Kissing in Manhatten by David Schickler

David Schickler's tales of the unexpected are just that: unexpectedly pervy and un-PC. They are set in a New York apartment block: the building itself, and its antique fixtures seem to exert a strange erotic hold over its many impressionable residents.

In the story "Jacob's Bath" a 40-year-old marriage is kept alive in one of its renowned free-standing tubs, while the original Otis elevators seem to provoke hormonal mayhem in late-night visitors.

Deadpan in delivery, Schickler's stories button-hole from the very first sentence – "Leonard Bunce wanted one woman, but he planned to use another" – but always end with at least one of the participant's fastenings still intact.