It’s not very often that a collection of short stories is a page turner, but this is no ordinary book. A royal prince is brutally murdered in a Lovecraftian England where the ancient ones roam the earth, and Sherlock Holmes must find the murderer in Gaiman’s “A Study in Emerald”, the 2004 Hugo Award winner for best short story. A very large man finds that the reality he knows may all be a sham in “Goliath”, a short story written for the website of the film The Matrix. The novella, “The Monarch of the Glen”, continues the story of Shadow from Gaiman’s novel American Gods. In the wilds of Scotland, Shadow finds himself among the monsters, and some are even human. Besides these writings in Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders, by Neil Gaiman, there are also the Locus award winners for best short story in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 as well as poetry and other works. Neil Gaiman, who has also written Neverwhere, American Gods, Anansi Boys and the graphic novel series The Sandman, is a best-selling author with a wide audience. There are introductions to all the writings by Gaiman that add to the enjoyment of the stories. Often surprising and always entertaining, his writings draw on a wonderful imagination that makes this collection a must-read.