Transgressions (ed. by Ed McBain)

Retrieved from:
0765308517, 2005
Suggested by: {sigh} I cataloged it (I'll never get to my list at this rate)
My Ratings: 9 Merit, 9 Interest, 10 Fun

Ten novellas by several of today's best mystery and horror novelists, including Stephen King, Lawrence Block and Anne Perry. They are generally great, although I wasn't thrilled will Jeffery Deaver's. It seemed to be kind of a one-trick-pony that was sort of phoned in. The rest rate 9s or 10s though. They are all based on, as the introduction says, "a loose adherence to crime, mystery or suspense." I didn't want to finish the book, I really drew this book out, which clearly means it was good.

My favorites?

• "The Ransome Women" by John Farris: about a woman chosen to model for an hermit of a portrait artist. The model's fiancee checks out all the former models for this artist, and finds they are no longer (ahem) model-worthy.
• "Hostages" by Anne Perry: about The Troubles in Ireland and how intransigent each side has become, and what happens when one person tries to move toward compromise.
• "The Resurrection Man" by Sharyn McCrumb: about a black man hired in 1852 in the South to procure dead bodies for on which medical students practice dissection.

Worth reading again, for the most part.