Thriller: An Anthology of New Mystery Short Stories

Music and Murder Mystery #2

by Don Bruns (Editor), Heather Graham, Jeffery Deaver

From the series: The Music and Murder Mystery Series
🎧Listening Length = 7 hours, 19 minutes

The top mystery writers of today, including Jeffery Deaver, William Kent Krueger, and Heather Graham, provide their own spine-tingling stories based on songs from Michael Jackson’s renowned Thriller album. You’ll “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” — this must-listen audiobook, that is!

From Beat It to Billie Jean, the songs we know and love take on a brand new, thrilling connotation in this anthology edited by Don Bruns.

In this second collection in the Music and Murder Mystery series, nine award-winning, bestselling authors have written their own interpretations of the Thriller song list. With original work from some of the best mystery authors out there, the anthology includes stories from Heather Graham, Jeffery Deaver, William Kent Krueger, Dahlia Rose, and David R. Slayton, among others.

With poignant, frightening, and intriguing stories from some of the best writers in the genre, this eerie collection is sure to keep you up at night—and maybe even haunt your dreams.

Genres: Mystery, Short Stories, Anthologies, Audiobook, Thriller, Suspense, Music

244 pages, Hardcover

First published July 11, 2023

About the author

Don Bruns is a writer, novelist, musician, songwriter, painter, cook, advertising executive and stand up comic who has no idea what he wants to be when he grows up. He's the author of nine books and was editor of the mystery/music anthology A Merry Band Of Murderers.

Don's published novels cover two series. One, a Caribbean thriller collection and two, the Stuff series, a humorous look at two twenty-four year old guys in South Florida who start their own detective agency and end up neck - deep in trouble.

Jamaica Blue, Barbados Heat, South Beach Shakedown, St. Barts Breakdown and Bahama Burnout make up the Caribbean books. The Stuff series consists of Stuff To Die For, Stuff Dreams Are Made Of, Stuff To Spy For, and Don't Sweat The Small Stuff. Bruns is currently working on the fifth Stuff book, Too Much Stuff.

He currently resides on Florida's West coast.

Bahama Burnout/ Finalist, National Best Books Award - Mystery/Suspense 2009
South Beach Shakedown/ Winner National Best Books Award -Fiction/Suspense 2006
South Beach Shakedown/ Winner, Indie Excellence, 2006 Award - Mystery/Suspense
South Beach Shakedown/ Winner USA Book Award, 2006 - Mystery
Stuff Dreams Are Made Of/ Winner Indie Excellence Award 2009 - Mystery/Suspense
Stuff Dreams Are Made Of/IndieBound Notable, October 2008
Stuff Dreams Are Made Of/Winner Florida Writer's Association -
Stuff To Die For/ Starred review Booklist

Reviews

[Greg at 2 Book Lovers Reviews · Rating 2 out of 5]

Imagine, if you will, a collection of stories based on Michael Jackson’s album of the same name. It sounds like a fantastic idea. I was all in, with bells on. As a child of the '80s I could sing along with most of these songs.

There are times when ideas and execution just don’t mix all that well. Don Bruns was able to bring in some big names in thriller fiction, but I found the collection to be lacking. There was nothing about this collection to really make me want to continue; the collection lacked a continuity, the only thing holding it together were the story names. It could have been better if one story led to another, I know that this would have been more work for the authors, but the quality would have been better. None of the stories were memorable, they lacked the little something special that can make a short story great.

Despite the large catalogues for the authors involved with this anthology, I have never read a single one before, and this anthology did not give me the desire to add any of them to my TBR. I’m sure that someone will enjoy this collection, I really wanted to enjoy it, but it just wasn’t for me.

*I received a copy of the book from the publisher (via NetGalley).

[Suzanne Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 meh

[Stacey (Bookalorian) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't 100 percent sold on this book but someone had recommended it and so I gave it a go!

It was well worth the read! The whole book is 9 different authors and their take on the song thriller as a short story! I had no idea you could get so many uniquely different variations of the same song into a literary work of art. I liked some more than others but overall I was glad I read it.

Heather Grahams was my favorite by far but I would highly recommend this clever book of short stories to anyone who loves anthologies.

4 stars, thank you netgalley for my gifted copy

[Keila (speedreadstagram) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second collection in the Murder and Mystery series. There are eight different stories by nine, award-winning authors. Each of them has written their own interpretation of the Thriller song list.

