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Book Review of Murder On Main Street: 40 Tales of Small-Town Crime

Murder On Main Street: 40 Tales of Small-Town Crime
hardtack avatar reviewed on + 2586 more book reviews


Anytime you have an anthology of short stories in a book you know you're really going to like some of them, feel okay about others and hate a few. Actually, I enjoyed most of the stories in this collection. Most of these can be classified as light mysteries, in that you're glad to see the villain(s) caught or killed, as nothing is horrific in the story. However, there were at least three stories where the criminals got away with it, and I really felt sorry for the victims. One just reinforced my dislike of baseball. I don't want to write more as I'll give it away.

My favorite's were:

"The First Week in September," which so blew me away in the final reveal that I sat up straight in my chair and uttered "Holy insert-expletive-here!"

"Mercy's Killing," which I figured had just a run-of-the-mill plot until I read the last few paragraphs and realized nothing was as it seemed.

"Just the Lady We're Looking For," was a very short story with a great and unexpected twist in the last sentence.