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Murder for Love: Murder for Men
Crimes of passion are as old as love itself. A man, a woman, a weapon: it's the perfect recipe for love gone wrong. And Murder for Love: Murder for Men is the perfect and only-collection of love stories with a delectable devious twist: Murder. Eight works of short fiction from the very best male writers inside and out of the mystery field provide compelling listening in this distinctive collection.
These witty, never-before-published stories are written by: William J. Caunitz, James Crumley, John Gardner, Jonathan Kellerman, Elmore Leonard, Ed McBain, Michael Malone, Shel Silverstein.
©1996 Dove; (P)2009 Phoenix
Listening Length: 4 hours and 15 minutes
Version: Unabridged
These witty, never-before-published stories are written by: William J. Caunitz, James Crumley, John Gardner, Jonathan Kellerman, Elmore Leonard, Ed McBain, Michael Malone, Shel Silverstein.
©1996 Dove; (P)2009 Phoenix
Listening Length: 4 hours and 15 minutes
Version: Unabridged
- GenresMystery
4 pages, Audible Audio
First published January 1, 1996
21 people want to read
About the author
Otto Penzler
385 books551 followersOtto Penzler is an editor of mystery fiction in the United States, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, where he lives.
Otto Penzler founded The Mysteriour Press in 1975 and was the publisher of The Armchair Detective, the Edgar-winning quarterly journal devoted to the study of mystery and suspense fiction, for seventeen years.
Penzler has won two Edgar Awards, for The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection in 1977, and The Lineup in 2010. The Mystery Writers of America awarded him the prestigious Ellery Queen Award in 1994, and the Raven--the group's highest non-writing award--in 2003.
Otto Penzler founded The Mysteriour Press in 1975 and was the publisher of The Armchair Detective, the Edgar-winning quarterly journal devoted to the study of mystery and suspense fiction, for seventeen years.
Penzler has won two Edgar Awards, for The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection in 1977, and The Lineup in 2010. The Mystery Writers of America awarded him the prestigious Ellery Queen Award in 1994, and the Raven--the group's highest non-writing award--in 2003.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 26, 2019
This was really good, but kind of short - 8 stories? They were all very good ones, though. Including a short story by Elmore Leonard I hadn't read before, always a treat. Very well narrated. Highly recommended.
April 19, 2025
Audio version. Run time: 4:15
Whoever the deep, throaty, heavy breathing narrator is for each story’s opening is awful. I’m assuming this might be Otto Penzler. It’s as if he is using a voice machine to make his voice deeper, slower, more ominous like a kidnapper on a ransom call. I know it’s supposed to be creepy or slow and seductive, but it just sounds awful. The heavy breathing is cringy and a little nauseating. Plus if he read any slower I’d celebrate another birthday before the next chapter starts. I found myself wanting to just skip through the intros to avoid the horrible breathy noises and the awkward creepy/seductive attempt. I’m afraid I’d he read any slower and any breathier, he would’ve passed out. Some people can do creepy voices. Some can do seductive voices. Some can do dramatic, ominous ones. He absolutely cannot do any of these.
The intros to each story were a little over the top dramatic too. He hypes up these stories like they are the best things you’ll ever hear/read. This was a collection of some of the worst stories I’ve ever come across. I should’ve trusted my instinct they would be after suffering through “Murder for Love, Murder for Women.” I’m not sure what Otto Penzler bases his criteria in for picking the “best” stories to make all these collections but I’ve read several of the anthologies he’s edited and put together and honestly, they’ve all been terrible.
The narrators were ok, nothing I’d recommend or anyone I’m chomping at the bit to pick up again. Some were awful and hard to get through. Most had a clear voice, no muttering, but there just wasn’t any variation in voices. The recording quality is very poor. There is so much feedback and background noise it sounds like it’s being recorded on a cell phone in a call center. The background noise/feedback was so loud in some places it was hard to hear the actual narration. It was very distracting.
I’ve done individual reviews for each story below. Overall I don’t recommend this one or its companion “Murder for Love, Murder for Women.” While this one is short, it’s a battle to get through and really just a man’s collection of very sexist stories with a definite overemphasis on sexual encounters.
