Tales with tension, collected by Anne Perry
“I had in mind any two beings who had to cooperate with each other, willingly or by force of circumstances, to solve a crime,” reports mystery writer and anthologist Anne Perry.
Mission accomplished.
“Odd Partners: An Anthology,” edited by Perry, is locked, loaded and ready for action with new stories by Perry, Allison Brennan, Jeffery Deaver, William Kent Krueger, Charles Todd, Jacqueline Winspear and 13 others (Random House, 148 pp., $28).
Perry also is the bestselling author of two mystery series — the William Monk stories of Victorian England and the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt stories — among a wide assortment of other engaging tales.
She has been around. Appropriately, Perry leads off with “Reconciliation,” the tale of a 23year-old Allied infantry captain determined to save a young private trapped in a collapsing battleground tunnel. It’s a grim prospect for both men, made worse with the sudden arrival of another struggling soldier:
“It’s no good. The water’s getting deeper,” he reports.
Worse than that: He says it in German.
It’s gripping storytelling at its best. As is the yarn that follows it: “The Nature of the Beast” by Krueger, who writes of an agile trout fisherman on the Balsam River in northern Wisconsin. He likes to fish. One day, in a gentle whim of generosity, he tosses his catch to a hungry, watching wolf:
“Before he vanished, he turned the white star on his forehead toward me and gave me an ice-blue stare. Then he was gone.”
But that wolf would be back. Meanwhile a rapacious developer wants to destroy this land; he would also be back.
Even less pleasantly.
Among the dramatic attractions of “Odd Partners” are its sudden side turnings and crisp, unpredictable outcomes. The masterful writing is propelled throughout by powerful narrative drive and adroit surprise.
Stand by for action!