A Shot in the Dark

H.H. Munro’s razor-toothed wit, discerning eye, and taste for the absurd are delightfully evident in this collection of little-known tales. In Saki’s world, a despotic dog becomes his owner’s master, a rural community is hoodwinked into believing in the predictive powers of a pair of friends, and Eve stubbornly refuses to touch the Forbidden Fruit. Although unquestionably of its time, each story ridicules the follies of society—follies still all too clearly familiar today. Best known to the world as Saki, Scottish writer Hector Hugh Munro won fame by skewering the British upper class in his chronicles of Clovis and Reginald.