These short stories were written by authors asked only to use springtime as a setting and to make 'Aucrime'Au an important element of their stories. Some abandon reality a bit and delve into different genres. A few are nonfiction. Others are preview chapters from novels in progress. In short, there is something here for every taste!
An anthology of short stories celebrating the 25th anniversary of the mystery bookstore Once Upon a Crime and the 10th anniversary of the Minneapolis store’s annual "Write of Spring" author gathering.
Introduction: Home Away from Home, Reed Farrel Coleman ✔ The Man Who Loved to Write ✔
The Outsider, Harold Adams 4⭐ Murder in the Blitz, Gerald Anderson 4⭐ Hole in the Fence, Joel Arnold 2.5⭐ Spring Rowing, Judith Yates Borger 3⭐ Firestorm, Carl Brookins 3⭐ Thick and Thin, Gary R. Rush 3.5⭐ Sweet Spring Revenge, Jessie Chandler 3.5⭐ Banned in Grand Rapids, Pat Dennis 4⭐ Nature Takes its Course, Sean Doolittle 3.5⭐ Hanging Luce, Jan Dunlap 3⭐ Another You, Chris Everheart 3.25⭐ Spring Fever, Barbara Fister 3.5⭐ Red Cadillac, Anne Fraiser 4⭐ From a Cold Place, Brian Freeman 4.5⭐ Wonderland, Ellen Hart 2⭐ Capital Partners, Libby Fisher Hellman 3.25⭐ Guest at the Wedding, Kathleen Hills 4⭐ Obsessive Behavior, David House 3.5⭐ Damn Cat, Camille Hyytinen 5⭐ Slater Maxwell, E. Kelly Keady 4.25⭐ Once Upon a Rhyme, Linda Koutsky 2⭐ Luck, William Kent Krueger 4⭐ A Darker Shade of Green, Lori L. Lake 4⭐ Beauty is in the Eye of the Newt, Jess Lourey 3.5⭐ Beware the Flying Moose, Michael Allan Mallory 3.5⭐ A Fairy Tale for the Incarcerated, David Oppegaard 3⭐ Clothes Make the Man, Scott Pearson 3⭐ Night Trip, Mary Monica Pulver 2.5⭐ Spring Peeper, Peter Rennebohm 3.25⭐ Johnny's Johnson, Bruce Rubenstein 2⭐ Paradise Refused, Richard A. Thompson 3.5⭐ Lights Out, Christopher Valen 4.5⭐ Perfect Neighbors, Marilyn Victor 4⭐ Spring Cleaning, Lance Zarimba 3.25⭐ A Million Miles of Sky, Harold Adams 3⭐ Afterword, Jon Jordan ✔
Great collection of crime stories, published to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Minneapolis bookstore Once Upon a Crime. The stories were almost uniformly great, there were just a couple I abandoned midstream. I'm a little disappointed that not all of the stories had Minnesota settings but that wasn't the intent of the anthology.