1. Dying Time by William J. Caunitz, narrated by Efrem Zimbalist Jr…3🌟
This was by far the best story and best narration.
It was unclear if Maryann was having an affair with both the husband and the wife or just the husband and he’d just left before the murders occurred. It was a little hard to follow because there are so many characters and not enough explanation who was involved in everything. It’s also not clear how the detective reached his conclusion. It was classic of detective stories where the great detective suddenly just knows the answer. Good mystery with a nice twist for suspect. Classic detective story. I did enjoy the process for how the killer got in and committed the crime. The ending was a little flat.
The narrator was clear, did a wide range of voices that were easy to distinguish and had great reflection. The tension and emotion was clear at the end. I enjoyed the detectives voice and attitude portrayal. This was the second best narration in the collection and the narrator alone could easily be 4 star. Overall the story could have been had it been a little clearer in detail regarding the crime.
2. The Loving You Get by John Gardener, narrated by David Warner…1🌟
TW: cheating, HIV/AIDS. Two married people cheat on their spouses. One lover knowingly passes HIV onto to the other. She’s aware her previous lover has developed AIDS and is dying, knows she’s positive, has passed it along to her current lover.
This story had little impact on me. So little in fact, I couldn’t remember it at all afterwards to write the review. Thinking I’d missed one when I reached the end of the book, I had to go back and see what the story was and when it occurred in the book. I wished I had relistened to this one. Sorry, this one was just flat horrible.
SPOILER AHEAD DUE TO THE TW’s.
A spy handler falls in love with his agent. He’s a good man who had been cheated on by an unfaithful wife and a member of if his protection team. He falls in love and is just concerned with his agents well being, health, safety, and happiness. He gets her out of her assignment safely and starts to build a life with her and take care of her while she recovers, only to come home one day and she’s slipped their protection and left. She leaves a note with a porno statue for him stating she’s a double agent for the KGB, that the KGB guy she had been sleeping with as an undercover agent had HIV, developed full blown AIDS, and is dying. She states she too has it and will be dead soon too. And btw…you have it now too. Once you’re dead we can be together. The KGB will take care of me until I die. Hope your org does the same.
Trash. So a good man suffers all this crap for what?
The narrator was a little too upbeat and “springy” for the tone of this story. Not sure an upbeat voice fits with finding your wife cheating on you or learning you’ve been given HIV/AIDS. The context of the story distracted me from the quality of the narration fully because it was just a terrible storyline. Parts of it had clear character distinction and parts did not.
3. Red Clay by Michael Malone, narrated by Kevin McCarthy…2🌟
This story was just too long with really nothing happening. A woman goes on trial for the murder of her husband. A young boys father tells him about his lifelong obsession with this woman (which the woman he’s obsessed with doesn’t even really seem to recognize or know him) and when the boy brings it up to his mother she just writes it off as if it were nothing. It was weird. The whole story is basically this man’s obsession with this woman’s beauty and believing she’s innocent. Years later when the boy is an adult the elderly woman tells him the truth about her husband’s death then in a drunken stupor she falls down and sets herself and her house on fire. There was zero action here, the story was way too long and boring. Giving 2 stars because she tells the truth about what happened and the great narration.
The narrator did a great job with the small town Southern accents of the time period that really immersed you into the setting of this story. He did really well for distinguishing ages, male, and female. One of the better female voices done by a man I’ve heard. I was torn with giving this 3 stars for the narration, but the story itself just wasn’t that good. The narrator on his own is more of a 4 star for his quality.
4. Hot springs by James Crumley, narrated by Elliot Gould…1🌟
Vulgar and crude. I can’t care about any story that refers to a woman or her privates as a cunt. This was just a raunchy vulgar story with a man’s sex fantasy overkill. There wasn’t a mystery or really anything thrilling. It’s just vulgar sexual scenes, foul language, and gory descriptions of kill scenes. I didn’t see a point to this story at all.
