Bad Behavior

A varied, suspenseful collection of stories, published in collaboration with the International Association of Crime Writers, features the work of Lawrence Block, P. D. James, Joyce Carol Oates, Sara Paretsky, and many others.

Gr. 8^-12. Popular suspense writer Clark, who's edited mystery anthologies for adults, tries her hand at one for YAs. The violence is, perhaps, less overt than in many contemporary adult mystery roundups (though it's still there), and most of the stories feature young people as characters. There's also a stellar cast of crime writers, including Sara Paretsky, P. D. James, Lawrence Block, and Liza Cody. But the tales themselves are often predictable, and a few, such as Block's story, "Like a Bug on the Windshield" (about truckers who vent their anger with their big rigs), have such a distinctive "adult" feel that they seem, quality aside, to be odd inclusions. Some stories, however, won't easily be forgotten (James' psychological thriller "The Girl Who Loved Graveyards," for one), and that helps make the book a logical choice for older YAs itching to leap from Lois Duncan and R. L. Stine to something more sophisticated. Stephanie Zvirin