Customer Reviews

Whatdunits (Daw science fiction)

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

 

 

Here's the setup, see? Mike Resnick, author of the Galactic Midway (space carnival) series, thought up eighteen sleuth-stumping scenarios (you know the drill - dead guy in locked room, etc.). Then he added SF twists to each one and presented them to some top-notch SF writers to solve in a short story.
The upshot? One heckuva entertaining book. The stories tackle diverse and bizarre problems set in environments far from the typical street-smart trenchcoat hangout. How does a detective solve a murder in which all the suspects are aliens who are pathological liars? How does the interrogation dynamic change when the detective is an alien, or even a dolphin? Did the chimp do it? Or did an innocuous-looking plant?
The writers are faithful to Resnick's proposed setups to varying degrees - some stray quite a bit - but they're all (with one exception) entertaining and some are quite ingenious.
One included author, we are told, is not a pro writer. It shows. His story, "An Incident At the Circus," is filled with incorrect grammar, bad syntax, total absence of character development or feeling. Absolutely awful.
This story is the only reason I don't rate this book a 10. Every other story is an original, creative and complex bit of escapism into two fields that in this volume seem born for each other. Why hadn't anyone done this before? No matter - now it's here for all to enjoy.
Oh, and by the way, the title is one word

If you hate mysteries, don't buy this book. If you like both sci-fi and mysteries, you should love it. Resnick made up short plot outlines for a bunch of mysteries involving science fiction elements, handed them out to the writers, and got back 18 little gems. He did the same thing again with some editors (some of whom are also writers) and got back 15 more which were published in "More Whatdunits." Both books are great, and I highly recommend searching out copies of them.