Review: Unusual Suspects, edited by Dana Stabenow

Unusu­al Sus­pects: Sto­ries of Mys­tery & Fan­ta­sy by Dana Stabenow

My review

rat­ing: 3 of 5 stars
Anoth­er uneven anthol­o­gy. I still have it in my hands, so I’ll try to hit each sto­ry briefly.

“Lucky” by Char­laine Har­ris — Sook­ie is much eas­i­er to take in short form. I can’t help it, the woman grates on me (in the TV show even worse than in the books). The oth­er char­ac­ters keep me reading.

“Bogie­man” by Car­ole Nel­son Dou­glas — Delilah Street does more than grate on my nerves in long form. She’s more palat­able in short form, too, but there are reminders of why I don’t intend to read more in that series.

“Looks are Deceiv­ing” by Michael A. Stack­pole — If I’ve read any of Stack­pole’s work before, it’s been in antholo­gies, and I don’t remem­ber it. I did won­der if this short sto­ry is set in a uni­verse he uses in longer works, though. It was­n’t bad at all.

“The House of Sev­en Spir­its” by Sharon Shinn — I loved this sto­ry! And how often do you say that about a haunt­ed house tale? I must track down and read some of Shin­n’s nov­els. Any suggestions?

“Glam­our” by Mike Doogan — The Peas­antry Anti-Defama­tion League might be after Doogan if he isn’t care­ful at least, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the male peas­antry). The sto­ry was cute, and it did make me laugh.

“Spell­bound” by Don­na Andrews — This is anoth­er author whose books are going on my (groan­ing) to-read shelf. The sto­ry hit a few clich&eaute;s, but was fun enough to get away with them.

“The Duh Vice” by Michael Arm­strong — Ugh. A lit­tle too preachy, and way too much anti-fat prejudice.

“Weight of the World” by John Stra­ley — Where does San­ta Claus go in the off-sea­son? That’s the biggest ques­tion answered in this piece. The “mys­tery” was “solved” near­ly as soon as it was discovered.

“Illu­mi­na­tion” by Lau­ra Anne Gilman — Bon­nie’s back sto­ry! I think a bit of this sto­ry is used in the first chap­ter of Gilman’s first PUPI nov­el, but I’ll know more when I get my hands on it. It’s a must-read for fans of the Cosa Nos­tradamus uni­verse, though.

“The House” by Lau­rie R. King — could we maybe call a hia­tus on the abused-kid sto­ries? Maybe I’m hyper­sen­si­tive, but I’m tired of them.

“Appetite for Mur­der” by Simon R. Green — is anoth­er dark Night­side sto­ry. I don’t think I’ll ever need to read more in that universe.

“A Wom­an’s Work” by Dana Stabenow — I’m an unabashed Stabenow fan­girl. Despite that, I was­n’t sure how she’d do in a fan­ta­sy set­ting. She proved her­self, cer­tain­ly. I can only hope that we’ll see longer fan­ta­sy works from her in print at some juncture.

View all my reviews.