Customer Reviews

The Plot Thickens

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Plot Thickens" is an anthology containing eleven stories from eleven of today's top mystery and suspense writers. To be honest, I hunted this book down solely for Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum short story, but found I enjoyed the whole thing. "The Plot Thickens" was written for a great cause, to raise money to fight illiteracy in the U.S., so you can feel good about where your money is going. Some of the stories are better than others and individual opinions will undoubtedly vary, but each tale includes a thick fog, a thick book, and a thick steak, and it's fun seeing how each author chose to work in those three elements.

1. "How Far it Could Go" by Lawrence Block is probably my least favourite story of the anthology. A man and a woman meet in a restaurant to discuss using violence to dissuade the woman's ex-husband from suing her, but how far will it go? Thin on plot, but Block creates an interesting mood. **1/2

2. "Foolproof" by Edna Buchanan tells the tale of an ancient Egyptian mummy autopsied and fingerprinted for interests' sake. But the findings bring to light a millennia's old unsolved murder and cast doubt on the only foolproof form of crime scene evidence. An intriguing and enjoyable story. ****

3. "The Man Next Door" by Mary Higgins Clark is a great, suspenseful story. When a young woman becomes the latest unwilling houseguest of her serial killer neighbour, the race is on to find her before it's too late. A well-written and exciting tale. *****

4. "Too Many Cooks" by Carol Higgins Clark introduces a struggling young actress who gets a break when she's chosen to play a cook in a steak sauce commercial. But she soon finds herself caught up in some real life drama and betrayal. A fun and entertaining story. ****

5. "Revenge and Rebellion" by Nelson & Lauren DeMille is a deliciously twisted tale. When a woman gives her treasured autobiographical manuscript to her good friend who works as a literary agent, he gets a disturbing glimpse of the world through her eyes. But the aspiring author doesn't take criticism lightly, and lost in her own delusions, there's no telling what she'll do. A very good story. ****

6. "The Last Peep" by Janet Evanovich is a Stephanie Plum story well worth tracking down. This time, bounty hunter Stephanie is on the trail of a burg resident with a penchant for peeping in windows and showing off his personal wares. But when she discovers his dead, naked body, which subsequently disappears, she's thrust into the middle of an exciting, and very amusing, mystery. A mystery that she is bound and determined to solve, with a little help from sidekick Lula and Grandma Mazur. A hilarious, well-written, and wonderful story. *****

7. "Going Under" by Linda Fairstein is a fun and original tale. An ambitious young police officer gets her big chance to make detective, as long as she's willing to let a dentist with wandering hands have his way with her once he puts her under! I really liked this story. ****

8. "Thick-Headed" by Walter Mosley is a good story, though a bit tough to follow. When a man hired to transport a car finds a dead body in the trunk of that car, he goes to his closest friend for advice. And the two of them get themselves in deeper and deeper with angry mobsters, more bodies, and criminal schemes. ***1/2

9. "Love's Cottage" by Nancy Pickard is an original and enjoyable tale. A black servant details her arrival in a strange new household with her husband, and the events that led to a terrible tragedy. ****

10. "The Road Trip" by Ann Rule is an excellent story and one of the anthology's best. When a newly divorced woman heads on a business road trip, it provides her with the welcome opportunity to get away from her maniacal, jealous, and possessive ex-husband. But instead of getting some much-needed relaxation, she finds herself in the midst of a new and infinitely worse nightmare when she becomes the next target of an infamous serial killer. A tightly plotted and thrilling story. *****

11. "Take it Away" by Donald E. Westlake rounds out the anthology nicely. When an FBI agent on a stakeout of a notorious art thief goes to get fast food for his team, a coincidental conversation with the next man in line turns out to be much, much more than it seems. A fun and intriguing tale. ****

Overall, "The Plot Thickens" is an entertaining mystery anthology that will satisfy readers. My favourite stories were the ones by Mary Higgins Clark, Janet Evanovich, and Ann Rule, but each and every one was worth reading. So give "The Plot Thickens" a try, and do your part in the fight against illiteracy.

With most short story collections, there's usually a common theme. In "The Plot Thickens," each author was required to incorporate the following three things into their story: a thick fog, a thick steak, and a thick book. Most are concealed cleverly and seamlessly in the story, but I still found myself looking for them like it was a Where's Waldo? game. Not surprisingly, most of the authors use a restaurant setting to integrate the steak, but at least Westlake does a little play on of words in his story.