This was a really interesting anthology. I struggle with reviewing these because there are so many short stories and I think they are all individually different with different ratings. I will say that the first story was my absolute favorite. It had everything I want in a short story and then some. It was wonderful. The next was not bad, but not my favorite. The third was not for me and I had no idea what was going on – which is interesting for it being a short story. The fourth was a good solid read, but I wish this one would have been a little better flushed out and longer – parts were too choppy and abrupt for me. The fifth was a really good story and I love the gay romance aspect of it along with the mystery. The sixth was alright but it felt that it didn’t fit the book as a whole as much. The seventh was very repetitive and I didn’t enjoy. The eight was a great story and another one that I wanted more from, great read overall.

Overall, I really enjoyed this anthology. I liked how they all had similar veins and just seemed to fit together (except for the one). I would recommend this book and it is a quick read.

Thank you so much to the publisher Blackstone Publishing, and Netgalley, @netgalley, for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

[The Bookish B¡tch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Title: Thriller
Author: Don Bruns + others
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Publication Date: July 11, 2023
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thriller is an anthology of short stories, each one derived from a song title off the iconic Michael Jackson album. It's always a challenge to rate an anthology for me, as each author has their own style and pace. I would like to say that while I enjoyed every story, my absolute favorite was by Don Bruns: Wanna Be Startin Somthing. The pace was fast, and I enjoyed all the different characters and found myself rooting for the mc. It is a terrific start to a great collection of stories. Baby Be Mine by Dahlia Rose was a perfect example of an absolute nail-biting thriller with a touch of romance, which I normally avoid. In this case, I found myself completely indulging in the romance of the storyline and snarky heroine. These are just two of the many stories you will find in Thriller that I was captivated by. A couple of stories were a little more drawn out and had a slow burn feel to them, which is not my preference. Overall, a solid four-star anthology! Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the opportunity to review this ARC.


#booktok #thrillertok #horrortok #Thriller #summerreads #summerreading #anthologies #DonBruns #psychologicalthriller #bookrecs #bookreviewer #fyp #fypシ゚ #thebookishbitch #NetGalley #BlackstonePublishing

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Building a set of short stories around a track list from a well known album is a terrific idea for putting together a collection, and for the most part I think editor Don Bruns got this one exactly right.

The ties between the stories and the respective tracks of Michael Jackson’s Thriller are for the most part pretty tenuous, but they’re almost all solidly done pieces of fiction, and I didn’t feel like a single one of them ignored the theme, which is a common problem in multi-author submission-based anthologies.

These feel more like what I would describe as Crime stories than true Thriller material, which is a good thing in my book. The writing is sharper than I expected, and I found myself enjoying the work of several authors who I generally don’t consider to be my cup of tea, in addition to a few who are.

The best of the lot are Thriller, Wanna Be Startin Something, and The Girl is Mine, though there’s nothing below a three-star story in the collection and nothing I would recommend that you skip.

Well-conceived and well-executed by both the authors and the editor.

*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A simple concept: create an anthology of stories linked by a common theme. In this series of anthologies, the theme is iconic albums. Each story is named for a track on the album and off we go!

'Thriller' has a good mixture of stories and, if anything, the only complaint I have is that in some stories, the writer feels forced to insert lyrics from the song. And that's exactly how they feel. Forced. The worst offender in 'Thriller' is "Billie Jean". If you haven't read this anthology yet, you'll find out!

[Reagan Formea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this in a giveaway!
I always so excited for this book based on the premise but unfortunately it didn’t work out for me. I found the tie-ins to the songs really cheesy and the writing style (throughout all the stories) was not my favorite.

[Sidney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Cheesy mystery stories; each chapter is entitled with a Michael Jackson song from the Thriller album. The best: Beat It; the worst: Billie Jean.

[Caitlin (CMAReads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Blackstone and Libro.fm for the ALC.
I really liked this short story collection. Most of them were hits for me. Each was unique and an interesting look into what makes a story a thriller. Great narration. Each story was narrated by a different person, which kept me wanting to listen.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting idea and collection of short stories by various authors. Each one is named after a song on Michael Jackson's Thriller album. I enjoyed Baby, Be Mine the most.

[Tina Rae · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay. So I had a few work drives and wanted an audiobook for them so I picked this one purely based on time (ie, because it's short) so I, uh, guess you get what you pay for??? (Yeah, that reference doesn't make sense but let's just go with it.)

Well. This was just... not great. There were really only two stories that caught my attention and that I actually liked. For the rest, I ended up zoning out a lot or singing to entertain myself and actually stay awake (because some of the drives were at night) because I was so bored. I honestly can't tell you what even happened in most of these stories??? They just did not grab my attention.

