Matthew Kneale's ENGLISH PASSENGERS is one of my favorite books ever, so I was excited to see his new collection of short stories. I like short stories, but my favorites might never make one of Updike's lists of bests; I love H.H. Munro, not so wild about Alice Munro. These stories seemed to fit the bill perfectly for me.

Kneale's title is well-chosen as several of the characters are, to some degree, reprehensible. As I read the stories, I had this sort of internal dialogue running:

"I'd *never* do anything like that. Ever."

"You might, if pushed."

"Nuh-unh. Not me."

"You never know..."

Many of the characters left me feeling just a bit oily. But, the stories were very well told, and the settings were interesting, as many were exotic to me.