The narration was ok. He voice was clear, but a little monotone and there really wasn’t a distinction between his characters and regular storyline reading. Several times I didn’t realize a character was speaking vs just the mainstream storytelling sections. The female voice was really bad.
5. Karen Makes Out by Elmore Leonard…1🌟
Another story flooded with vulgar sex scenes at the beginning. A woman’s new boyfriend seems perfect, but he’s hiding a secret everyone but Karen can see from a mile away. Given her occupation, you’d think she’d have picked up on it. Ok story, the sex scenes weren’t necessary. They didn’t further the story any and really made me not care about the story from the beginning. The dialogue, scenes, and decisions of the characters were clunky and unnatural. They were very much indicative of a male author writing what he thinks every woman on earth thinks, says, and does. The story just wasn’t interesting and quite boring.
The narration wasn’t great. There was no distinction with voices, even male-female. He had great projection but it felt like he just read straight through without trying to differentiate between characters. He had more of a lecture, projection voice, not so much a character one.
6. The Things We Do for Love by Jonathan Kellerman, narrated by Richard Gilliland…1🌟
A mother out to lunch with her obnoxious baby whom she lets scream and throw everything within reach when she sees a group of men and out of nowhere for no reason, panics. They don’t address her or acknowledge her, she’s just suddenly terrified and running away. Then she does a complete 180. This was the most annoying of the collection. The baby whining “eh eh eh” and baby talk throughout the story was beyond cringy and sickening. We don’t need to know the baby is grunting every other sentence. Shoe don’t tell. Please, don’t tell. Stop telling. A gangster also isn’t going to say things like “baby go baa baa, moo moo.” The constant “oh baby” and the husband and wife saying babe after every comment t to each other was awkward and felt stupid clunky. No one speaks to their significant other this way. This felt like it was written by someone who has never had a conversation with a significant other. It also just didn’t make sense and felt like the author was trying too hard to have a “shocking” ending when in reality it just seemed like the story was about two totally different characters and scenes.
This was the worse narration, but given the dialogue the narrator had to work with, I can’t say it was all his fault. I really can’t stand when narrators try to do little kid voices and they end up just sounding horribly stupid. I now know I hate it when they do baby voices even more…it’s far worse. The “baby” talk and grunts made me want to just skip this story. If I heard a baby sounding like this guy, I’d be concerned for the child’s wellbeing.
7. Running from Legs by Ed McBain, narrated by Robert Foxworth…1🌟
Really. Enough with the over exaggerated sex scenes. “And getting bounced all around while you were inside me. That was very exciting too. Yes. I wish you were inside me now. She said. Yes. Bouncing around inside me. Yes. That big thing inside me again. she said. And leaned over and kissed me on the mouth.” This is written like a 40s gangster/detective radio show with ridiculous dialogue and a man’s version of a steamy sex scene with a man’s version of a woman talking dirty. The guy falls in love with a woman after spending less than an hour together and decides to do the unthinkable for her, ignoring the fact she’s pushing for him to do so. All is not equal in love…
This could’ve been a decent story had the weird sex scene with ridiculous dialogue been omitted. The bulk of the hour long story is this fantastical sex scene on a train followed but the quite literally the dumbest “dirty” talk I think I’ve heard.
The narration left a lot to be desired. The female Italian accent was pretty terrible. He has a clear voice, but it felt like he was speed reading through most of it and he didn’t differentiate between the male gangster voices, the MMC or even the females. The only female that stood out from every other voice was the poor attempt at a sexy Italian accent. At least I think it was supposed to be Italian…
8. For What She Had Done by Shel Silverstein, narrated by Jamie Farr 1🌟
The story was just odd. There’s no way not to give a spoiler here. It didn’t make sense. A guy wants a woman killed but he’s too much a coward to do it. Why does she have to die? No clue. It’s never said. He hires a man to kill her in exchange for equal weight in meat or skins. He won’t show her to the man and gives a vague description of her. He says he’ll give her flowers so the guy will know it’s her. The story then ends saying that’s how the custom of giving bouquets and corsages began…what?