The one written by the editor of this collection was BY FAR the best one. And the other that grabbed my attention was just interesting. It had the most infuriatingly stupid main character though but it ended up playing out well and actually held my attention.

This also had some of the most juvenile writing I have EVER read. I think this was supposed to be YA (I think???) but even for YA, the writing was just... not great? Pro tip: kids are not stupid and you don't have to dumb things down for them. When I was a kid, I actually preferred the YA books that talked to the reader like they were an adult (or just adult books). So. Would've liked this better if these stories would've taken that route.

Oh and what did this have to do with Michael Jackson? Aside from a few stories mentioning him or referencing one of his songs, I would've never known this was supposedly ~inspired by his music.

So. This was just a massive miss for me and I wish I would've just listened to music on those drives instead of suffering through this. What a waste.

But thank you to libro.fm and Blackstone Publishing for the ALC!

[Maya Bell · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Thriller" is a short story anthology containing 9 different stories by 9 different authors all based on a song from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album.

Each story is unique and I enjoyed seeing how the writing style changed between each authors story. My favourite short story was "Thriller" by Heather Graham although I did enjoy most of them. From the beginning of each story I couldn't tell what was going to happen but once they got going I really enjoyed some of the plot twists.

My only two dislikes are one, the frequent errors in spelling especially with peoples names, and the second is a personal dislike in which I am not a huge fan of short story anthologies because of the lack of character development and world building but a couple of these really built up both of those. Anthologies are also more difficult to rate especially when there is 9 different authors so I rated each individually as well as an overall average.

"Wanna Be Startin' Something" - Don Bruns (3⭐)
"Baby Be Mine" - Dahlia Rose (4⭐)
"The Girl Is Mine" - Jennifer Graeser Dornbush (4⭐)
"Thriller" - Heather Graham (5⭐)
"Beat It William" - Kent Krueger (4.5⭐)
"Billie Jean" - Neil S. Plakcy (4⭐)
"Human Nature" - David R. Slayton (3⭐)
"Pretty Young Thing" - Rick Bleiweiss (3.5⭐)
"The Lady In My Lide" - Jefferey Deaver (3.5⭐)

Overall rating: 3.5⭐

[J Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thriller: An Anthology of New Mystery Short Stories, edited by Don Bruns, is the second in The Music and Murder Mystery Series following Hotel California, and is every bit as fun.

A collection is always going to be uneven, different writers, different voices, but this one holds together quite well with each story being solid. You'll have your favorites just as I did, but I think you will enjoy them all. The two writers with whom I was most familiar were Heather Graham and Jeffery Deaver, but I am now interested in looking up some of the other writers' works.

I tend to read a collection one story at a time, by which I mean I don't immediately start the next story, even if I plan to keep reading at the time. I will pick up one of the other books I am reading. I like to give the story a chance to sit with me before jumping into another story that might be thematically related and thus weaken the impact of both. That method works well here, these stories offer some things you might want to think about after reading.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Harrison Hicks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the concept of this collection to be an interesting idea, but I felt that it didn't quite live up to its potential. Most of the stories are at least entertaining, though. I'd rank most of them as 3 stars- the problem seemed to be that most of the authors tried to cram too much plot into a shorter story, much to the detriment of the stories. This was particularly evident in "Pretty Young Thing" by Rick Bleiweiss, which started off great but then went downhill- it really needed to be at least novella length for the events to ring true.

There were three stories that I liked a lot, with two of them being close to five star reads. First, the Jeffrey Deaver story, "The Lady in My Life", had some nice twists and turns in it, with an interesting protagonist in Miguel. Second was the story by David Slayton, "Human Nature". For not being his usual genre, Slayton did a great job, creating a tableau with a dark mood and chilling ending. Neil Plakcy wrote my third favorite, "Billie Jean", which had an intriguing plot but suffered from the too obvious callouts of the song. Honorable mentions for me would be the stories by Dahlia Rose and Don Bruns.

[Sam Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, so I am so thankful to Blackstone Publishing/Audio, Don Bruns, Netgalley, and Libro.fm for granting me advanced physical, digital, and audiobook access to this collection of horrific tales, all to the tune and theme of Michael Jackson's Thriller album. Thriller: An Anthology of New Mystery Short Stories is set to hit shelves on July 11, 2023, and you really need to get your pre-orders in now, because this book is worth the listen.

Whether you're cozying up by a campfire and are in search of some scary stories, or cozied up with a blanket indoors, there's always a need for spooky stories and it makes for the perfect evening mood setting.

