When I had the opportunity to read Playing Games, I thought the book was a collection of short stories by Lawrence Block. Block has been a favorite writer of mine for many decades. However, with the exception of the final story, this is an anthology of short stories by authors other than Block. The stories all contain the element of a game being played in the story. Some are games I’ve never heard of, such as Psychiatrist and Crokinole, while other stories involve common games and activities such as marbles, checkers, and jigsaw puzzles.

As with any collection of stories, some are good, a few excellent, and a few not so good. This is of course subjective, but I found four of the stories excellent, seven stories that were not good at all, and the rest fell somewhere between the two extremes. Below is a brief summary of each story below and my rating for each story.

The book leads off with “Seek and You Will Find,” by Patricia Abbott. This story involves the ancient children’s game of hide and seek. While it has an element of mystery and horror at the end, overall, it missed the mark for me.

Next is “Game Over” by Charles Ardai. This was a good story involving the playing of video games. I enjoyed this story very much.

“King’s Row,” by S. A. Cosby was a decent story. This story involved the game of checkers and a seemingly comatose man. This story fell in the middle range for me; not great, but not bad either.

“The Babysitter,” by Jeffrey Deaver involved the children’s game of Candyland. It was a good story involving a murder with a twist ending you won’t see coming.

“Paladin,” by Tod Goldberg was a disappointing story. This story involved the game Dungeons and Dragons. I won’t go into any specifics so as not to spoil the ending, but I saw the ending very quickly. The supposed twist ending was evident early on. This was a very disappointing story.

“Psychiatrist,” by Jane Hamilton involved a game I have never heard of, called Psychiatrist. The game seemed pointless to me and due to its nature, can only be played once by the participants. If the story had been told from the perspective of the person trying to figure out the game, the story would have been better. But the story is told from the perspective of the game players, thus any suspense was removed. I failed to see the point in either this story or the dumb parlor game being played.

“Knock,” by James Hannah was one of the best stories in the collection. It involved the card game, Gin Rummy, and a man with a new identity in the Federal Witness Protection Program. This is a very good story.

“With the Right Bait,” by Gar Haywood, was another excellent story. This story revolved around the children’s game of Mousetrap. Who didn’t own that game as a kid? The Mousetrap game in the story covers three days and ends with a murder, but not as expected. I really enjoyed this story a lot.

Unfortunately, “Two Norths, Two Souths, Tow East, Two West, Two Reds, Two Whites, and Two Greens,” by Elaine Kagan was one of the most disappointing stories in the book. This story centered around the game of mahjong.

“A Crokinole Tale,” by Auri Kllemer was another poor story. It was a story of a tree at a summer camp where the narrator was a camp counselor. I failed to see the point of this story.

“Red Billie,” by Joe Lansdale, was an abject disaster of a story in my opinion. This story centered around a game of marbles and also involved a touch of magical realism, which I enjoy reading if written by an author sufficiently talented to pull it off. It appeared the author tried too hard to make the story work and forced the elements where there was no need to do so.

The story was filled with idiotic analogies such as “no more interest in that place than one might have in trying to give a rattlesnake a tonsillectomy with a pair of tweezers,” or “the air conditioner panted in the house like a dying dog, sucked that Freon as if with a straw, and “I might as well have gone into trying to catch cicada farts in a jar.” Many paragraphs were filled with phrases like this. One or two in a story is fine, but the author seemed to be forcing them in where they were not needed.
“Lightning Round,” by Warren Moore was one of the better stories in the book. This story revolves around a game of trivia played in a bar. The lady who operates the game used the questions to convey a message to one of the players regarding her abusive boyfriend. I really enjoyed this story.

“The Puzzle Master,” by David Morrell, while not the best of stories, was a touching story of a couple putting together a jigsaw puzzle that revealed the story of a man’s life told through the scenes depicted in a series of puzzles he created. As I said, this was a very touching and emotional story.

“Challenge Cube,” by Kevin Quigley centered around the game of Boggle. This story really missed the mark in my opinion. It is about a man who was challenged as a child by his dyslexia.

“A Tip on a Turtle,” in my opinion was the worst story in the collection for two reasons. First, the story was too long, way too long. Secondly, the actions of Nicholas were bizarre and failed to make sense. He could see the future, yet allowed himself to die when it was not necessary and served no purpose. The game involved in this story is gambling on turtle races.

“Chance,” by Wallace Stroby was one of the best stories in the book. It centered around a game of Russian Roulette in a club that plays the game on a regular basis. This story really engaged me and I did not see the ending coming at all. A very good story.

The final story by Lawrence Block was “Strangers on a Handball Court.” It ranked among the best in the book. I cannot reveal details about the story without spoiling the ending, but let me say it was an excellent story with a twist ending I failed to see coming.

Even though almost half of these stories were disappointing to me and only about half were good or excellent, overall, I have to give the collection 4 stars. The best stories in the book made up for the poorer stories. Despite having so many inadequate stories, I still recommend this book.

I want to thank Net Galley for providing me with a copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review. ( )