Do Not Exceed the Stated Dose [Stories]

Foreword

Are you sitting comfortably?

The appeal of a short story is that it may be read at a sitting, comfortably. In bed, bath, aircraft, cruise ship or train; waiting for one’s case to come up in court; under cover of a prayer book in church; propped up against the cornflakes packet over breakfast.

For the writer, also, compactness has attractions. Over the years I have plotted, if not written, short stories in many of the locations mentioned above. Occasionally an idea emerges from a few minutes in one memorable place. In this collection, “The Pushover” was inspired by the sunset celebration at Key West; “Bertie and the Boat Race” by a strange incident at the Henley Regatta; and “The Odstock Curse” by the sight of a gravestone on a dark day in a churchyard in Wiltshire.

To tell it to you straight, your comfort is not high in my priorities. If these stories are comfortable reading I am failing in my job. My hope is that you will find in them crimes that make your heart beat faster and twists that take your breath away. One or two at a sitting ought to be enough — which explains the title I chose.

Peter Lovesey