Map of Murder
edited by Susan Budavari, Suzanne Flaig
Reviewed by Barb Radmore
Murder can happen any where. This is vividly proven in the latest
anthology of mystery short stories from Red Coyote Press. This is
the follow up to their first one, Medley of Murder and it now expands
beyond Arizona to encompass a wide variety of writers. It holds
20 mystery/thriller based short stories whose styles vary from hard
boiled to western to romance. The settings are as diverse as a geocache
in Colorado, a candy factory in Colorado and an art college in
Massachusetts.
In would be too lengthy to summarize all the stories but a glimpse at
the highlights show that there is something for every reader's taste in
this compilation of mayhem, murder and mystery.
Frank Zafiro is represented with his
story of love and duty in El Paso. A western lawman admiration of
the local bartender is put to the test when others also crave her
attention. The first person tome works well in this narrative as the
policeman tries to resist the inevitable.
A mailroom clerk dreams of doing an important job in Robin Merrill's
Coffee Break. While it is the shortest piece included it is concisely
well done, with not a word wasted. It will be interesting to keep an
eye on the bright future of this author.
The opening number is Audition to Murder by Kris Neri is a fun, light
tale that will amuse and entertain. . A woman wearing a giant cookie
outfit gets to hold off a devil holding a hostage. It can not get more
irresistible than that.
Red Wolfe, a personal security guard, battles his personal demons while
trying to solve the disappearance of his boss' son. Larry D. Sweazy
carefully examines love and parenthood in his contribution, The
Assignment.
Each story has a brief biography at the end of each story lists
any other works by the author and, when possible, a web site for more
information. This is a useful link between and reader and the authors.