Blizzardboy | A Kiwi in Japan

Mystery Writers of America Presents

Death do us Part

New stories about Love, Lust and Murder by Jeff Abbot, Lee Child, Jim Fusilli, Laura Lippman, Ridley Pearson, Tom Savage, R.L. Stine and 12 others.

Edited by Harlan Coben

Recently I picked up a copy of “Death do us Part” from the new books section of our local library in Azabujuban. This compilation of marriage and murder short stories features nineteen stories by contemporary United States authors, many of which have never been published before. I must admit I haven’t read many contemporary American mystery short stories, so I had never heard of any of these authors before and as a result I didn’t really have any expectations regarding this book before I got stuck in to it. But overall it was an enjoyable and recommendable read.

Highlights for me included One Shot by P.J. Parish, A Few Small Repairs by Jeff Abbot and Charles Ardai’s The Home Front. The selection as a whole had quite a consistent tone, even though the stories range a lot in the periods they covered and there was a definite Steinbeck feel to a number of the pieces.

One Shot is the story of a university professor returning to the home of his birth to face the “ghosts of his past” and has a wonderful twist at the end – as do many of the stories. A Few Small Repairs deals with the illness of the protagonist’s father, while The Home Front is a delightfully twisted play on fate. I don’t want to give away too much about this collection, as that would spoil the fun.

If you are looking for a good read with some tantalizing surprises, you couldn’t go far wrong with Death do us Part.