This story was not worth the hype Otto Penzler gave it. His intro to the story was longer than the story itself. He said he’s asked Silverstein what if he couldn’t come up with a story for the anthology and Silverstein looked confused like he’d never considered that possibility. He should have, because that’s apparently exactly what happened. He couldn’t come up with a story and seems to have left out several pages here with critical details about what the hell this was supposed to be.
The narration was alright. The voices were distinguished pretty well and the narrators tone was easy to listen to, but the emphasis on the name “Ung” was odd. Sounded like he was being punched each time he said it.
Whoever the deep, throaty, heavy breathing narrator is for each story’s opening is awful. I’m assuming this might be Otto Penzler. It’s as if he is using a voice machine to make his voice deeper, slower, more ominous like a kidnapper on a ransom call. I know it’s supposed to be creepy or slow and seductive, but it just sounds awful. The heavy breathing is cringy and a little nauseating. Plus if he read any slower I’d celebrate another birthday before the next chapter starts. I found myself wanting to just skip through the intros to avoid the horrible breathy noises and the awkward creepy/seductive attempt. I’m afraid I’d he read any slower and any breathier, he would’ve passed out. Some people can do creepy voices. Some can do seductive voices. Some can do dramatic, ominous ones. He absolutely cannot do any of these.
The intros to each story were a little over the top dramatic too. He hypes up these stories like they are the best things you’ll ever hear/read. This was a collection of some of the worst stories I’ve ever come across. I should’ve trusted my instinct they would be after suffering through “Murder for Love, Murder for Women.” I’m not sure what Otto Penzler bases his criteria in for picking the “best” stories to make all these collections but I’ve read several of the anthologies he’s edited and put together and honestly, they’ve all been terrible.
The narrators were ok, nothing I’d recommend or anyone I’m chomping at the bit to pick up again. Some were awful and hard to get through. Most had a clear voice, no muttering, but there just wasn’t any variation in voices. The recording quality is very poor. There is so much feedback and background noise it sounds like it’s being recorded on a cell phone in a call center. The background noise/feedback was so loud in some places it was hard to hear the actual narration. It was very distracting.
I’ve done individual reviews for each story below. Overall I don’t recommend this one or its companion “Murder for Love, Murder for Women.” While this one is short, it’s a battle to get through and really just a man’s collection of very sexist stories with a definite overemphasis on sexual encounters.
1. Dying Time by William J. Caunitz, narrated by Efrem Zimbalist Jr…3🌟
This was by far the best story and best narration.
It was unclear if Maryann was having an affair with both the husband and the wife or just the husband and he’d just left before the murders occurred. It was a little hard to follow because there are so many characters and not enough explanation who was involved in everything. It’s also not clear how the detective reached his conclusion. It was classic of detective stories where the great detective suddenly just knows the answer. Good mystery with a nice twist for suspect. Classic detective story. I did enjoy the process for how the killer got in and committed the crime. The ending was a little flat.
The narrator was clear, did a wide range of voices that were easy to distinguish and had great reflection. The tension and emotion was clear at the end. I enjoyed the detectives voice and attitude portrayal. This was the second best narration in the collection and the narrator alone could easily be 4 star. Overall the story could have been had it been a little clearer in detail regarding the crime.
2. The Loving You Get by John Gardener, narrated by David Warner…1🌟
TW: cheating, HIV/AIDS. Two married people cheat on their spouses. One lover knowingly passes HIV onto to the other. She’s aware her previous lover has developed AIDS and is dying, knows she’s positive, has passed it along to her current lover.
This story had little impact on me. So little in fact, I couldn’t remember it at all afterwards to write the review. Thinking I’d missed one when I reached the end of the book, I had to go back and see what the story was and when it occurred in the book. I wished I had relistened to this one. Sorry, this one was just flat horrible.
SPOILER AHEAD DUE TO THE TW’s.
