Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What Dread Hand of Short Stories | 1968 | Christianna Brand | Buy |
| 2 | Brand X of Stories | 1974 | Christianna Brand | Buy |
| 3 | Buffet for Unwelcome Guests: The Best Short Mystery Stories of Christianna Brand | 1983 | Christianna Brand | Buy |
Christianna Brand’s collected works gather her short mystery fiction across three volumes published between 1968 and 1983. What Dread Hand of Short Stories (1968) came first, followed by Brand X of Stories in 1974, and then the 1983 volume Buffet for Unwelcome Guests: The Best Short Mystery Stories of Christianna Brand, which the title positions as a “best of” selection from across her short fiction career.
The three collections can be read in any order. Readers new to Brand’s short stories may want to start with Buffet for Unwelcome Guests, given that it presents her short mystery work in a curated form. All three volumes draw on the mystery and crime genres that Brand also explored in her novels.