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Master's Choice Vol. II: Mystery Stories by Today's Top Writers and the Masters Who Inspired Them
by Lawrence Block, Editor
Berkley Prime Crime, November 2000
384 pages
$23.95
ISBN: 0425176762


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

For the lover of crime fiction, this book is about as close to Mystery Nirvana as you can get!

Thirteen luminaries of crime fiction, ranging from Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Lawrence Block to Sharyn McCrumb and Ian Rankin, thrill, chill and distill the essence of mystery and suspense in this short story anthology. If this isn't enough of a treat for the reader, each of these contemporary masters tells about the authors and stories that inspired them. The list they compile is impressive and includes the godfather of mysteries, Edgar Allen Poe and others such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Fredric Brown and 1920s pulp fiction writer John Russell. Their respective stories are included, too.

Picking favorites out of this collection wouldn't be fair. Actually, the task is too daunting. But it is possible to describe what struck me most about the writers' comments and the stories. There is a love of storytelling about each of them. And in telling the story, each author has plumbed the depths of human nature and brought up crusted gems that they have polished until they gleam. But be warned, there is a dark glint to some of these stories, as in Sharyn McCrumb's "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," and "Sometimes They Bite," by Lawrence Block.

Most of the stories are not whodunits, where the guilty person is disclosed at the conclusion. Instead, many of the tales are whydunits, detailing the circumstances that have molded and distorted people's thinking and their characters. As each author weaves his or her story, the reader realizes with increasing dread and horror what is happening. One of life's many victims has turned and become the offender.

This book is a definite "must read."

Reviewed by Patricia Harrington, August 2001

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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