Tiny Crimes: Very Short Tales of Mystery and Murder

by Lincoln Michel (Editor), Nadxieli Nieto (Editor)

Tiny Crimes reimagines the genre of crime writing in 40 very short stories. This anthology gathers leading and emerging literary voices to tell tales of crime and intrigue in only a few hundred words. From the most hardboiled of noirs to the coziest of mysteries, with diminutive double crosses, miniature murders, and crimes both real and imagined, Tiny Crimes rounds up all the usual suspects, and some unusual suspects, too. Benjamin Percy, Amelia Gray, Adam Sternbergh, Yuri Herrera, Julia Elliott, Carmen Maria Machado, Elizabeth Hand, Brian Evenson, Charles Yu, Laura van den Berg, and more scour the underbelly of modern life to expose the criminal, the illegal, and the depraved.

Genres: Short Stories, Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Anthologies, Thriller, Mystery Thriller

275 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2018

About the author

Lincoln Michel is the author of the story collection Upright Beasts (Coffee House Press) and the novel The Body Scout (Orbit), which was named one of the 10 Best Science Fiction Books of 2021 by The New York Times and one of the 75 Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time by Esquire.

His short fiction appears in The Paris Review, Granta, Lightspeed, McSweeney’s, NOON, Pushcart Prize anthology, and elsewhere. His essays and criticism have appeared in The New York Times, The Believer, The Guardian, and elsewhere.

He writes the newsletter Counter Craft and his next novel, My Metallic Realms, will be published by Atria in 2025.

Reviews

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

part of the reason i don’t read a ton of short story collections is because the prospect of reviewing short story collections makes my soul quake. it’s like having to write 20 reviews instead of one. or in the case of this anthology, FORTY. and sure i could just write a review for the collection in toto or not review the book at all, but that seems worse somehow. so, instead of shrinking from a challenge or rising to a challenge, i am going to ricochet the challenge a little and write a FORTY-THOUSAND WORD REVIEW, using that math where a picture is worth a thousand words. picture reviews take much longer than word-reviews, but they’re much more fun. for me, anyway. i’m not sure who you are or what you find fun. but feel free to tell me. i’m just going to be over here, finding the one perfect image that nutshells each individual story perfectly...

Circuit City - J. Robert Lennon - ★★★★☆



Any Other - Jac Jemc - ★★★★☆



nobody checks their voicemails anymore not even detectives - Sasha Fletcher - ★★★☆☆



Give Me Strength - Karen Heuler - ★★★★☆



The Luser - Yuri Herrera, trans. Lisa Dillman - ★★★☆☆



Hygge - Dorthe Nors, trans. Misha Hoekstra - ★★★☆☆



Exit Interview - Christian Hayden - ★★★★★



Ratface - Paul La Farge - ★★★★☆



Mary When You Follow Her - Carmen Maria Machado - ★★★★☆



Ghost Light - Elizabeth Hand - ★★★★★



Highway One - Benjamin Whitmer - ★★★★★



Airport Paperback - Adam Hirsch - ★★★☆☆



A Bead to String - Michael Harris Cohen - ★★★★☆



The Fifth of July - Helen Phillips - ★★★★☆



Withhold the Dawn - Richie Narvaez - ★★★★☆



Good Hair - Marta Balcewicz - ★★★★☆



Dogface - Sarah Wang - ★★★★☆



See Agent - Anonymous - ★★★★☆



These Are Funny, Broken Days - Amber Sparks - ★★★★☆



Loophole - Adam Sternbergh - ★★★★☆



Knife Fight - Julia Elliott - ★★★☆☆



The Meme Farm - Adam McCulloch - ★★★☆☆



The Rhetorician - Adrian Van Young - ★★★★☆



No Exit - Fuminori Nakamura, trans. Alison Markin Powell - ★★★★☆



The Hall at the End of the Hall - Ryan Bloom - ★★★★★



Friends - Laura van den Berg - ★★★★☆


Minor Witchcraft - Chiara Barzini - ★★★☆☆



Three Scored - Nick Mamatas - ★★★★☆



The Odds - Amelia Gray - ★★★★☆



Nobody’s Gonna Sleep Here, Honey - Danielle Evans - ★★★★☆



The Wrong One - Erica Wright - ★★★★☆



The Trashman Cometh - J.W. McCormack - ★★★★☆



Actual Urchin - Henry Hoke- ★★★☆☆



The Law of Expansion - Brian Evenson - ★★★★★



Night Train - Fabien Clouette & Quentin Leclerc, trans. Jeffrey Zuckerman - ★★★☆☆



What We Know - Misha Rai - ★★★☆☆



Final Rescue - Kenneth Nichols - ★★★★★



[Purple Pills] - Rion Amilcar Scott - ★★★★☆



We Are Suicide - Benjamin Percy - ★★★★★



Ailbi - Charles Yu - ★★★★☆



good lord, never again...

come to my blog!

