Reviews

MatchUp by Lee Child

gaylebn's review against another edition

4.0

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of short stories written by pairs of popular authors. I’be read most of the authors and was familiar with their characters and was introduced to more characters/authors that are now in my Audible and Kindle wish lists. I did read the Kindle version - the audio version might be fun. I will read the other book of this kind.

papidoc's review against another edition

4.0

Matchup is an appealing collection of short stories that are each the product of two well-known mystery/thriller authors partnering. The authors not only worked together to combine their writing skills and styles, but each story also features the characters for which each has become celebrated. The result is, for the most part, and in a more than average way, engaging and entertaining stories. I discovered a few authors who's books I have not who I will probably track down now and read. All in all, it was a fun way to spend a few warm summer evenings.

lisawreading's review against another edition

3.0

It's a bit of a cheat to mark this book as read, because to be perfectly honest, I only read one story from the collection. I picked up MatchUp specifically to read the new Diana Gabaldon piece, co-written with Steve Berry, called Past Prologue. In it, Berry's recurring character Cotton Malone stumbles through a circle of standing stones in the Scottish Highlands and is transported back in time to 1755, where he meets a certain tall, well-built red-headed Scotsman. Okay, it's Jamie Fraser. For Outlander fans, this is a fun little read, and Jamie gets a bit of dialogue that's as heartbreaking and powerful as most Jamie Fraser speeches. Other than that, it's an amusing adventure story, but not exactly earth-shattering.

I'm sure thriller fans may find more to read in this anthology, but I really only intended to read the one story, and none of the others caught my eye enough to spend time on.

holl3640's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A

4.0

carlg88's review against another edition

3.0

It took me a ridiculous amount of time to finish this book purely because I was flitting in and out of it at the same time as reading others. I think that is the beauty of reading short stories that you are easily able to do this.
I really enjoyed the majority of the stories especially the one by Lee Child and Kathy Reichs. The one by Karin Slaughter and Michael Koryta was also very good. Glad that I stuck with this one.
The majority of the stories in here provide a good few hours of entertainment.

lolo007's review against another edition

2.0

I'm a massive Kathy Reichs fan, but I haven't read much of any of the other authors, and the male/female author team-up was an interesting concept so I was excited to give this a go. There were a couple of decent stories. I thought the Lisa Jackson/John Sandford story was particularly good, but overall this anthology was disappointing. I appreciate that writing short stories is a difficult endeavour, as is writing with someone else, especially if it's not something you're used to, but some of these were just bad.

jakennedy's review against another edition

3.0

While each short story is accompanied by an introduction of the author(s), their characters and approach to collaboration, it is not always enough to draw readers in. Still, there are a few standout stories included in the mix.

rzd21's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

kimberly_b's review against another edition

I read just the Steve Berry & Diana Gabaldon short story. 5 stars

afox98's review against another edition

4.0

Fun set of short stories from a collection of mystery/suspense/thriller authors. I've heard of and faithfully read about half the authors involved here. As with any collection of short stories, some were better than others. My favorites were done by the pairings that included Karin Slaughter, Steve Berry, JA Jance, surprisingly the one that involves the vampire (can't remember the author's name). It's nice to be able to sit down and read something in 20 to 30 minute snippets sometimes too.