The Highway Kind

August 15, 2016
This high-octane anthology from Millikin (Phoenix Noir) features 15 stories about cars and crime by top writers in the suspense field. Highlights include Ben H. Winters’s “Test Drive,” in which a drive through the canyons of L.A. turns into a tense confrontation between a car dealer and his increasingly unhinged customer; Michael Connelly’s “Burnt Matches,” in which Lincoln Lawyer Mickey Haller meets an unhappy former client in—where else?—the backseat of his Lincoln Town Car; and James Sallis’s “What You Were Fighting For,” in which the Driver from Sallis’s novel Drive shows up at a garage to ask the help of a mechanic and leaves a lifelong impression on the man’s young son. Wallace Stroby slipstreams behind Richard Matheson and Steven Spielberg’s Duel in “Night Run,” about a salesman who runs afoul of a pissed-off biker. George Pelecanos tells a downbeat tale about two drag-racing brothers in “Triple Black ’Cuda.” Other contributors to this entertaining volume include Ace Atkins, C.J. Box, Kelly Braffet, Sara Gran, and Joe R. Lansdale. (Oct.)

This review has been corrected. A previous version mistakenly showed the subtitle as the title and misspelled one of the contributors' names.

September 1, 2016
Know what a blown heavy is? No matter. Most of these 15 crime-on-wheels stories are so good the reader can skim the car talk and enjoy what is a fine collection of short crime thrillers. C. J. Box's Power Wagon offers a creepy take on the home-invasion theme. The killers are after a vehicle, but the exchanges among the invaders and their victims create a tension that the ending doesn't totally dissipate. The sleeper here is Kelly Braffet's Runs Good, which manages to make a ho-hum themea teenager's longing for a carinto the grounding for a tense tale that proves impossible to put down. Equally satisfying is Joe R. Landsdale's hillbilly howl, Driving to Geronimo's Grave. Sympathize as the heroine, helping to move a smelly corpse, asks the Lord to have mercy on all his children, especially me. The biggest names on the table of contents are Michael Connelly and George Pelecanos, though their efforts here do not represent their best work.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)