A spy handler falls in love with his agent. He’s a good man who had been cheated on by an unfaithful wife and a member of if his protection team. He falls in love and is just concerned with his agents well being, health, safety, and happiness. He gets her out of her assignment safely and starts to build a life with her and take care of her while she recovers, only to come home one day and she’s slipped their protection and left. She leaves a note with a porno statue for him stating she’s a double agent for the KGB, that the KGB guy she had been sleeping with as an undercover agent had HIV, developed full blown AIDS, and is dying. She states she too has it and will be dead soon too. And btw…you have it now too. Once you’re dead we can be together. The KGB will take care of me until I die. Hope your org does the same.
Trash. So a good man suffers all this crap for what?
The narrator was a little too upbeat and “springy” for the tone of this story. Not sure an upbeat voice fits with finding your wife cheating on you or learning you’ve been given HIV/AIDS. The context of the story distracted me from the quality of the narration fully because it was just a terrible storyline. Parts of it had clear character distinction and parts did not.
3. Red Clay by Michael Malone, narrated by Kevin McCarthy…2🌟
This story was just too long with really nothing happening. A woman goes on trial for the murder of her husband. A young boys father tells him about his lifelong obsession with this woman (which the woman he’s obsessed with doesn’t even really seem to recognize or know him) and when the boy brings it up to his mother she just writes it off as if it were nothing. It was weird. The whole story is basically this man’s obsession with this woman’s beauty and believing she’s innocent. Years later when the boy is an adult the elderly woman tells him the truth about her husband’s death then in a drunken stupor she falls down and sets herself and her house on fire. There was zero action here, the story was way too long and boring. Giving 2 stars because she tells the truth about what happened and the great narration.
The narrator did a great job with the small town Southern accents of the time period that really immersed you into the setting of this story. He did really well for distinguishing ages, male, and female. One of the better female voices done by a man I’ve heard. I was torn with giving this 3 stars for the narration, but the story itself just wasn’t that good. The narrator on his own is more of a 4 star for his quality.
4. Hot springs by James Crumley, narrated by Elliot Gould…1🌟
Vulgar and crude. I can’t care about any story that refers to a woman or her privates as a cunt. This was just a raunchy vulgar story with a man’s sex fantasy overkill. There wasn’t a mystery or really anything thrilling. It’s just vulgar sexual scenes, foul language, and gory descriptions of kill scenes. I didn’t see a point to this story at all.
The narration was ok. He voice was clear, but a little monotone and there really wasn’t a distinction between his characters and regular storyline reading. Several times I didn’t realize a character was speaking vs just the mainstream storytelling sections. The female voice was really bad.
5. Karen Makes Out by Elmore Leonard…1🌟
Another story flooded with vulgar sex scenes at the beginning. A woman’s new boyfriend seems perfect, but he’s hiding a secret everyone but Karen can see from a mile away. Given her occupation, you’d think she’d have picked up on it. Ok story, the sex scenes weren’t necessary. They didn’t further the story any and really made me not care about the story from the beginning. The dialogue, scenes, and decisions of the characters were clunky and unnatural. They were very much indicative of a male author writing what he thinks every woman on earth thinks, says, and does. The story just wasn’t interesting and quite boring.
The narration wasn’t great. There was no distinction with voices, even male-female. He had great projection but it felt like he just read straight through without trying to differentiate between characters. He had more of a lecture, projection voice, not so much a character one.
6. The Things We Do for Love by Jonathan Kellerman, narrated by Richard Gilliland…1🌟
A mother out to lunch with her obnoxious baby whom she lets scream and throw everything within reach when she sees a group of men and out of nowhere for no reason, panics. They don’t address her or acknowledge her, she’s just suddenly terrified and running away. Then she does a complete 180. This was the most annoying of the collection. The baby whining “eh eh eh” and baby talk throughout the story was beyond cringy and sickening. We don’t need to know the baby is grunting every other sentence. Shoe don’t tell. Please, don’t tell. Stop telling. A gangster also isn’t going to say things like “baby go baa baa, moo moo.” The constant “oh baby” and the husband and wife saying babe after every comment t to each other was awkward and felt stupid clunky. No one speaks to their significant other this way. This felt like it was written by someone who has never had a conversation with a significant other. It also just didn’t make sense and felt like the author was trying too hard to have a “shocking” ending when in reality it just seemed like the story was about two totally different characters and scenes.
