Tiny Crimes

April 15, 2018

In this literary collection that will appeal to fans of flash fiction, editors Michel and Nieto offer 40 original examples of crime and (occasional) punishment "short enough to be read during a coffee break or a corporate break-in." With only a few hundred words at their disposal, the authors find inventive ways to tell their compact tales of mystery, often eschewing ornate whodunit plots for varied storytelling techniques. Christian Hayden's "Exit Interview" features only one side of a phone conversation as the duplicitous protagonist hurtles toward his own demise; Adam Hirsch's "Airport Paperback" is a heavily redacted letter from a prisoner to his beloved Maria; Carmen Maria Machado's "Mary When You Follow Her" is a bravura performance consisting of one long sentence. The tenor of each piece varies from the dreamlike (Laura van den Berg's "Friends") to the deliciously gruesome (Richie Navarez's "Withhold the Dawn"). Other notable efforts include stories from international authors such as Yuri Herrera and Fuminori Nakamura, with the original text running alongside the English version. Though some stories succeed in delivering suspenseful thrills more than others, in all cases a hard-boiled attitude prevails, and the range of writers from leading independent presses is impressive. VERDICT Recommended for fans of Akashic Books's long-running and popular geographic "Noir" series.--Michael Pucci, South Orange P.L., NJ

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 25, 2018
Michel and Nieto collect 40 tiny macabre tales—ranging from two to seven pages—in which every word counts, but it’s what’s not said that truly chills. These snippets of crime, madness, and monsters heighten tension and suspense with the brevity of their set-ups, cleverness of word play, and sucker punches of their climaxes. J. Robert Lennon’s humorous “Circuit City” opens the book with employees, all named John, double-crossing their manager as he robs the store. A couple with a death wish in Amelia Gray’s “The Odds” takes a number of fatal chances. In a heavily redacted letter, a prisoner explains how his crime was exploited for an “Airport Paperback” in Adam Hirsch’s story. A swindler confined to a claustrophobic room gets divine retribution in Fuminori Nakamura’s “No Exit.” Chiara Barzini’s “Minor Witchcraft” follows women destroying the wedding of a childhood tormenter. In Benjamin Percy’s “We Are Suicide,” a mall cop guards the eerie site of numerous suicides. In Carmen Maria Machado’s “Mary When You Follow Her,” told in a single melancholy five-page sentence, police in the barrio decide to investigate only when it’s a rich white woman who goes missing. This volume provides a smorgasbord of inventive, grisly, sinister, and delightfully amusing tales that are perfect for lovers of crime fiction.