Manhattan Mayhem

Crooks, German spies, sneaky kids & ticked off grannies

This is an anthology of 18 new short stories from the Mystery Writers of America. Some of the authors are familiar to those who love the genre....Lee Child, SJ Rozen, Margaret Maron & Jeffery Deaver to name a few.
But what I love about these books is the chance to sample writers I've not read before & from there, go on to check out their full length work.
The forward is provided by the venerable Mary Higgins Clark & she describes how they chose the theme. it's all about New York City. Each author had to choose a specific neighbourhood as their setting, then was given free rein. This results in an eclectic mix of mysteries accompanied by old black & white photos of each area. They run the gamut of present day to post WWII, noir to time travel, cops & robbers to slightly scary grandmothers.
I won't review them all. Each is a quick read & everyone will have their personal favourites. From the authors I am familiar with, my hands down pick is "Chin Yung-Yun Makes a Shiddach" by SJ Rozen. I enjoy her Lydia Chin series & this story features Lydia's no-nonsense mother in a hilarious turn as a private eye.
Authors new to me include Nancy Pichard who tells a nice, twisty little tale. Judith Kelman gives us the story of an old missing person's case that is wistful yet oddly hopeful & it sucked me right in with the need to know how it ended.
But I particularly enjoyed Justin Scott's take on a mystery with the element of time travel. A modern day bank robber ends up partnered with the very alive Edgar Allan Poe who is having trouble publishing a best seller in today's market that will make him eligible to win the award that bears his name. It's a fast paced shoot 'em up full of ironic commentary on what authors have to deal with & Poe gets all the best lines ("Do not expect me to be frightened by an armed robber. I'm accustomed to agents & publishers.").
There's something here for everyone who loves a good mystery & it's a great way to test drive a bunch of authors before you plunk down your hard earned cash on their novels. Enjoy!

This was an interesting, unique book that was honestly completely different from what I was expecting. Mary Higgins Clark is very popular however I've never read anything by her so I wanted to try this one out to start. What I didn't realize was this is actually a collection from many different crime writers that were all set in Manhattan. I obviously liked some of the stories more than others, and what I loved was that I had never read any of the authors included in this anthology so it's a great way for readers to test out the water with authors they haven't tried out yet. My two favorite stories from this were the ones by SJ Rozen and Nancy Packard, two authors that I'm excited to read more of!

I received this ARC through NetGalley for an honest review.

I remembered reading Mary Higgins Clark when I was much younger and enjoying her style of writing and expertise.

I don't usually like short stories but this collection is remarkable.

Not only did I get a chance to read authors that I had never read before, but I also found their styles to be very different and each book, though short, seemed like a satisfying ending. The play included was a surprise and interesting read. It was fun having the settings change from Harlem, Union Station and the Flatiron district and more.

I think anyone would enjoy sampling the many offerings here from Mystery Writers of America. Great book for traveling also when it's sometimes hard to get into a long novel.

As you would expect from an anthology, there is some variation in story quality. But on the whole the writing is skilful, measured and elegant, with clues as well as red herrings aplenty to take the reader up a few blind alleys before the denouement. This book also gives off more than a whiff of classic crime writing. If there is a sense of time and place it is largely in the dialogue and interactions between the characters and this certainly works. Sometimes the crimes are not really crimes, but more moral neglect or just not what they seem, which adds a nice touch to an interesting group of stories.

For those who like mysteries & also NYC, this is a delightful collection of short mysteries written by many famous authors in this genre. Mary Higgins Clark gets a variety of MWA authors together each year ( I'm pretty sure I read last year's version but different stories) & these stories this year have the common theme of choosing a location in NYC & some from the burroughs surrounding

It's a nice collection that every reader will like several stories. You're a "Jack Reacher" fan--Lee Childs has a story for you, there's stories from different times, but all take place somewhere in NYC. There's a map with the street names included with pictures, of each area covered. I enjoyed the pictures as much as the stories!

I'm sure everyone reading will have a favorite story. My favorite was WHITE RABBIT. It showed the area in Central Park where the statue of Alice in Wonderland is & gives the streets surrounding this area. I know for myself, if you're familiar with NYC or at least some areas, as you read a story, you can picture the area which made it extra special to me knowing exactly where the author was writing about & able to picture it in my mind

I think anyone that truly likes mysteries, will enjoy these short story samplings in this collection

I received a digital copy from Net Galley in return for an honest opinion. Thank you to Quirk Publishing for allowing me to preview this book :-)

A great collection of short crime and mystery fiction edited by Mary Higgins Clark. Fans of the genre will love this collection!

I grew up on mystery stories. My very favorite form of them is in short story. When I saw this book, I had to have it...

Quirk Books sent me a copy to review (thank you). It has been published, so check with your local bookstore for a copy.

There are seventeen stories in this book and they all are set in various Manhattan locations during different eras and different seasons. I've never been there but I have a good friend that lives there. Several of the photos in the book depicted parts of the town that I've seen on Christmas cards or photo tours online so it was a bit like visiting there. Most of the folks I met in this book I'd just as soon not meet in real person. Many of them were not nice people.

Mary Higgins Clark has the first story in the book. It's called The Five-Dollar dress. It's a short tale with a whopper of an ending. A very subtle touch with a punch at the end.

As in New York itself, the stories are populated with every nationality and every wage range you could imagine. Everybody does what they must to survive. Those who are weak, don't. One underlying theme here that I found interesting is that people with red hair aren't to be trusted. It's like it marks them as a bad person. Maybe it was only coincidental but I found it amusing.

The stories read quickly and are a fascinating look at times gone by. I was pleased to see that all the stories were different from anything I've read before. They kept me reading and wondering what was going to happen. A few of the authors are: Lee Child, Thomas H Cook, Jeffery Deaver, Margaret Maron, T Jefferson Parker and S J Rozan. With these names you know the stories have to be worth a read. You might even find some new authors to read. That's the fun of short stories.