As to Horowitz’s introduction about Crime Fiction, for me it is not about justice or closure, it’s about the puzzle and the twists. All these stories have them in spades. Set in different time periods, from Prohibition to today (and one during the horrible pandemic that shall not be named), these characters are police officers, private detectives, criminals and amateurs. Some belong to larger books and series, while others are wholly original. There are established authors (Jeffery Deaver, Leonardo Padura) and newer writers. Some of the characters are trying to do their best, while others are amoral monsters and, mostly, just flawed men and women trapped in extreme circumstances. The quality is fantastic across the book, and it would be very hard to pick my favorite. I especially enjoyed Peter WJ Hayes’ El Paso Heat ; The Backwoods, by Shells Legoullon and It’s Not Even Past by Anna Scotti but, as I went over the different titles, I kept thinking “wow, that was good” every time. The audiobook narrators had a very hard job, since they had to portray many, many characters of a diverse group of ages and even with different accents. BJ Harrison is a favorite of mine, as I read his rendition of Sleepy Hollow every year for Halloween. He didn’t disappoint here. I don’t believe I’d listened to Kim Niemi before, but she is equally good with her distinctive voices for all the characters. The problem with these collections is that what the editors consider “the best” could be very different from mine. In this case, I wholeheartedly agree with Messrs. Horowitz and Penzler’s opinion.
I chose to listen to this audiobook and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/HighBridge Audio.