Short Story Peril: Tricks by Laura Lippman (And a Wrap Up Post for R.I.P. V Challenge)

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Tricks by Laura Lippman (The Dark End of the Street: New Stories of Sex and Crime)

Tricks by Laura Lippman will be my last read for Carl's R.I.P. V Challenge, considering this challenge will end on October 31st and I don't think I will be able to finish reading the rest of the short stories of this anthology over the weekend. Nonetheless, I want to say I had fun participating in this challenge (as always! Plus, Carl is a wonderful host) and this has given me the opportunity to read more short stories since I rarely read them these days.

As the title indicates, Tricks by Laura Lippman is a story of a con man who not only cheat vulnerable women into marrying him but also stealing money from them during the process. We never get to know his name right from the beginning since there is no point in it considering he moves on and changes his name after getting what he wants from the victims.

Tricks tells the story of his perspective and his moves on his latest victim. I wish I could say something more aside from these but I am afraid that would spoil the fun for you. Laura Lippman writes great mysteries so expect a twist and a good ending to this story.

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I decided to do a wrap up post here for the R.I.P. V Challenge since October 31st marks the last day of the challenge and I don't think I will be able to read and review a few more short stories over the weekend. I am committed to read The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories for the Short Story Peril but instead I got sidetracked by other books and by the time I wanted to get into that anthology again, the interest is no longer there. Thus I picked up The Dark End of the Street with a new expectation since they are two different genres altogether.

Due to time constraint, I am not able to finish reading the whole anthology but I would get to the rest of the stories at some point. Below is a list of short stories I read for the R.I.P. V Challenge (in chronological order):

• Tricks by Laura Lippman (The Dark End of the Street)
• Me & Mr. Rafferty by Lee Child (The Dark End of the Street)
• What Was It? by Fitz-James O'Brien (The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories)
• The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell (The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories)

Among these four titles, I have to say my favourites are Me & Mr. Rafferty and The Old Nurse's Story. I was wowed by the former and the latter simply creeps me out.

Before I end this post, I would like to thank Carl for hosting this fun challenge! Carl's R.I.P. Challenge is one of my favourites reading challenges and I always look forward to it this time of the year.

Did you participate and what books did you read for this challenge?