The main draw for me was "The Creature in the Case" and it was a good read but there were few poor reads in this, many of them wry and humourous. I think that some of them suffered in comparison to others rather than being truly poor. It was also helped by the introductions by Garth Nix for each story and his disarming modesty. The stories that stood out (apart from The Creature in the Case) were Under the Lake - one of two Arthurian stories; Charlie Rabbit - a poignant war story; Lightning Bringer - a story of a man who controlls lightning (a story that takes this selection away from Childrens and into young adult more than many of the others); Heart's desire - the other Arthurian story; Hansel's Eyes - a retelling of Hansel and Gretel; Hope Chest - a strange western that I'd like to see a bit more of; Three Roses - poignant and sweet and Endings - a story that just cuts through a lot of the waste other stories have. Even though that's almost all the stories in it, and the rest didn't really stand out, they were good reads anyway. Garth Nix has a way of writing stories that just manages to make you very happy that you read them.