Dangerous Women

DANGEROUS WOMEN is an outstanding mystery anthology, with nary a dud and many star turns by five actors reading the likes of Nelson DeMille, Joyce Carol Oates, Anne Perry, and Elmore Leonard, certainly a personal best for Editor Otto Penzler. And praises be, the narrator of each story is identified as the story begins. Alan Sklar's deep, velvet voice has just enough grit in it to create a delicious sense of danger. Michael Prichard provides deadpan wit in readings with a slightly steely tang. Patrick Lawlor ably handles the stories narrated by younger men, and Ellen Archer's warm, contemporary voice, the women. These two even switch mid-sentence when the narrative voice breaks off in Laura Lippman's wonderfully creepy "Dear Penthouse Forum." Additional pluses are the three-minute tracks, and notations on each disc of the stories on it and the track at which each begins. A terrific production. B.G. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

Starred review from November 15, 2004
Mystery maven Penzler has gathered 17 stories from top writers for an all-original suspense anthology with results that are about the same as if a master chocolatier had assembled a new sampler box: everything of high quality but with enough variety to appeal to all tastes. All the contributors are true to their own very familiar voices. Ed McBain's "Improvisation," a chilling story of two young actresses who commit murder to learn what it feels like, is cut-to-the-bone sharp. In the haunting "Cielo Azul," Michael Connelly allows both detective Harry Bosch and profiler Terry McCaleb to brood, as only they can, about a murder victim never identified. In "Dear Penthouse Forum (A First Draft)," Laura Lippman uses an original format to showcase a truly frightening woman with a most unusual collecting mania who preys on men in airports. S.J. Rozan's "The Last Kiss" features a dangerous woman who's all the more dangerous because at first she seems so sympathetic. Jeffrey Deaver's "Born Bad" is a brilliant double play, with tight characterizations and an unforgettable plot twist. It's a joy to watch these talented authors, who also include J.A. Jance, Elmore Leonard, Walter Mosley and Joyce Carol Oates, embrace the short story form and produce magic. Agent, Nat Sobel. (Jan. 5)

Forecast:
Backed by blurbs from Janet Evanovich and Robert B. Parker, this all-star anthology will do better (and probably very well) with the crime and suspense crowd than with fans of traditional whodunits.