The Greatest Russian Stories of Crime and Suspense by Otto Penzler
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Weirdly uneven, but (generally) at the highest level of writing. Still, these Russians do get tedious. I gave up in the middle of "The Overcoat" because...OMG...tediously foreshadowy.
The Sherlock Holmes ripoff was all wrong as well--none of his quick-witted misanthropic personality shows through at all. I understand that this was essentially a dime novel type of story, but it didn't set well.
Oh, well, the majority were well-written and interesting. In the introduction, Penzler talks about how the Russian mystery is a very young, very different critter than western mystery fiction, much as Russian literature as a whole has its own tone. That explained a great deal, but I have to say that I like western stories better. ;-)
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