100 Menacing Little Murder Stories

by Robert Weinberg (Editor), Stefan R. Dziemianowicz (Editor), Martin H. Greenberg (Editor)

Feeding on our darkest nightmares and deepest fears, this excruciatingly entertaining collection of fiendishly frightening stories provides agonizingly exquisite tales of torture, vengeance, and retribution. Sampling the consummate skills of such renowned writers as Saki, David H. Keller, Thomas Ligotti, John Galt, Alan Ryan, Fred Chappel, and other masters of the genre, this volume is a veritable rogue's gallery of devious criminals who really understand how to make the punishment fit the crime.

Genres: Short Stories, Mystery, Horror, Anthologies, Fiction

596 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Also published as Harrison Denmark.
Robert Weinberg (also credited as Bob Weinberg) was an American author. His work spans several genres including non-fiction, science fiction, horror, and comic books.

Weinberg sold his first story in 1967. Most of his writing career was conducted part-time while also owning a bookstore; he became a full time writer after 1997.

Weinberg was also an editor, and edited books in the fields of horror, science fiction and western. In comics, Weinberg wrote for Marvel Comics; his first job was on the series Cable, and he later created the series Nightside.

Wikipedia entry: Robert Weinberg

Reviews

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

100 very short tales of murder. While I like some more than others, the vast majority were at least entertaining. That's better than most anthologies right there.

[Roger · Rating 2 out of 5]

I whittled away at 100 Menacing Little Murder Stories at the rate of a story a night. (Quick guess how long I have been reading this book.) When you are dealing with an anthology of this size you have to look for the gold and tolerate the dross. The problem I had with this collection was there was very little of the former and quite a lot of the latter. Yes there are a lot of famous authors here but it seems like the main requirement for inclusion was brevity rather than quality. So sure there are stories from Harlan Ellison, for instance-but these stories appear to be early works before Ellison hit his stride. There were some bright spots-Joe Lansdale has several good entries in this volume, and there is a crown jewel of a story by William F Nolan that I can only compare to being abruptly pushed off a pier into an ice cold lake. These just wasn't enough good stuff to overcome the filler that made up the rest of the book.

[Shawn]

I obtained this through Inter-Library Loan to read one story, which I did:

"The Last Pin" by Howard Wandrei - The oldest boy of the bullying, delinquent Strobel clan goes to jail for murder, vowing revenge - which then seems to be somehow visited on his targets. But what does that have to do with the younger athletic, driven brother Ernie's predilection for attaching clothes pins to his thighs? A strange little crime story, of mental dominance and sibling submission. Interesting

[Megargee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection crams 100 LITTLE murder stories into 589 pages. Do the math. They are all short, ranging from 2 or 3 pages to some that may be as long as 10 or 12. Some of the stories are well known, for example The Lottery. Most are not. Same with the authors.
Over the years I have kept this book beside my bed for those nights when I want a short but complete read before turning out the light. I don't want to start a new book or embark on a full length story because I will only get part way into it and have to reread it the next day. And I don't want to get so involved I stay up too late. In short I want a short short story book. This one fit the bill.

[Rosa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost all of these stories were great, showing different aspects of murder.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't finish the entire book, they seemed very dry after a while. Some of them were very intriguing to read, however, and I recommend it to those who are fans of the mystery genre.

[M. Winslow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good collection of short stories, but several were more of a "stream of thought" than a true short story. Interesting set of authors, as well.