Short Story Wednesday: Fishy Business, ed. by Linda Rodriguez

The short stories I read this week are from Fishy Business: The Fifth Guppy Anthology, edited by Linda Rodriguez. 

A short description from the back of the book:

Killer hooks and fishy characters will lure you into this fifth anthology from the Guppies Chapter of Sisters in Crime. This volume nets you twenty-two crafty capers featuring slippery eels, wily sharks, and hard-boiled crabs. From ultra-modern computer crimes to old-fashioned confidence tricks, these tales are sure to satisfy your appetite for great short mystery fiction.

These are the stories I read...

"The Wannabe" by Lida Bushloper

A young woman determined to be an actress attends an audition which turns out to be a scam. Then she meets an agent who tries to take advantage of her disappointment and her lack of experience. 

"Nova, Capers, and a Schmear of Cream Cheese" by Debra H. Goldstein

This one was a lot of fun and the ending was a complete surprise to me. The former manager of a delicatessen is concerned that the quality of food being sold in the delicatessen is going downhill under its new management, and that it will reflect badly on him.

"Windfall" by Rita A. Popp

In this story, two young women who spent some years at Miss Harmon's foster home as children return to her home after her death to pick up bequests that she left them in her will. Jillian's bequest was a string of pearls, which were not in the house; Trina was given all of Miss Harmon's books. Jillian forces Trina to return later in the evening and break into the house to try to find the pearls. 

"Who Stole My Lunch?" by Kate Fellowes

The familiar story of the office worker whose lunch is stolen from the shared refrigerator in the staff lunch room. I did guess how the story would end and it was still fun.

"My Night with the Duke of Edinburgh" by Susan Daly

I liked this story especially because it is historical fiction, set in 1951 in Ontario, Canada, when Princess Elizabeth and her husband Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, toured Canada. This was a complex little caper, with a nice ending. Susan Daly is an author of short crime fiction who lives in Toronto.

Of the five stories I read, my favorites were "The Wannabe" by Lida Bushloper and "My Night with the Duke of Edinburgh" by Susan Daly. All of the stories were entertaining, and most were humorous.