Little Moscow Author:Mick Scully The Little Moscow, a shady basement bar at the side of the Grand Union canal in Birmingham, stamping ground for thieves, gangsters and conmen - plus some of the city's more glamorous creatures. Perhaps the nastiest Birmingham, England, export since Ozzie Osbourne and Black Sabath, this collection of linked... more » stories centers on a world of petty crimes and hard-nosed punishments that invariable seem to be plotted in a dive called Little Moscow. Scully does a credible job of spiriting readers inside the minds of incredible characters, including Marlene Dietrich, two artists slavishly devoted to Andy Warhol, and a tattooist who claims a sexual attraction to penguines and giraffes. 'We all live in different worlds - side by side, but different worlds,' one character muses. 'And we know nothing of each other.' Giving readers a glimpse behind those veils is one of the short story's core missions, and Scully fulfills it so well that psychological revelations obviate the need for tricky plot twists. If it appears someone's set to die or go to jail or otherwise get what's coming to him, that's generally how it turns out. But the endings prove all the more satisfying for their cold logic and lack of misdirection. And when Scully does pull a hidden card from his sleeve, it falls with added impact.""--Booklist.« less