From Publishers Weekly:
Inventive, idiosyncratic crime writer Charyn ( Elsinore ; Maria's Girls et al.) gathers here a comparably vibrant and expert collection of international writing that often probes the far reaches of the mystery genre in a variety of forms. In his introduction, Charyn says: "The best crime novels often solve no crimes, but lead us into the maze of our very own lives . . . They push the genre of crime writing to the very edge of its own possibilities . . . to present a genuine literature of crime." Despite a few duds, e.g., Joyce Carol Oates's gothic, minutiae-laden "How I Contemplated the World from the Detroit House of Correction and Began My Life Over Again," masters of the mystery novel set off spectacular crime fiction fireworks. In "The Watts Lions," Walter Mosely's L.A. sleuth, Easy Rawlins, finds a simple case of revenge in 1950s Watts complicated by a maze of rape and subsequent violence. Andrew Vachss's "Cain" details a simple case of animal torture, while James Ellroy depicts a low-rent grifter who, while caring for a deceased rich man's pit bull terrier, arranges to ensure a share of the pooch's legacy ("Gravy Train"). Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" features little overt crime but near-perfect structure and prose, as the visit of a blind man awakens thoughts both kind and cruel in his hosts, a married couple. Also included is short fiction by Flannery O'Connor, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Paco Taibo II, Nadine Gordimer, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton and Tony Hillerman.
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