It wasn’t until I began reviewing for firstCLUE that I read mystery anthologies. Now I’m a firm believer that everyone needs an anthology such as this one on their bedside table. The many stories collected here provide the perfect opportunity to relax, unwind, and travel near and far. As Unger writes in the introduction: “…this form [short fiction] has a special kind of magic, the ability to transport you quickly, intensely, to capture character, time, place, and story with immediacy and deliver it all with a punch.” And where our expectation of crime novels is that everything will be resolved in the end, short stories often finish more enigmatically, giving readers something to ruminate about. Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier, for example, transports us, in “Ripen,” to the Virgin Islands, where a politician’s arrogance leads to his dramatic downfall. A. J. Jacono’s “When We Remember Zion” tells the intensely chilling tale of a mentally ill abductor who delivers his hostage’s baby. We accompany an older veteran—now a professional criminal—who tries to escape from a botched job by returning to his childhood cabin in James A. Hearn’s “Home is the Hunter.” “New York Blues Redux,” by William Boyle, depicts a Brooklyn dive bar that becomes the setting for a night of tragedy. Congratulations to editors Unger and Cha for producing a volume as rich in diversity as it is compelling in its narratives.
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