[3 no 7 · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Tiny Crimes” is an anthology of short, some very short, stories, but there is adventure and mystery in every one. The stories are all different, and there is something for every reader. This collection allows a fan to read and finish a compelling story all in one sitting. This collection is unique because the variety of the stories make for perfect reading on plane trips, car rides, and some can be even be finished while waiting on phone hold.

Some of my favorites involved the doctor seeing a patient with “Writer’s Scourge.” I will not soon forget the person living as the character would have lived, and died. I envy the one who decided, “I’ll work in a bookstore until they put me in the hospital.” I know more than I want to about the Chinese actuarial betting syndicate. And, I will always be careful if I do backstage work in the Opera House.

I received an advance copy of “Tiny Crimes” from Ingram Publisher Services to read and review, and I was able to finish the stories on my time schedule without interrupting my other plans or forgetting where I was in the book. I could read these stories again and again and love them each time.

[Elias · Rating 5 out of 5]

TINY CRIMES is a flash fiction redefinition of the crime genre, encompassing a wide array of stunningly original voices. Asking “What is criminal in this moment?,” the collection is imbued with a wild sense of wrongness. It’s haunted by the ghosts of murdered prairie dogs, held hostage by loneliness. The tiny crimes within are everyday offenses, cheeky explorations, and heinous acts (the index, perhaps the greatest delight, includes such entries as: PENIS—glowing faintly in the dark, DOG—eaten down to spine, and TURNSTILE—hopped by nun). Ultimately, it places a mirror before the reader. It demands an interrogation of one’s own understanding of criminality and personal culpability.

[Doug Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read of very short crime stories of wildly uneven quality.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

average story rating: 2.88 stars

i love short stories and i loved the concept of this. some of the stories were too short to understand the plot but i was pleasantly surprised with how many 5 star stories there were.

circuit city ★: confusing for no good reason
any other ★★★: interesting twist but was missing a motive of any kind
nobody checks their voicemails anymore not even detectives ★★★★: i wish there was more of a twist but i liked the concept
give me strength ★★★★★: creative, predictable, but well-written (if i were to come back to this rating i'd probably bump it down to 4 stars but whatever)
el lúser★★: pointless
hygge ★: this didn't seem very crime-y and i don't think i correctly understand the ending, which may or may not be the translation
exit interview ★★★★★: liked the twist, the concept and the format
ratface ★★★: as a regular story it was good but as a crime story it fell short, not to mention i predicted the ending right at the beginning
mary when you follow her ★★★★: intriguing and one of the only times a run-on sentence actually improves the story
ghost light ★★★: i liked the writing style but other than that it was perfectly average
highway one ★★: dumb characters in a dumb story
airport paperback ★: black-out-style writing only works if the story is comprehensible around the blacked-out parts
a bead to string ★★★★: i liked the chosen perspective
fifth of july ★: lamest crime ever
withhold the dawn ★★★★: nice and gruesome
good hair ★★: what was the point of the chapters?
dogface ★★★: it was funny but i needed more crime
see agent ★: good thing this was anonymous because it was shit
these are funny, broken days ★★: the writing was pretty good but i didn't get it at all
loophole ★★: the two plots (?) didn't really fit together
knife fight ★★★: that was weird
the meme farm ★★★: this was good until the ending
the rhetorician ★★★★: interesting concept, if a bit bizarre
no exit ★: pointless and boring story, so probably not the translation's fault
the hall at the end of the hall ★★★: nothing special about this one
friends ★★★: i thought i was really going to like this but the ending was too confusing
minor witchcraft ★★: overly dramatic and pointless
three scores ★★★★: i liked the star trek reference but it could have used more tension
the odds ★★★★★: it wasn't super crime-y but i really liked it anyway so five stars it is
nobody's gonna sleep here, honey ★★★★★: really interesting concept and good writing, i think this might be my favourite in the whole collection
the wrong one ★: i think this was just too short, it needed more context
the trashcan cometh ★★★★★: cool concept, also i'm a sucker for capitalized nouns as mysterious character names
actual urchin ★★★: this was just kind of weird
the law of expansion ★★★: it tried but it was a little underwhelming, which makes me sad because it could have been so good
train de nuit ★★★: i read this in the original french so there's no translation on which to blame the bizarre-ness
what we know ★★★★: nightmare-inducing imagery, that's for sure
final rescue ★★★★: bounder deserved better!!
[purple pills] ★: dumb
we are suicide ★★★★: cool concept and good writing
alibi ★: dumb af