This was the worse narration, but given the dialogue the narrator had to work with, I can’t say it was all his fault. I really can’t stand when narrators try to do little kid voices and they end up just sounding horribly stupid. I now know I hate it when they do baby voices even more…it’s far worse. The “baby” talk and grunts made me want to just skip this story. If I heard a baby sounding like this guy, I’d be concerned for the child’s wellbeing.
7. Running from Legs by Ed McBain, narrated by Robert Foxworth…1🌟
Really. Enough with the over exaggerated sex scenes. “And getting bounced all around while you were inside me. That was very exciting too. Yes. I wish you were inside me now. She said. Yes. Bouncing around inside me. Yes. That big thing inside me again. she said. And leaned over and kissed me on the mouth.” This is written like a 40s gangster/detective radio show with ridiculous dialogue and a man’s version of a steamy sex scene with a man’s version of a woman talking dirty. The guy falls in love with a woman after spending less than an hour together and decides to do the unthinkable for her, ignoring the fact she’s pushing for him to do so. All is not equal in love…
This could’ve been a decent story had the weird sex scene with ridiculous dialogue been omitted. The bulk of the hour long story is this fantastical sex scene on a train followed but the quite literally the dumbest “dirty” talk I think I’ve heard.
The narration left a lot to be desired. The female Italian accent was pretty terrible. He has a clear voice, but it felt like he was speed reading through most of it and he didn’t differentiate between the male gangster voices, the MMC or even the females. The only female that stood out from every other voice was the poor attempt at a sexy Italian accent. At least I think it was supposed to be Italian…
8. For What She Had Done by Shel Silverstein, narrated by Jamie Farr 1🌟
The story was just odd. There’s no way not to give a spoiler here. It didn’t make sense. A guy wants a woman killed but he’s too much a coward to do it. Why does she have to die? No clue. It’s never said. He hires a man to kill her in exchange for equal weight in meat or skins. He won’t show her to the man and gives a vague description of her. He says he’ll give her flowers so the guy will know it’s her. The story then ends saying that’s how the custom of giving bouquets and corsages began…what?
This story was not worth the hype Otto Penzler gave it. His intro to the story was longer than the story itself. He said he’s asked Silverstein what if he couldn’t come up with a story for the anthology and Silverstein looked confused like he’d never considered that possibility. He should have, because that’s apparently exactly what happened. He couldn’t come up with a story and seems to have left out several pages here with critical details about what the hell this was supposed to be.
The narration was alright. The voices were distinguished pretty well and the narrators tone was easy to listen to, but the emphasis on the name “Ung” was odd. Sounded like he was being punched each time he said it.
August 11, 2018
I'm a fan of Otto Penzler's, but I often disagree with him in his choice of stories, since the sexism is so blatant in most of them.
I expected no more from this collection than from "Dangerous Women" which should have been named "Stupid Men," but this was a really pleasant surprise. Some humor, some violence, but good solid stories, not as insulting to women and men as usual. I know, damning with faint praise, but no, I listened to a couple of them twice, because I appreciated the structure, and the surprise.
As with all collections, comparison is inevitable. Pretty sure it's impossible to gather a 5 star compilation. (but I'm still looking, hoping.....)
I expected no more from this collection than from "Dangerous Women" which should have been named "Stupid Men," but this was a really pleasant surprise. Some humor, some violence, but good solid stories, not as insulting to women and men as usual. I know, damning with faint praise, but no, I listened to a couple of them twice, because I appreciated the structure, and the surprise.
As with all collections, comparison is inevitable. Pretty sure it's impossible to gather a 5 star compilation. (but I'm still looking, hoping.....)
August 21, 2020
"Murder for Love: Murder for Men" (1996, 2009) edited by Otto Penzler is an anthology available only as an audiobook containing eight fictional stories about women involved in murder. Some stories are better than others but none are duds. This edition contains eight stories, all written by men. There is another paperback version titled simply "Murder for Love" that contains sixteen stories; eight written by men and eight by women. I wish I had read that one. Still, recommended.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews