Another Review at MyShelf.Com

Publisher: Signet
Release Date:
2004
ISBN: 0-451-21333-5
Awards:  
Format Reviewed: Paperback
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Genre:   Mystery / Anthology
Reviewed: 2004
Reviewer: Jeff Shelby
Reviewer Notes:  
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Murder and All That Jazz
Edited by Robert J. Randisi

    Short story anthologies can sometimes be hit or miss. A few good ones, a few so-so ones and a clunker or two. We read the ones we love, skim the ones that don’t really grab us, and skip the ones that just don’t appeal. So finding one that provides high quality stories from the first page to the last can be a tough chore.

    But Murder and All That Jazz, produced by Robert Randisi, meets the challenge and provides thirteen entertaining stories that marry the themes of crime and jazz.

     Some of the biggest names in crime fiction have contributed stories featuring their famous protagonists. Michael Connelly brings Detective Harry Bosch to readers in “Christmas Even,” Laura Lippman lets Tess Monaghan investigate in “The Shoeshine Man’s Regrets,” and Les Roberts puts Milan Jacovich in the thick of things in “Jazz Canary.” All three stories are sharp and add a nice little extra dimension to characters that many readers will be familiar with.

    But even the less familiar names provide good reading. Julie Smith’s “Kid Trombone” evokes the smell, feel and atmosphere of New Orleans. Craig Holden, John Lutz, Martin Meyers, Max Allen Collins and Matthew V. Collins take us back to the twenties and thirties in their stories. John Harvey, Bill Moody, Ed Gorman and Randisi himself contribute fine tales to the work as well. And Peter Robinson provides the creepiest and perhaps most entertaining story in the anthology.

      Randisi has done a fantastic job of putting together this anthology, as Murder and All That Jazz hits all the right notes.