 13 more intriguing tales, each of which has the potential to have you exclaiming, "Yikes." Don't be surprised if you get straight on your social media telling everyone, "U HVE GOT T RD THS!" There are shocks, scares, weird happenings, searing political comment, satire and several storylines about which you'll probably think, "THAT would never happen!" - but you'll be glad it did. A book to dip into or lose yourself in; one thing's certain: it won't be boring.''

This is Richard F Walker's second volume of short stories. There are thirteen in all and I took something from each of them. There isn't a single one that doesn't deserve to be among the others or brings down the overall quality. It can be tricky to review short stories without giving too much away, so I'll just pick two to talk about and I think they give a general flavour.

''Summer Holidays'' is a child's homework for Mr Tewkesbury's Class 6b. Although it mentions ice cream, it's not the account of a child's summer holiday that Mr Tewkesbury will be expecting. It's the story of a flight from Iraq to the UK. And it's also a ghost story. It made me cry.

''Pick'' was another favourite. ''Today I'm the tiler but we work as a team; we can do all the jobs. Yesterday I was the pick. That's what I like the best, actually stealing stuff''. It's a day in the life of a pickpocketing team - how they choose their marks, how they operate as a team, and how they pass on the pickings for fencing. But mostly, it's about the exhilaration of it all. But exhilaration can be, well, too exhilarating. And you'll find out why, as Mario says, you just can't trust anyone these days!

I do enjoy a good short story. I like to laugh out loud at an unexpected punchline. Or to take a reading break to ponder because a little piece of fiction has just posed a question I want to think about an answer to. Or to just enjoy a tiny snapshot of an event seen from the point of view of just one of the many people it affected. Or or or. And the great thing about ''Stories 2'' is that it gave me all of these things. I did laugh. I did gasp. I did take time-outs to think.  The topics covered are wide-ranging but they are all rooted in the sheer unlikeliness of life.

Walker has a casual and accessible writing style but don't be deceived. Like all clever authors, there's a lot more in these stories than the light and airy tone would have you believe. It's not easy to write one good short story, let alone thirteen and Walker has done it with gusto.

What more could you want?

Recommended.

If you enjoy short stories of the unexpected, and ''Stories 2'' appeals, you really should look at Walker's previous volume, [[Stories: 13 tantalising tales by Richard F Walker|Stories: 13 Tantalising Tales]].

You can read more about Richard F Walker [[:Category:Richard F Walker|here]].

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