Old Wounds is a collection of Detective and Crime stories that take the reader back to the time of Dashiell Hammet and the darker noir stories. Each story stands on its own, with some being true detective stories centered around Nick Shelby, PI, and others that are much more dark and scary. The stories cover several genres such as paranormal, horror, and science-fiction, making them that much more fun to read. All 15 stories are well done and capture the characters quickly, thus bringing the reader into the story.
Batt has done a terrific job of creating characters that the reader immediately connects with. Each story keeps the reader on the edge of their chair anticipating what will happen next. From Shelby trying to find out who killed the love of his life to a prostitute that is determined to find a friend’s killer, each story is filled with suspense, tension, and foreboding. In the end, you will be surprised at how the stories all come together, which to me is a job very well done!
Old Wounds: A Nick Shelby Case and Other Crime Stories is a collection of fifteen different short stories, each one being individual, yet they all have the same basic theme, crime.
The book was enjoyable as a whole and all of the fifteen stories were intriguing to read and excellent thrillers. My favourite though has to be the title story ‘Old Wounds: A Nick Shelby Case’ in which there is a fire and a man is killed but turns out not to be the man they thought it was and so a mystery unfolds. This one really kept my attention as there were lots of twists and turns. There were quite a few in the other stories too.
The book is well-written, with good use of language and all of the characters came across as realistic. As the book contains fifteen different stories it was easy to read them in one sitting, then you can put the book down for a while before beginning another one. They were all so imaginative and I adored the different time periods that occurred.
Old Wounds: A Nick Shelby Case and Other Crime Stories certainly is a good read. There is a lot of intrigue, darkness, thrills, and twists, in each one which left me wanting more. I do hope that there will be another book to follow.
