Elly Griffiths has always written short stories to experiment with different voices and genres as well as to explore what some of her fictional creations such as Ruth Galloway, Harbinder Kaur, and Max Mephisto might have done outside of the novels. The Man in Black gathers these bite-sized tales all together in one splendid volume. There are ghost stories, cozy mysteries, tales of psychological suspense, and poignant vignettes of love and loss. In the title story, Ruth Galloway crosses paths with a mysterious man in a bookstore, setting in motion a rescue mission that hinges on the legends and lore of Norfolk. Looking into the past, a young magician in 1920s Leeds wonders just what happened to his missing landlady in "Max Mephisto and the Disappearing Act." In "Justice Jones and the Etherphone," a witty girl detective investigates the dire prediction of a fortune teller in dreary postwar London. A flashback in time reveals Harbinder Kaur as a Detective Sergeant surviving her first day on the job at Shoreham DCI. To celebrate the holidays, Ruth gets her very first Christmas tree, and her beloved cat narrates his own seasonal story in "Flint's Fireside Tale." And readers can armchair travel with stories set on the Amalfi Coast, in Capri, and in Egypt as Ruth and DCI Nelson experience their very own version of Death on the Nile.