Mystery Writers of America Presents the Prosecution Rests

April 4, 2011
Rich people can be both criminals and victims, as shown by the 20 stories in this solid anthology, whose contributors range from bestselling veterans to newcomers. Standouts include Michael Connelly's "Blood Washes Off," in which detective Harry Bosch makes a welcome appearance in the interview room; Harley Jane Kozak's "Lamborghini Mommy," which plays a nice variation on look-alikes; and Roberta Isleib's "The Itinerary," in which widowed Connecticut detective Jack Meigs vacations in Key West, but can't keep his cop instincts from sniffing out crime instead of tourist attractions. Carolyn Mullen's first published fiction, "Poetic Justice," is a wonderfully sly, clever story with literary underpinnings. In Frank Cook's "The Gift," two partners separate and take very different paths to success, but can't separate their fates. Using everything from Ponzi schemes to trophy wives to inherited wealth, these MWA authors prove that money isn't always the right answer.

April 1, 2009
The third themed anthology from the Mystery Writers of America (Death Do Us Part, 2006, etc.) offers a collection of mostly new tales of legal intrigue memorable for their variety of approaches to the formula.

The most surprising feature of courtroom drama is how many different kinds of courtrooms can be involved. For Jo Dereske, the venue is a parole hearing; for Kate Gallison, it's the Salem witch trials; for John Walter Putre, it's an ecclesiastical trial for heresy. Phyllis Cohen, Anita Page, Joseph Wallace and Angela Zeman all present rough justice outside the courtroom, and officers of the court turn out to have feet of clay in stories by Edward D. Hoch, Joel Goldman, Eileen Dunbaugh, Barbara Parker, Twist Phelan and especially S.J. Rozan. James Grippando provides the most original premise: a civil suit brought by viatical investors when the holder of the life-insurance policy they've bought at a discount turns out not to be fatally ill after all. Paul Levine covers the most ground, veering from domestic comedy to Hitchcockian horror in nine pages. Leigh Lundin's examination of euthanasia is the most touching entry. The stories by Daniel J. Hale and Charlie Drees have multiple twists; Morley Swingle delivers a single well-planned twist; Diana Hansen-Young's twist comes a little too soon; and Michele Mart"nez and editor Fairstein, in the only reprint, seem to get by with no twists at all.

No new classics, but plenty of evidence why the formula continues to hook readers.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 1, 2009
Courtroom drama has consumed the American psyche since Perry Mason (the O. J. trial didnt hurt, either). In this terrific collection, 21 of todays top legal-thriller writers present a small taste of what makes the courtroom setting so appealing. All the contributors are members of the Mystery Writers of America, and most are best-selling authors. While the courtroom is most definitely the star, many stories feature action outside the judges four walls and involving peripheral characters, including clerks in Barbara Parkers A Clerks Life and debt collectors and bail bondsmen in Diana Hansen-Youngs The Flashlight Game. In others, while the setting might be a courtroom, the drama is more about the characters than the crime, as in Paul Levines Mom Is My Co-Counsel. The entries range from funny and quirky to dark and disturbing, but, taken as a whole, they make a thoroughly entertaining work of crime fiction.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

February 25, 2008
Mystery Writers of America presents a high-quality anthology of 19 original stories that explore a wide range of police experiences, from newcomer Polly Nelson's superb tale set in 1864 Kansas, “Burying Mr. Henry,” to editor Connelly's powerful and grim Harry Bosch investigation into a young disabled boy's death, “Father's Day.” The sordid mean streets, depicted in Persia Walker's “Such a Lucky, Pretty Girl,” are nicely balanced with the lighter touches of Jon Breen's “Serial Killer,” a darkly comic tale in which two police detectives recount one of their cases to a community college writing class. TV writer Paul Guyot contributes one of the volume's strongest selections, “What a Wonderful World,” about a cop's obsessive search for the killer of a hot dog vendor. This is one of those rare themed anthologies that can be enjoyed at one sitting.

Starred review from March 2, 2009
Bestseller Fairstein (Killer Heat
) has put together a stellar anthology, presented by the Mystery Writers of America, that will appeal both to contemporary noir fans and devotees of Law & Order
. The late Edward Hoch starts things off nicely with “The Secret Session,” a concise whodunit centering on judicial corruption at the appellate level. In Barbara Parker’s deliciously creepy “A Clerk’s Life,” a put-upon law clerk for a major Florida firm stumbles on two murders. Joel Goldman highlights the ethical challenges of criminal defense work in “Knife Fight,” as does Eileen Dunbaugh in “The Letter.” By way of counterpoint, Michele Martinez’s “The Mother” and Morley Swingle’s “Hard Blows” dramatize the challenges prosecutors encounter, even when the defendants they charge are, in fact, guilty. The consistently high quality of the 22 selections will lead many to hope the MWA will sponsor more volumes in this vein.