Once in A Blue Moon (stories)

Once in a Blue Moon (2003) is the second collection of short stories by Magnus Mills. As in his novels, each is told by an unnamed narrator :

• "Once in a Blue Moon" in which the narrator acts as negotiator in an armed siege between the police and his mother.
• "The Good Cop" in which he is interrogated by one or possibly two identical policemen.
• "They Drive by Night" in which he is picked up as a hitch-hiker by a large lorry in which he sits in the noisy cab between the driver and his mate and attempts to make sense of the conversation.
• "Screwtop Thompson" in which he is a child and receives as a present "Screwtop Thompson" a toy whose head unscrews and which came in several guises. The narrator chose a policeman but received a schoolmaster....without a head.