Men from Boys

May 30, 2005
The idea of a collection of crime stories with the common theme of showing what it means to be a man sounds like the loosest of requirements. But editor Harvey, whose series about British copper Charlie Resnick still stands as a genre icon, has chosen the 17 stories in this handsome trade paperback with a sharp eye. Harvey has included some of the crime field's leading players (Lawrence Block, Michael Connelly, Reginald Hill, Dennis Lehane, George P. Pelecanos, Peter Robinson) as well as fine writers who deserve to be better known and sold (Bill James, James Sallis, John Straley, Don Winslow, Daniel Woodrell). In his introduction, Harvey quotes Donald Westlake that writing short stories is like playing jazz: "a sense of vibrant imagination at work within a tightly controlled setting." Harvey's own story, "Chance," certainly fits that description: ex-cop and professional soccer player Jack Kiley, now working as a private detective, tries to help a former soccer star with a serious gambling addiction. Other contributions are similarly impressive in their poetic simplicity, making this a book to keep close at hand.