Crime Hits Home is an anthology from Mystery Writers of America, edited by S. J. Rozan. The book was published in April 2022 and all of the stories in the book were first published in this book.
The theme for the stories in this book is home and the crimes that endanger it. The definition of home can be expanded to be a group of people that you feel comfortable with, a team, an ethnic group.
I read the first three stories in the book.
"Grand Garden" by Naomi Hirahara
I found this to be an incredibly sad story in so many ways. The setting is a beautiful garden in Pasadena in the early 1900's; a young Japanese-American boy lives in a Japanese-style house on the grounds of the garden. The child is ashamed of his home and knows the white boys in his school will look down on him if they find out where he lives. One day a schoolmate visits the garden with his brothers and bullies his way into the house. He insists on playing with a samurai sword, and the result is tragedy.
"The World's Oldest Living Detective" by David Bart
This is my favorite story of the three I have read. It has an elderly sleuth and a cat named Ripley. The protagonist is a retired private detective living in a retirement home.
Four mysteries are resolved in the 22 pages of this short story, but the best one is a case from the detective's past, where he had to work for a sleazy Senator who wanted him to retrieve a videotape from his ex-girlfriend.
"Little House in the Big Woods" by Sara Paretsky
Paretsky tells the complicated story of Ana, a college student who is under the influence of a female priest, Reverend Olive Kanba, who supports social justice missions to Nicaragua. She meets Lance, another student working with the priest, and they end up renovating a small building in the woods that is used by the group for overnight get-togethers. This building, which is special to Ana, is central to the story. Thirty years later, Ana looks back on those times, and a traumatic event which resulted in the disappearance of both Lance and Olive. An interesting story with a lot of revelations at the end. Very satisfying.
All of these stories were excellent and each very different. If the rest of the stories in the book are of the same quality, I have a lot of good reading ahead of me.
Also see a review by Sam Sattler at Book Chase. He discusses four different stories from this book.
The anthology features these authors:
- Naomi Hirahara
- David Bart
- Sara Paretsky
- Susan Breen
- Gary Phillips
- Neil S. Plakcy
- Renee James
- Connie Johnson Hambley
- Gabino Iglesias
- A.P. Jamison
- Walter Mosley
- Tori Eldridge
- Ellen Hart
- G. Miki Hayden
- Jonathan Santlofer
- Jonathan Stone
- Ovidia Yu
- Bonnie Hearn Hill
- Steve Liskow
- S.J. Rozan
13 comments:
This really sounds appealing, Tracy. I like Naomi Hirahara's work, and S.J. Rozan, but haven't read their short stories before. I've not read Sara Paretsky's short stories either. The ones you shared sound well written, too. That looks like quite a find.
A lot of these writers are new to me.
This collection really does include some stand-out stories, and I really enjoyed the theme binding them together of the crime hitting where it bothered the victims most...home.
Margot, I also like novels and short stories by Naomi Hirahara and S.J. Rozan. I found Paretsky's story unexpected.
Hi Tracy, a good idea for an anthology and so many writers a person can become acquainted with. Of the 3 the Sara Paretsky story interests me the most. It's a story in which a character looks back to her youth when she had ideals and wanted to fight injustice and then her friends disappear. It sounds like a story that could be expanded into a novel.
For me, I know, and like, the work of about half of the writers collected here...this one does seem worth seeking out...thanks for the review!
The same for me, Patti. There are bios of all the authors so I will check those out as I read the stories.
I like the theme of this group of stories, Sam. And I can already tell that there are going to be some varied approaches to the theme.
I agree that the Paretsky story could be expanded, Kathy. It was good story, but I could have used more background or explanation.
I am glad to hear that, Todd, and it bodes well for my future reading of the book. I have only read four of these authors, and I have a book by two additional others on my shelves (Gary Phillips and Jonathan Santlofer).
Looks like a variety of writers in this anthology. I'll have to check it out!
I have only had experience with a few of them, George, but so far the ones I have read are good stories. And a interesting theme throughout.
I like the theme of this anthology, I am very interested. I have only heard of a few of these authors...always good to discover new writers. The one about The World's Oldest Detective sounds great, I think it would be my favourite too!
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