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MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA PRESENTS THE RICH AND THE DEAD
by Nelson DeMille, ed.
Grand Central Publishing, March 2011
384 pages
$24.99
ISBN: 0446555878


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

In this anthology presented by Mystery Writers of America, crime fiction authors show how the rich are different from you and me: they think they can get away with murder or, sometimes, they are the victims of murder. Why write about the rich? As the anthology's editor, Nelson DeMille, explains in the introduction, we are fascinated with "the idea that someone with so much to lose would risk so much in the commission of a crime."

Twenty writers gives us their versions of this theme, beginning with DeMille's delightful short story DEATH BENEFITS, in which a best-selling author plans to kill his longtime agent for insurance money. Also noteworthy: KIDDIELAND by Tim Chapman, a chilling story in which the narrator looks back on a sixth-grade bully; LAMBORGHINI MOMMY by Harley Jane Kozak, in which a woman is framed for murder; and S.J. Rozan's ITERATIONS, a dark tale about a rich man's run-in with a reporter.

For those who follow detective-protagonists, several authors bring theirs out in a short story. In BLOOD WASHES OFF by Michael Connelly, Det. Harry Bosch interviews the wife of a greedy businessman charged in a Ponzi scheme; the man has just been shot at home. Roberta Isleib sends her detective, Jack Meigs, on a forced vacation to Key West in THE ITINERARY. Meigs hates Key West and its attractions. He's only happy when he finds himself drawn into the case of a woman who has disappeared after her cruise ship has docked.

The best thing about anthologies may be that they introduce the reader to a range of authors, some well-known, others less so. This is true here. For example, Angela Zeman, primarily a short-story writer, provides the book's final tale. While Zeman may not be a top crime fiction author, her story, DAPHNE, UNREQUITED, is one of the strongest in the book. Karen Catalona, who is writing her first novel, also turns in a riveting read with THE SADOWSKY MANIFESTO.

With twenty solid selections, THE RICH AND THE DEAD is sure to have something to please every mystery reader.

§ Lourdes Venard is a newspaper editor in Long Island, N.Y.

Reviewed by Lourdes Venard, July 2011

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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