Manhattan Mayhem
Edited
by Mary Higgins Clark
With
yet another mystery anthology under my belt, I suppose it's fair to
say that I am prone to reading in genre-driven spurts. This
particular collection offers stories set within some of Manhattan's
many neighborhoods; disappointingly, however, they cluster around
familiar Midtown and Downtown locales that, as a rule, don't provide
much in the way of
cultural and ethnic diversity. Most of the included authors do,
however, take full advantage of their chosen setting, and the
collection feels thematically balanced. Stories set in the present
day and in bygone times peacefully coexist in an order that flows
naturally without forcing too much clustering or narrative whiplash.
Though several themes do repeat, including multiple stories set
during the World War II era, each author adds enough originality- and
writes with enough quality- to maintain the
reader's
interest throughout the book.
The
collection's overall quality is not particularly evident after editor
Mary Higgins Clark's opening story, "The Five-Dollar Dress",
which is hampered by generally poor writing, a muddled timeline, and
at least one disruption of continuity. Clark ultimately redeems
herself with superb plotting, even if the details are indeed the
devil, and a final twist that is so satisfying that the whole story
is worth the occasionally
painful experience of actually reading it. Some of the other stories
also fall victim to heavy-handedness in either concept or execution
or, possibly the worse sin in mystery writing, lead the reader to an
obvious conclusion that actually turns out to be the story's ending;
sometimes the payoff just doesn't work,
even after
a suitably enjoyable
setup.
Happily, Nancy Pickard's "Three Little Words" subverts this
trope, lining up its suspects neatly and slowly picking them apart
before reaching a genuinely surprising conclusion.
Ben
H. Winters also provides a welcome break from the expected with
"Trapped!", a play that initially elicited my serious
skepticism, none the less so for its focus on, yes, the staging of a
play-within-the-play and its inclusion of a character who decides to
write the events of "Trapped!" itself as a story. This kind
of metafiction, even (or perhaps especially) when attempted in jest
and good humor, is rife with potential pitfalls; nevertheless,
Winters somehow manages to avoid every single one of them on the way
to creating a hilarious send-up that is arguably the collection's
best story, and easily the one that I enjoyed the most. I was
likewise ecstatic to find a genuine time-travel story (Justin Scott's
"Evermore") and even more excited when it turned out to be
an excellent use of both science fictional elements and a more
traditional heist narrative, both of which I am particularly partial
to. Even if Winters and Scott provide welcome counterweights to more
traditional detective stories, S. J. Roznan's stands out as an
excellent example of the latter, presenting a main character whom I
would be happy to follow on subsequent adventures.
The
good thus outweighs the bad, and it is easy enough to move on from a
somewhat tepid story to a more thrilling neighbor next door. Mary
Higgins Clark clearly knows her way around the genre, and has
assembled a fitting tribute to the Mystery Writers of America's 70th
anniversary. Manhattan
Mayhem
may exhibit some of the general unevenness that characterizes all
short-story collections, but with its range of narrative styles and
the remarkably high quality of most of its stories, this
anthology
offers many enjoyable examples of short-form mysteries that showcase
the genre's current breadth and depth.
Grade:
A
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