Anyway, on to the following 11 short stories:

"How Far It Could Go" by Lawrence Block is a largely conversational story set in a restaurant, where a woman meets with a man she intends on hiring to "rough up" her ex-boyfriend over a cash settlement. I kept expecting some great twist at the end (never happened); still, not a bad story. >> "Foolproof" by Edna Buchanan -- An Egyptian mummy autopsy reveals a 1000+ year-old murder victim with the same fingerprints as a notorious gang member. Again, the ending didn't impress me, and the story seemed to jump unevenly from scene to scene. >> "The Man Next Door" by Mary Higgins Clark -- A woman's creepy next-door neighbor breaks into her house through their shared basement wall (quite ingenious, in my opinion), in order for him to abduct her and keep her a prisoner in his home. Mary, being the brains behind this whole eradicate-American-illiterarcy thing (which this book donates a percentage to), not surprisingly has the longest "short" story in here, at approximately 40 pages, but it doesn't feel that long. It has an engrossing plot, and good characterization and alternating p.o.v. One of my faves in here.

"Too Many Cooks" by Carol Higgins Clark -- An aspiring actress is called in to play the role of a chef in a commercial, but accidents start occurring on the set. A little predictable about the bad guy, but still good. >> "Revenge & Rebellion" by Nelson & Lauren DeMille -- A woman meets with an old college friend who's now a literary agent, in the hopes he'll accept her manuscript. Another restaurant setting; in fact, two restaurants in this one. Good story, but the suspense twist doesn't happen until the last page. >> "The Last Peep" by Janet Evanovich -- A bounty hunter and her partner-in-training search for the missing body of a Peeping Tom. Strong, unique characters. Quite funny. >> "Going Under" by Linda Fairstein -- A policewoman agrees to go undercover as a dental patient in order to catch a molesting dentist. Reading this one made me glad I never chose to go under while at the dentist's--just to be safe.

"Thick-Headed" by Walter Mosley -- Two men find a dead body in the trunk of a car and get involved in solving the crime. A little confusing, probably because there were so many characters--dead and alive. >> "Love's Cottage" by Nancy Pickard was told in letter form and based on an actual mass murder in 1914. Short, good ending; however, since no motive was ever given in history, it's up to the reader to speculate on it. >> "The Road Trip" by Ann Rule -- A woman is harassed and followed by two guys in a semi-truck while on a road trip. Started out slow, but got better. >> "Take It Away" by Donald E. Westlake -- A police officer and his associates are on a stakeout in order to catch an overseas art smuggler. A great finale to this anthology. I got a laugh out of the ending.

In summary: "The Plot Thickens" is a pretty good mystery anthology. There are some dull stories, some entertaining ones--which can be said for most short story collections--but the majority are very good. Definitely worth reading if you're a fan of one or more of the authors in here.

I don't normally like short stories,but here I found as much suspence and laughs as in any "thick" thriller book.Almost all of the stories were good,real "thrillers" (especially the one before last,"A road trip"),and I enjoyed seeing how each author fit the 3 "must" elements(a thick fog,a thick steak and a thick book) in his or her story. Also,I liked the fact that all the money derived from the selling of the book would go to an association which fights illiteracy in America.

A terrific collection of diverse stories from some of my favorite authors. I especially liked the stories by Lawrence Block and Nelson & Lauren DeMille. I hope new-comer Lauren will continue writing in the future! Some of the tales seemed a bit thrown together, but overall, an exciting and worthwhile collection of mysteries. It was interesting to see how the authors worked the three elements of a thick steak, a thick book, and a thick fog into their stories.

If every story in this book has a plot, some are very well hidden. Lawrence Block wrote about two people sitting in a restaurant. "Thick-Headed" by Walter Mosley was so boring I didn't even finish reading it. Edna Buchanan's "Foolproof" could have been the beginning of an exciting mystery novel, but she ended it when it started getting interesting. Mary Higgins Clark, Carol Higgins Clark, and Ann Rule did write very good stories which deserve 4 or 5 stars.

I am not sure what caused me to pick up this book, as I am not usually a mystery reader. I liked the idea of all of the stories having the three elements of a thick book, a thick steak, and a thick fog. It was interesting to see how each author wove them into their story.
I enjoyed almost all of the stories. The one that I wasn't able to finish was the one written by Walter Moseley.
It was a good way to catch a glimpse of the writing styles of authors I have never read before. I applaud each of them for contributing to a very worthy cause.

This book is a mixed bag, with some excellent stories, and some terrible ones.

I won't bother typing summaries of each story's plot as other reviewers have done that.

"How Far it Could Go" by Lawrence Block: Terrible

By far this is the worst story in the book. There is almost nothing to the story, if it can even be called a story. Lawrence Block should be ashamed of himself for submitting this, and the story should have been rejected by the publisher.

"Foolproof" by Edna Buchanan: Poor

A drop better than the first one, but pretty stupid at the end. Great build up, and then, plop, the story is just thrown away. Make the mummy a recent murder and you would have had a much more interesting story.

"The Man Next Door" by Mary Higgins Clark: Excellent

One of the best in the book. Her portrayal of the bad guy is amazingly realistic.

