Irreconcilable Differences [Hardcover]

Lia Matera (Author), Martin Greenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 3, 1999

This collection of original stories from today's most successful, prize-winning writers of crime fiction proves that "irreconcilable differences" can't begin to describe the lethal results of a relationship gone wrong.

For this outstanding anthology, editor Lia Mcitera challenged a stellar list of contributors including National Book Award Winner Joyce Carol Oates, New York Times bestsellers Edna Buchanan and Jeffery Deaver, and award winners Laurie R. King, Julie Smith, Bill Pronzini, Margaret Moron, and Marcia Muller to use the phrase "irreconcilable differences" as a springboard for a story. Their responses make for irresistible reading. These twenty concoctions of mystery and suspense move from sharp and probing to humorous and sly, fully evoking the theme of discord most deadly.

Here are the clever twists and chilling turns of breakups, family feuds, broken partnerships, and lovers' quarrels. A coupletakes witty revenge on their honeymooning exes in Judith Kelmon's "Just Desserts." Gillian Roberts's "Heart Break" explores the dark side of staying together. In Sarah Lovett's "Buried Treasure," a hint-dropping stranger changes the life of an imperiled widow, while Jon Burke shows how a Good Samaritan can save a bad marriage in "An Unsuspected Condition of the Heart."

As this acclaimed cast of authors probes the minefield of intimacy, devotion, and trust upon which human lives are built, Irreconcilable Differences explodes with heart-stopping events.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although this anthology contains 20 original short stories, most of which are very good, it's worth the asking price just for Joyce Carol Oates's entry, "Tusk." There, a teenage boy, whose home life is tormented, brings a knife to school; as the day passes, his anger builds toward a terrible climax. Other especially noteworthy tales come from Laurie King, Bill Pronzini, Marcia Muller, Edna Buchanan, Jeffery Deaver, Jan Burke, Amanda Cross and Gillian Roberts. King's story of a paleta man, an ice cream vendor who walks the streets of a barrio neighborhood and knows the secrets of its inhabitants, is masterly. Burke, meanwhile, evokes the spirit of Georgette Heyer's Regency novels in her vibrant tale of murderous goings-on at a 19th-century stately home. Editors and readers who are tired of the current proliferation of memoirs may applaud "The Perfect Revenge" that occurs in Cross's story. Pronzini, an expert at concise but suspenseful stories, tells the riveting tale of a husband and wife who keep escalating their quarrels during a series of hot summer nights. On the lighter side, former trauma nurse Eileen Dreyer has some farcical "Fun with Forensics." Despite the title, no story here is a conventional tale of divorce or domestic argument. Instead, here are satisfyingly twisted plots based on the differences that can spark violence between spouses, neighbors, partners and even old friends. (Dec.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

A can't-miss collection. -- Booklist

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st edition (November 3, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060192259
• ISBN-13: 978-0060192259
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,921,931 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great short story anthology, December 7, 1999

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Irreconcilable Differences (Hardcover)

This short story collection centers on the impact of separations and divorce on the participants including extended family members. However, the twenty tales share a dark look at IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES as the audience is treated to situations that do not end as peacefully as our current legal system expects.

Lia Matera has put together a remarkable anthology that has several excellent stories, some very good tales, and no poor entry. The cross-genre contributors are a modern day who's who with such noted authors like Oates, Cross, Deaver, Lutz, Buchanan, and Muller, etc. None of the writers are lightweights as they all hold their own with the heavyweights. Anyone who enjoyed the Battle of the Roses will fully relish each tale that paints a very dismal look at broken relationships.

Harriet Klausner

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A string of pearls, January 19, 2008

By 

Deanna Northrup (Iowa USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Irreconcilable Differences (Mass Market Paperback)

Publisher's Weekly touted this collection of twenty mystery stories as "worth the asking price just for Joyce Carol Oates's entry: "Tusk."" How could an Oates fan resist? Well, I'm glad I didn't resist, for a score of reasons. "Tusk" was just the right, tasty appetitizer for this delicious banquet of can't-put-down-because-the-writng-is-so-good stories.
Did I know I would like mystery stories? No. I pretty much gave up mysteries when I put away Victoria Holt style gothic novels in favor of literary fiction, after being introduced to Joyce Carol Oates in my first college lit course. With the volume of literary fiction published every year, I have never had time to look back. (The prolific Oates alone could almost own my reading time). Now I lament what I have been missing.
Yes, Oates delivers her in-your-face interiority with the same phenomenal understanding of character that she always delivers, so no surprise there. The real reward came with the discovery of Jeffery Deaver and Edna Buchanan, (writers I have here-to-fore passed over with my nose in the air as genre writers), and the other no-less-impressive seventeen writers of whom I may or may not have heard.
The stories, though many involve murder, are as endearing as puppies, as charming as toddlers on a good day, and as satisfying as a hot fudge sundae. When not actually cheering on the killers, I was, at least, understanding them. Naturally, some of the protagonists seek less than deadly revenge. In "Fresh Paint" by Julie Smith, an artist paints a portrait on her passed-out ex-husband's butt, to prove who the real artist in the family is. In Judith Kelman's "Just Deserts," we begin to see, early on, that the characters, along with their plan for revenge, are deeply flawed.
Special kudos to Lia Matera for this superb collection as well as for her haunting story, "If It Can't Be True" about a farm family that is utterly destroyed by an unexplained cow mutilation.
"Irreconcilable Differences" is like a string of pearls, with every story an authentic and uniquely, perfectly, imperfect pearl - proof that differences, though irreconcilable, are entertaining. In the future, I will be following all these writer's work.