Nine Lives by Terry Tyler

This set of nine short stories is cleverly connected to its title. Nine different lives are described and some of the people demonstrate cat-like behaviour. Most of them are about relationships and are convincing because we have all been in at least one of those situations. There are delightful twists at the end of four of the stories which I couldn’t possibly give away.

Terry Tyler writes with such clarity and fluency that each story is relaxing and compulsive. Two of the stories I found rather depressing but I particularly enjoyed “Mia,” especially when Pam used the phrase, “select my prey.”

The essence of this set of stories is the emotion behind each narrative. We find deception, jealousy, resentment, misunderstanding and most importantly acceptance and self-knowledge. Although I prefer Terry’s novels, this carefully plotted set of stories made a perfect read while travelling.