Murder on Route 66 [Audio Cassette]

Carolyn Wheat (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1998

Today's best mystery writers take to the road with a brand-new collection of stories featuring the great American highway, Route 66. Take a ride on the wild side with:

* David August
* Eleanor Taylor Bland
* Barbara D'Amato
* Michael Allen Dymmoch
* Earlene Fowler
* Carolyn Hart
* J.A. Jance
* Charles Knief
* John Lutz
* Doris R. Meredith
* Gary Phillips
* Les Roberts
* Lillian M. Roberts
* Judith Van Gieson
* Carolyn Wheat

* All-new stories by Earlene Fowler, Carolyn Hart, J.A. Jance, John Lutz and others

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Nostalgia for America prior to the Interstates can be found in Murder on Route 66. This short story anthology contains 16 tales that vary in time but all take place at various stops along America's first federal highway. Each story is read by a different reader who collectively do a good job and provide support to the tales' entertaining storytelling. The authors include John Lutz, D.R. Meredith, and Barbara D'Amato, to name a few. Each contributor lives or has lived in towns along Route 66, information that adds to the anthology's overall success. Whether a tale concerns assassins, smugglers, or just plain murderers, these action-filled stories are well worth the trip. Highly recommended.ADenise A. Garofalo, Mid-Hudson Lib. Syst., Poughkeepsie, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile

You'll get more than kicks riding through these 16 tales of murder on the road. Author Carolyn Wheat has assembled a diverse team of authors and narrators covering every style and every rest stop between Chicago and L.A. These stories run the gamut from excellent to merely good. Most are nostalgic period pieces set between the Depression and the 1970's. Barbara Rosenblat demonstrates her wonderful versatility reading "A Flash of Chrysanthemums" by J. A. Jance and "Incident on 6th Street" by D.R. Meredith. This reviewer's favorite was "Rappin' Dog" by Dick Lochte, a private-eye story told from the perspective of a precocious teenaged girl, read beautifully by Dana Lubinsky. S.E.S. (c) AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: DH Audio; Unabridged edition (October 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0886464846
• ISBN-13: 978-0886464844
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 4.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,132,431 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Lutz's work includes political suspense, private eye novels, urban suspense, humor, occult, crime caper, police procedural, espionage, historical, futuristic, amateur detective...virtually every mystery sub-genre. He is the author of more than forty-five novels and 250 short stories and articles. His novels and short fiction have been translated into virtually every language and adapted for almost every medium. He is a past president of both Mystery Writers of America and Private Eye Writers of America. Among his awards are the MWA Edgar, the PWA Shamus, The Trophee 813 Award for best mystery short story collection translated into the French language, the PWA Life Achievement Award, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society's Golden Derringer Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the author of two private eye series, the Nudger series, set in his home town of St. Louis, and the Carver series, set in Florida, as well as many non-series suspense novels. His SWF SEEKS SAME was made into the hit movie SINGLE WHITE FEMALE, starring Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh, and his THE EX was made into the HBO original movie of the same title, for which he co-authored the screenplay.
When Lutz isn't writing, he's reading, following baseball, dining out with friends, or going to movies. He's a serious movie buff.
Lutz and his wife, Barbara, split their time between St. Louis and Sarasota, Florida. His latest book is the suspense novel, SERIAL.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get your Kicks!, August 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Murder on Route 66 (Paperback)

What fun this book was to read! From Chicago to L.A. you'll have the a trip full of adventure and mystery reading this anthology I enjoyed every one of the stories, and some of them were just excellent! Lots of trivia and history is set around some engrossing and nostalgic stories! Great for light reading! Usually I don't rate anthologies because stories vary from very bad to good, but this one deserves 5 stars for all the stories!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A mother lode of tales from the Mother Road, August 11, 2001

By 

James L. Roberts "Jim Roberts" (Liberty, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Murder on Route 66 (Paperback)

A generation of Americans is just beginning to learn about "the Mother Road," U.S. Route 66, that cruised from Chicago through to Los Angeles.

The premise of this anthology is along that stretch of highway, murder and mayhem once lurked.

Sixteen writers ply their trade with varying levels of success. And though none of the stories are stinkers, three really stand out:

"Rappin' Dog" by Dick Lochte pits a precocious 14-year-old girl/would-be detective against her elders in a mystery plot right out of MTV. When one of a rapper's hangers-on tells her "I take you to be some kind of Spice Girl wannabe," Serendipity (Sarah to her friends) coolly replies "Then you'd be making a mistake." She also catches the errors the police and her detective friend makes.

"Motel 66" by Barbara D'Amato is a classic tale of domestic discord with a smoothly twisted ending that *I* didn't see coming.

Reading "Spooked" by Carolyn G. Hart is like finding a fine old pulp magazine -- Black Mask or something similar -- tucked away in your father's chest. A neat little World War II story, and Hart manages to work in a recipe for apple pie which uses honey instead of the then-rationed sugar.

All told, a nostalgic trip down memory lane on a highway that itself is fast-becoming a memory. Recommended!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The day Route 66 died:, November 22, 2000

By 

TundraVision (o/~ from the Land of Sky Blue Waters o/~) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder on Route 66 (Paperback)

1985, I remember a scene on the local TV news showing them taking down a Highway 66 sign out between El Reno and Oklahoma City. A depressing end to an era eulogized in Nat King Cole's song urging all to "get their kicks on Route 66." The good news is that through local preservation societies all along the old Route, some of the road and attractions still exist.

Here's how the editor describes this compilation: "The mystery writers who contributed to this anthology are uniquely qualified to tell these stories, living as they do in towns and cities all along the route. Each writer chose not only a locale (sometimes more than one; the road is essentially about movement, after all,) but a time period" too.

This book is a murderous anthological trip through time and geography on historic US Route 66, generally in East to West order. Some of these short stories are a good introduction to authors who I will definitely read more from and one, (Dick Lochte,) which let me know who I don't care to investigate further.

All in all, it's a fun book for murder/mystery buffs and fans of the "Mother Road."