The Dark End of the Street

March 22, 2010
As Rozan notes in her introduction, she and co-editor Santlofer have made selections from “both banks of the stream dividing crime writing and literary writing” for this superior anthology of 19 new stories “on the twin subjects of sex and crime.” Highlights include Laura Lippman's “Tricks,” in which a con man rips women off after seducing them, and Lawrence Block's “Scenarios,” which takes the reader inside the fantasies of a sadistic murderer. Stephen L. Carter's gift for intricate plotting is on display in “The Hereditary Thurifer,” perhaps the volume's most distinctive tale, in which the new white rector of a predominantly African-American Washington, D.C., congregation learns that the church was the site of an unsolved crime of passion. Other contributors include Madison Smartt Bell, Lee Child, Amy Hempel, Jonathan Lethem, Joyce Carol Oates, and Edmund White.

May 1, 2010
Nineteen new stories explore the undeniable connection between sex and crime. Represented are crime-fiction luminaries Lee Child, Lawrence Block, Michael Connelly, and Val McDermid, among others. Block takes a standard sexual-predator-on-the-prowl scenario and gives it a half-dozen little twists on the way to a completely unexpected ending. Child, stepping out from his testosterone-heavy Jack Reacher thrillers, presents a tidy little character study about, well . . . its not whom it seems to be about. In The Perfect Triangle, Connellys lawyer-narrator takes a law studentstripper as a client and learns there are similarities in the professions. Janice Lee exposes the sexual and financial tensions faced by two couples who decide to get away for a country weekend. The Beheading, by Francine Prose, is a short, haunting tale of a child unhealthily obsessed with decapitation. Uniformly fine writing will attract readers familiar with the marquee authors and introduce them to a talented group of lesser lights.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)