Three great little stories pulled from one of Steinbeck's short story collections from 1938. The first is a fine, original idea, following one of the citizens in a mob in the immediate aftermath of a lynching, as the illusion begins to wear off. It is told with Steinbeck's typical humanity – the character is not so much shamefaced but feels indefinably peculiar at what has happened and his role in it.

The second story is the strangest, depicting a woman who wants to watch a snake eat a mouse. It is vaguely creepy, as if you should be looking over your shoulder occasionally as you read it. The third shows how you can betray in thought as well as in deed. The stories here are not more than what they are, if you take my meaning, but they are good examples of Steinbeck's writing ability. It is a short and sweet dose, or maybe not sweet but bitter – a "good bitter… not nasty at all" (pg. 44). ( )