Murder by Death

I've been a fan of Lynn Truss since I stumbled on Making the Cat Laugh over a decade ago, while on a trip in the UK.  I've since read a number of her non-fiction titles, but A Certain Age was my first experience with her fiction writing.  

A Certain Age is actually a collection of 12 monologues she wrote for BBC radio in 2002 and 2005.  I had only the vaguest notion of what a monologue was in this context, but she very helpfully explains in her introduction (a dramatic form developed in the early 80's that elevated the general idea of a traditional monologue to one that, with the addition of multiple scenes, adds a temporal dimension allowing them to stand on their own as a form of drama.  Or something like that.).

The collection is evenly divided, 6 female voices, 6 male.  Some of them are funny, some are confronting and some are tragic, but they are all outstanding.  I didn't like a couple of them, but they sucked me into their stories nonetheless, and held me entranced.

Far and away my favourite was The Son.  My least favourite was easily The Husband.

This was a bit of a departure for me, reading wise, so I admittedly don't have a lot to compare this to, but I'd highly recommend it.  I'm not sure I'll ever read her full length fiction, but as a short-form monologue writer, I think she's brilliant.