Janet Hutchings

Sestavovatelka antologie zařadila do knihy především autory všeobecně uznávané, často laureáty prestižních literárních cen a ukázky z jejich tvorby doplnila jejich stručnými medailony. Cílem publikace je podat čtenáři přehled o tom, jak v současnosti vypadá spektrum detektivního žánru. (Knížka vyšla již dříve pod názvem Sedmadvacet detektivů v roce 2002.)

Antologie sedmadvaceti povídek předních autorů detektivní prózy přináší vyváženou směs tradičních detektivek, kriminálních thrillerů, akčních příběhů i vyprávění s tajuplnou zápletkou.… (meer)

I seem to be on a kick of reading compilations of short stories lately. It's not too long ago that I was saying I didn't really enjoy short stories but the examples I've read lately may cause me to reexamine my position on that.

There were some really great stories in this collection. Most of them were by authors I have enjoyed in the past but some were by new (to me) authors. (Just what I need, more authors I have to follow!)

One of the authors I discovered was Carolyn Hart who wrote the story "Spooked" about a young girl living in Oklahoma during World War II. Apparently Hart has a series featuring an older heroine which she describes as her "tribute to women who were young during WWII...a generation of women who blazed independent paths in a male-dominated society." That sounds like something I will have to check out.

One of the stories was by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, a name that was familiar to me but not in the mystery genre. She has written a lot of great science fiction but if the story "Details" is anything to go by she is equally adept at mystery. Interestingly it is also set in the 1940's and features a soldier just returned from the war to his home in McCardle, Nevada. He talks briefly to a woman at a garage and the next morning she is found dead in the desert. The story explores racism because the woman was black and he was white. Very compelling.

The final story in the book "Of Course You Know that Chocolate is a Vegetable" by Barbara D'Amato would have caught my attention anyway but it's got quite a lot of scientific information woven into it and I enjoyed that. I'll be looking for more books by that author as well, especially since the introduction says "In virtually all of the Cat Marsala adventures, social issues come into the case. But if the author wants her readers to consider the serious issues she puts forward, she doesn't do it in a heavy-handed way. On the contrary, her books are marked, always, by a touch of humor."

Hope the next reader enjoys this book as much as I did. I'm glad I rescued it from the book sale.… (meer)