Book Review: Miss Win: Tales of Intrigue and Deception by Rosemary Mairs

Book Blurb

‘I always get away with it. Some would call it luck, but it’s more than that. People make it easy for me – they want to believe in what they see.’

Twenty-four tales of mystery and dark secrets. A lonely divorcée finds happiness with a younger man. Or has she fallen victim to a romance scam? What is a pensioner up to? She wants to be stalked and mugged. Is a school girl with a life-threating nut allergy only an attention seeker? Someone decides to test it. A selfless father becomes a hero. So why can’t he face his son?

Betrayal. Concealment. Duplicity. No one is what they seem. Packed with shocking twists and turns, these suspenseful stories ask:

Who can you really trust?

Overall Analysis of Miss Win: Tales of Intrigue and Deception

Miss Win: Tales of Intrigue and Deception by Rosemary Mairs is a collection of twenty-four short stories that dissect and explore its vast array of disturbed, naive, and infrequently well-meaning characters. Each installment is a deep dive into the human (and sometimes nonhuman) psyche, with enough diversity to keep readers engaged throughout.

Despite liking all of the stories, there were varying degrees of enjoyment. My penchant with short story collections is to start with the titular entry. After reading the short story Miss Win, it was evident why it was the identifying story of the collection. I believe this story about a lonesome woman and a swindler had the best payoff out of all the entries. The incredible twist had me eager to read the rest of the stories.

From here on out, there were stories I really jived with and some from which I received some passing enjoyment. Yet, something all these stories had in common was Mairs’ excellent prose. The readers are immediately thrown into unknowing situations, and Mairs’ clear and concise way of writing leads to rapid understanding of the setting. I do not mean to say this was an easy read by any means. Some of the more experimental prose—namely, the dialects and slang portrayed in stories such as Rev Ricky and Flick the Slick—required me to take my time to truly understand what was going on. 

However, I believe Meirs’ strongest competency is her characterization. Short stories like Bad Boy Blade, Buster, and Scar thrive on the portrayal of their narrators despite their vast differences. The true motives of the characters are kept carefully veiled until the right moment, keeping in step with the book’s tagline “Tales of Intrigue and Deception.” Meirs’ allows her characters to shine amidst the haze of mystery and suspense.

There really isn’t much bad I can say about Miss Win. While some of the stories did not land quite as impactful as the others, it is simply a matter of my personal tastes. For Meirs’ to come up with so many unique stories spread across a plentitude of genres is a testament to the rarity of her creativity.

Final Thoughts

Thrilling, experimental, unsettling, and humorously dark, Miss Win: Tales of Intrigue and Deception by Rosemary Mairs is sure to pique the interest of any reader. Full of so many unique and creative stories, you would assume this is an anthology, but that is a testament to Mairs’ incredible imagination. Many of these stories revolve around a similar theme, but the methods and means by which they are portrayed are distinctive enough to carry you through the collection. I recommend Miss Win to any reader looking for an extensive collection of digestible and thought-provoking short stories.