[Sue Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thriller by by Don Bruns.
In this second collection in the Music and Murder Mystery series, nine award-winning, bestselling authors have written their own interpretations of the Thriller song list. With original work from some of the best mystery authors out there, the anthology includes stories from Heather Graham, Jeffery Deaver, William Kent Krueger, Dahlia Rose, and David R. Slayton, among others..
Including wanna be startin' somethin'
Baby be mine
The girl is mine
Thriller
Beat it
Billie Jean
Human nature
Pretty young thing
The lady in my life.
Some were more enjoyable than others. It was different. 4*.

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun, quick read. I went into this one blind, only knowing that it was a book of short thriller stories. It wasn’t until I was about to start the third story did I go back and read all the titles and realized they were all Michael Jackson songs. Growing up a huge Michael Jackson fan I thought this was a very cool concept. All the stories were well written and enjoyable. My favorite was Thriller by Heather Graham. This one had me on the edge of my seat. I definitely need to add her to my tbr. Seeing my name and my brother’s name in Bille Jean by Neil S. Plakcy was fun. All the stories were different and I liked them all, very entertaining

[Darla Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is part of the Music and Murder Mystery series and is a collection of short stories. The authors include Heather Graham (the reason I checked this book out from my library), Rick Bleiweiss, Don Bruns, Dahlia Rose, Jennifer Graeser Dornbush, and others. I only read the stories written by the authors mentioned and my review is based on those five. All of the stories I read drew me in and kept me hooked. They were quick reads which had intriguing mysteries. Despite being short stories they had fully fledged characters whom I enjoyed getting to know. The stories were captivating and well-written. I highly recommend this book.

[Denice Langley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Collections of short stories are one of my most recommended books to family and friends. When asked for author recommendations, I always offer up the numerous collections in my personal library, as this is where I find so many wonderful authors that I would never have chosen. Short stories require an author to flex their writing skills, capturing readers in fewer pages than many chapters in a novel. They must immediately immerse readers into a story in progress and bring the characters to life so quickly, all the "meat" of the mystery is revealed in just a few pages. This collection includes the best of the best and will be appreciated by my reading circle as we choose new books to share.

[Emily Fravel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was definitely not the target audience for this. I thought this was a pretty cool concept with the Michael Jackson songs but it was described as thrilling short stories. These stories were not very thrilling or very well written for the most part. The best one was the very last one by Jeffrey Deaver. However I still didn't care for it much. I feel like this collection is made more for people who enjoy reading James Patterson. It felt very Lifetime or even Hallmark thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some inevitable typos and grammar errors that can happen in ARCs. Most anthologies have a section about the contributors so I hope that makes it into the finished copy.

A lot of the stories were campy and over the top. My analytical side kept poking at plot holes or characters making dubious choices. The best story was Billie Jean. It felt plausible while also being entertaining. The rest were good to middling.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super anthology filled with entertaining short stories centered around the songs of Michael Jackson. Well crafted and intriguing tales of crime and mystery fill these pages. Whether you prefer your stories cozy or gritty, there's something in here for everyone. A great way to speed through an afternoon on the couch.

* I received a free copy of this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Lisa Gisèle · Rating 4 out of 5]

received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Great idea for a collection of short stories. Like every collection with different authors, some were better than others.when others, they were all rather hood. I'm planning to look for Hotel California, I'm intrigued to see how authors get inspired with rhat theme.

[Katelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of short stories was very unique. I loved the idea they were trying to achieve with connecting each story with a Michael Jackson song, but some definitely connected better than others. I did appreciate the amount of diversity that was displayed in the book. Overall an enjoyable read.

[Shilo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this so badly. I started a note in my phone to properly review each story, but when I realized how much I didn't like any of them, I stopped wasting my time.

The idea is SO cool, but the execution just wasn't there for me. It's marketed as suspense and mystery, but very few of the stories actually had that and the ones that did missed the mark.

[Malli (Chapter Malliumpkin)]

ALC was given by Libro.fm & Blackstone Publishing.



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[Annarella · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag, an anthology of short stories inspired by music, Thriller as the name of Michael Jackson's album.
I loved some of them and found other a bit meh
Interesting concept
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

[David Slayton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was well, thrilled, to get a write a story for this anthology. It's an honor to share pages with these authors. Several of them are rock stars to me. I hope you like Alex and enjoy his story, Human Nature, my little murder mystery set in Greece.

[chelsea reads · Rating 1 out of 5]

dnf @ 70%

wasn't particularly thrilling. the mysteries weren't very mysterious.