Reviews

Tricks And Treats by Richard Ellington, Edward Wellen, Jean L. Backus, Albert F. Nussbaum, John D. MacDonald, William E. Chambers, Harlan Ellison, Jaime Sandaval, Anthony Boucher, Elizabeth A. Lynn, Carter Dickson, Betty Buchanan, Joseph N. Gores, Bill Pronzini, Stephen R. Novak, Edward D. Hoch, John Lutz, Arthur Moore, Pauline C. Smith, William F. Nolan, Donald E. Westlake, Len Gray, Ellery Queen, Joe Gores, James Holding, Stanley Ellin, Barry N. Malzberg, S.S. Rafferty, Jessamyn West, Jack Ritchie, Henry Slesar

psalmcat's review

4.0

Although this was published almost 30 years ago, the majority of the stories in this anthology hold up pretty well. The editors take turns introducing the stories and give a little bit of information about each author, which is helpful. In putting the book together, they subdivided the genre into different types of mysteries and then selected a story that fits each type. Some examples: The "Whydunit," Ratiocination, Man Bites Dog, etc.

There are some Big Name authors included here--Anthony Boucher, John Dickson Carr--but also many authors I've never heard of. I really do love short stories, especially when they are as varied as these. There is no chance of getting the characters from "The Deveraux Monster" mixed up with those in "Goodbye, Cora" (a sad little story, by the way). Sometimes in short story collections, it's a joy to be able to guiltlessly skip one story that just isn't doing it for you and move on to one that does. This is one of those collections in which I managed to find no skippable stories, although there is one--categorized as "?"--that is so weird that I can see why it could turn people right off.

It's also interesting to see Pronzini and Gores early in their careers working on this together. Having read both of them, it's interesting how two such stylistically different authors can work together and create a readable book.