1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
WORTH BUYING FOR HART'S "SECRETS" & WALLACE'S "THE COLLABORATION", December 14, 2009
Like Carolyn G. Hart's first anthology (CRIMES OF THE HEART, 1995), this volume suffers from a serious quality-control problem. Furthermore, despite its title and its claim to contain "fourteen original tales of crimes of the heart," several stories in LOVE AND DEATH, including the three best, have little or nothing to do with crimes or with death.
As a simple overview, let me say I would give letter grades of "A" to three stories, "B" to six stories, "C" to three stories, and "D" to two stories. Among the factors considered are the authors' cleverness and originality, their ability to pace themselves and stay on track, the appropriateness and vividness of the styles in their narration and dialogue, and the plausibility of the various characters and events within their stories.
Three A's: Carolyn Hart's own story "Secrets," which is set during World War II and reads far more like "literature" than a mystery or a crime story, is probably the best piece in this volume. Margaret Maron's "Till 3:45," which involves a single working mom, her young daughter, a bookstore owner, and some people upstairs, skates near the edge of sentimental romance fiction but is well plotted. Marilyn Wallace's "The Collaboration" focuses on another single mom and is noteworthy for its three alternative endings, two of which are played out in the mind of the young woman who is trying to avoid living a crazy life.
Six B's: Dorothy Cannell's "Bridal Flowers" is a mildly humorous detective story involving her two elderly private investigators, Primrose and Hyacinth Tramwell, who assist a young couple. Ed Gorman's "A Girl Like You" is an interesting supernatural tale without any crime. Jean Hager's "Company Wife" is a fairly skillful variation on the "biter bit" theme. M. D. Lake's "The Tunnel," which focuses on a young boy accused of setting fires, has an improbable ending but is otherwise well written. Peter Robinson's "April in Paris" presents a dying man's improbable discoveries about a dead woman he had loved years ago and his somewhat implausible reactions. Kathy Hogan Trocheck's "Love at First Byte," set at a Florida motel, brings together an unpleasant couple in a very implausible manner.
Three C's: Susan Dunlap's "Away for Safekeeping," an interesting story apparently concerned with a woman's frustration with a husband who hoards junk, zigzags to a highly implausible surprise ending. Gar Anthony Harwood's "The First One to Blink" is also a variation on the "biter bit" theme, but has a couple of plot holes. Nancy Pickard's "Tea for Two" is a thought-provoking but very heavy-handed glimpse of a pair of misused women.
Two D's: Robert J. Randisi and Christine Matthews' "A Night at the Love Nest Resort" provides a surprise ending which almost nobody could guess, but does so by unfairly misleading readers in two earlier passages. Eve K. Sandstrom's "The People's Way," set on a tropical island that is far from being a paradise, is an implausible and very sentimental tale about a vindictive shaman trying to have a young girl killed for the "good" of the clan.
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2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Interesting anthology, January 11, 2001
Most books show an upbeat side to the relationships formed by love, especially stories linked to Valentine's Day. This fourteen-story anthology takes an opposite perspective as each of the well-known contributors provides an exciting version of "I Love You to Death".
All fourteen short stories are superbly conceived allowing the audience to understand the charcaters and their motives. Each tale stands on its own as this who's who of modern mystery writers gift the audience with a winner. Fourteen stories all edited by a Hart are appropriate for a Valentine's Day collection in which any moment readers will expect Lemmon to persuade the juror to press the button in How I Murdered My Wife.
Harriet Klausner
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