Three years ago I purchased Deadly Anniversaries, edited by Bill Pronzini and Marcia Muller, so that I could read "Chin Yong-Yun Sets the Date" by S.J. Rozan. Chin Yong-Yun is Lydia Chin's mother in the Lydia Chin / Bill Smith series. My thoughts on that story are in this post. So, now I am finally getting around to reading more stories in that book.
Description from the cover of the book:
Deadly Anniversaries celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Mystery Writers of America with a collection of stories from some of the top names in crime fiction. An anniversary can honor many things: a birth, a wedding and sometimes even a death.
Each author puts their own unique spin on what it means to recognize a certain day or event each year. These nineteen stories travel across a wide range of historical and contemporary settings and remind readers of how broad the mystery writing tradition can be, encompassing detective tales, domestic intrigue, psychological suspense, black humor and thrilling action.
Here is a list of the stories in the book:
- "If You Want Something Done Right. . ." by Sue Grafton
- "Ten Years On" by Laurie R. King
- "Normal in Every Way" by Lee Child
- "The Replacement" by Margaret Maron
- "Chin Yong-Yun Sets the Date" by S. J. Rozan
- "Amazing Grace" by Max Allan Collins
- "Ten Years, Two Days, Six Hours" by Wendy Hornsby
- "The Anniversary Gift" by Jeffery Deaver
- "The Last Dive Bar" by Bill Pronzini
- "Case Open" by Carolyn Hart
- "The Bitter Truth" by Peter Lovesey
- "Unknown Caller" by Meg Gardiner
- "April 13" by Marcia Muller
- "Whodat Heist" by Julie Smith
- "Blue Moon" by William Kent Krueger
- "Aqua Vita" by Peter Robinson
- "The Last Hibakusha" by Naomi Hirahara
- "30 and Out" by Doug Allyn
- "The Fixer" by Alison Gaylin and Laura Lippman
In the last couple of days, I read stories by Lee Child, Margaret Maron, Max Allan Collins, and William Kent Krueger.
Max Allan Collin's story, "Amazing Grace", was my favorite of those four.
In 1960, Grace Rushmore is eighty years old and has been married to her husband Lem for fifty years. He has never been a very good husband; he married her for her money and never contributed to the business of the farm that had supported them. They had ended up selling the farm and opened up a bakery in town, and Grace baked wedding cakes as her specialty. Now Grace has four children, twelve grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. All of the children and their families are coming home for a big 50th anniversary celebration. Grace bakes a huge Lemon Layer Cake for the party.
I really liked the ending of this story. A recipe for Lemon Layer Cake is included following the story.
20 comments:
I have this one, and need to get back to it, too...Stark House has continued its fine tradition in recent months, releasing Pronzini's selection of his best CF stories, CREAM OF THE CROP, and his best western stories, THE HANGING MAN AND OTHER STORIES...though I think titling his CF best-of after one of the stories, such as "Strangers in the Fog", might've been a better choice. As well as its continuing program of reisissuing Barry Malzberg's work (after Muller, Pronzini's most assiduous collaborator).
I always enjoy a Max Allan Collins story. This is a great group of writers.
I remember your other post about this collection, Tracy. It does look excellent, and of course with some very talented writers. I really need to get it, I think.
DEADLY ANNIVERSARIES sounds great! I'll have to track down a copy!
Bill Pronzini gets a lot of credit as an author but his work as an editor deserves tp to be far better known. Any Pronzini-Muller collection is guaranteed to be superb.
Collections like these are such a great way to learn about new authors. Although I recognize and have read books by several of them, I see a lot of new-to-me names.
Kelly, I do like to try new writers in anthologies like this. A lot of the science fiction short story anthologies I have are full of authors I don't recognize, and some have been writing a long time. I became aware of Kate Wilhelm via short stories and I loved the first novel I read by her.
Todd, Cream of the Crop is on Glen's list of books to get. He is a big Pronzini fan, especially the Nameless series. I will look into the Stark reprints more for ones I might want myself (although I have quite a few on hand that I haven't read yet).
This looks like a great collection! Over the years I've followed your blog and am now...learning what you said "...remind readers of how broad the mystery writing tradition is". I've started reading more CF. It's all thanks to you! I'll start one of your favorites today Rex Stout "Black Orchids"! Anonymous = nancy
There's a Sue Grafton short story in this collection, too? Fun!
This really does sound like an excellent anthology. I've been digging out a few collections to dip into in December and over Christmas. A bit early I know but today's snow made me feel Christmassy! :-)
Patti, I think I have only read one book by Max Allan Collins, but that one was very good.
This collection seems to be very good, Margot, but I have a good number of stories yet to go.
George, you have such a large collection, I am surprised that you don't have this one already.
Jerry, I was aware he had done many anthologies with others, but I was shocked to see the long list at Fantastic Fiction. I have a few of them, but I would love to have more.
Lark, from what I have read, this anthology was published after Grafton's death and her story in this book was previously unpublished, but fit the needs of this collection.
Nancy, I hope you like Black Orchids. Not everyone likes the Nero Wolfe books, but I am glad you are trying one of his stories.
Cath, Snow would definitely put me in the mood for Christmas, but I have never had much experience with snow.
I hope I am in the mood for Christmas stories when we get to December, because I sure have a lot of them in the house.
So does Grace get back at her no good husband at the anniversary? Lemon Cake ... I like the sound of that. A good lemon cake is invaluable.
Yes she does, Susan. I love Lemon Cake but I have no patience for baking.
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