Stay of Execution by Michael Gilbert

 

This is another collection of short stories and this time they all feature lawyers handling bizarre situations.  Most feature layer Henry Bohun who was first introduced in Smallbone Deceased.  (He was the character that had that enviable condition that allowed him to function on just 1 or 2 hours of sleep each night.)  Most of the stories concern lawyers preventing injustices, but enough feature lawyers using their expertise to perpetuate injustices--just enough variety to keep you guessing.

Before I read Gilbert's short stories I had always insisted that I didn't like short stories: I always felt that just as you were getting invested the stories suddenly ended.  But all of Gilbert's short stories are perfectly paced and just exactly as long as they should be.  And he just never seemed to run out of material as looking through my giant stack of as yet unread Gilbert books, I now realize that at least five of them are collections of short stories, not novels, as I thought when I ordered them from Alibris.  Exciting!