"Too Many Cooks" by Carol Higgins Clark: Good

Good, but pretty bland and with a massive plot hole: wouldn't the director try to finish the commercial quickly, and move on, instead of delaying things by many days?

"Revenge and Rebellion" by Nelson & Lauren DeMille: Weird

I didn't really understand this one, it's almost like the whole thing was an inside joke to other authors. None of the actions of the characters made any sense.

"The Last Peep" by Janet Evanovich: Excellent

The reason I got this book, and I was not disappointed.

"Going Under" by Linda Fairstein: Good

Good, but very straightforward, as soon as you find out what's going in, you know how it ends. But it's a short story, so I guess that's OK.

"Thick-Headed" by Walter Mosley: Very Good

Pretty hard to read. I nearly gave up at the paragraph containing: "Big Bill Baretti up in Frisco got a big load'a queer in." As hard as I tried to parse that paragraph, I could not figure out what was going on, and eventually decided to just continue. It's only at the very end that I figured out that "big load'a queer" meant "a lot of counterfeit money". And then the story made much more sense.

"Love's Cottage" by Nancy Pickard: Good

Not much mystery (or action), but good flavor, and unique amongst the rest for it's style.

"The Road Trip" by Ann Rule: Very Good

Suspenseful and well portrayed. The actions of the truck drivers didn't completely make sense, but an excellent twist.

"Take it Away" by Donald E. Westlake: Good

Sort of funny. Not a ton of plot, but it didn't need it.

Overall only some of the stories are worth reading. And it's really too bad the stories are in the alphabetical order by last name since the first two stories are so bad. Are there enough good stories in the book to make it worth getting? Hopefully my review will help you decide.

This was basically a writing exercise compiled into a book of short stories: each story had to contain a thick steak, a thick fog, and a thick book. It was fun seeing what all the authors did with the prompt, and watching for how they worked in the items.

How Far it Could Go by Lawrence Block
This story lacked a decent ending, in my opinion. Even my feeble imagination came up with far more interesting endings then the one given. I liked the buildup, and the overall premise... but the end was a huge letdown.

Foolproof by Edna Buchanan
This was an interesting ethical dilemna, but... it seemed a little too coincidental and far-fetched for the type of story. I think the "similarities" were taken too far to be cute, and it would have been better served to focus on the real issue of the uniqueness of fingerprints.

The Man Next Door by Mary Higgins Clark
Good basic horror tale: serial killers, the nagging clue, a lot of suspense and twisted minds... It worked particularly well because you could 'see' the way to a good resolution, and you read it trying to 'will' the characters to see it, too.

Too Many Cooks by Carol Higgins Clark
This story shouldn't have been a short story. It left too many questions basically unanswered, and used the patented sitcom mentality to wrap up and explain loose ends. Great plot, but it needs an entire book to really flesh it out.

Revenge and Rebellion by Nelson & Lauren DeMille
This story lost me at the "aspartame in Sweet N Low" snafu. A small detail, but oh so wrong. But besides that, the whole story left me with a "yeah, and so what?" feel.

The Last Peep by Janet Evanovich
I'm not sure if it's cheating that she used existing characters, but I love Stephanie Plum and she did a great job of compressing an adventure into a short story and still giving us the great Plum feel.

Going Under by Linda Fairstein
This story really disturbed me, because it deals with dentistry gone horribly wrong. It was pretty well done, but nothing spectacular, plot or character wise. Just the really creepy dentist bit.

Thick-Headed by Walter Mosley
I had to make myself skim through this one. It didn't capture my attention at all, and was hard to follow.

Love's Cottage by Nancy Pickard
I didn't like the format of the story (mental letters composed to a loved one) but the idea behind the story was interesting, though not full enough to be anything more than speculative fluff.

The Road Trip by Ann Rule
This story just confused me. What was the point of the truck drivers? They were following her long before the motel, so that makes no sense whatsoever. I would rather they showed up for the first time at the motel, and it would have made sense. And the smarmy speech by the truck driver at the end - disjointed and weird - took away even more of the story's credibility. It could have been a good story, but... it wasn't.

Take it Away by Donald E. Westlake
This story wasn't bad at all - good character, simple, straightforward plot and some good wordplay.

Interesting anthology. All the short stories were interestig some moreso than others. I purchased the book because my favorite author Janet Evnovich wasamong those selected to parfticipate.
Fay Slater

The Mary Higgins Clark story was really great, but there were about three other authors that had so much filthy language in their stories, that it caused this entire book to be not worth buying. I am surprised that Mary Higgins Clark would endorse and write a story in a book with authors who have the reputation of writing in this way. So, overall the only great story in this book is Mary Higgins Clark's, which does not justify this book being worth buying unless you are able to get it for less than $1.00 or at a library.