writing this review took almost more time than it would take to read this from start to finish

[Kaethe]

Not my cuppa

[Joe Passanisi · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a crime fiction fan, I loved reading these short story offerings from many of my favorite authors. Each story (around 500 words or less) are very well written, bringing the reader into a whole new lived-in world while never feeling overwhelmed. I highly recommend purchasing the hard copy of the book as the presentation of the collection adds to the aesthetic in a way that an ebook cannot. It is the perfect book to add to your collection. Tiny Crimes is a 2018 standout among all of the great works published this year. It's the perfect gift for the crime fiction fan in your life.

[Pearse Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this entire book in essentially one sitting. It was fantastic, and though not every story hit its mark, the great ones propelled me deeper in the collection. Great size, great design, fresh/crisp/funny stories from a collection of different voices and crimes. !!! More maybe later.






Connection: I know, like, 5 people in the table of contents here.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

As much a celebration of crime and mystery as it is of the flash form, each micro-story is as hardened and irresistible as a sack of hot diamonds. The multiplicity of crimes—from the heinous to the heartbreaking—along with the multiplicity of styles and voices, makes Tiny Crimes a thrilling and original collection.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable collection of mysteries and crime stories. Has the advantage of being inventive and diverse both in sub-genre and in the perspectives and characters that I encountered. I was drawn to the collection because of the recognizable names of contemporary greats like Carmen Maria Machado, Amber Sparks, Laura van den Berg, Dorthe Nors, Amelia Gray, Jac Jemc, and Charles Yu, but the wide selection of authors means that there are bound to be a few greats to your taste. I especially appreciated discovering some new authors whose work I have added to my ever-growing to-read list: Danielle Evans, Elizabeth Hand, Sarah Wang, and Brian Evenson. Also, the fact that most of these stories are flash fiction length means you can enjoy it in small moments or on the go.

[Joelle Egan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tiny Crimes, edited by Lincoln Michel and Nadxieli Nieto, is a unique anthology of very short stories written by famous authors from around the world. As a nice touch, the editors include versions of the stories in their original languages as well. The forty stories in the collection all address the expression of humanity’s potential for darkness in a variety of styles and subject matter. Some of the stories are political in tone with a futuristic/dystopic view, others are more deeply psychological. The accessibility of each entry varies, depending on how experimental its form and the amount of cultural references. A few are a bit pretentious and overly wrought, but the majority are straightforward powerful punches. All have artistic merit and take only a few minutes to read, so Tiny Crimes would be good for those looking for something “interruptible” but still entertaining and thought-provoking.

[Katya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chuck-full of what-the-f*cky moments. I didn't read mystery a lot before because of the intellectual snobbery around the genre. But this anthology is psychologically delicious. Bonus: it has bilingual stories in four languages (Japanese, French, Spanish and DANISH!). The stunning illustrations really tie everything together. Will add one of them soon.

Read them in order.

[Sara Habein · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great collection. I didn't love EVERY story, but that is perfectly fine — after all, in a few pages, it was over. My favorite story was probably Danielle Evans' "Nobody's Gonna Sleep Here, Honey," with "Ghost Light" by Elizabeth Hand being the runner-up. (It figures: Hand's work is compared to Patricia Highsmith, and I LOVE me some Patricia Highsmith.) Definitely give this a look if you're in the mood for some solid, short noir-ish stories.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

My review for this book was published in the April 15, 2018, edition of Library Journal:

In this literary collection that will appeal to fans of flash fiction, editors Michel and Nieto offer 40 original examples of crime and (occasional) punishment "short enough to be read during a coffee break or a corporate break-in." With only a few hundred words at their disposal, the authors find inventive ways to tell their compact tales of mystery, often eschewing ornate whodunit plots for varied storytelling techniques. Christian Hayden's "Exit Interview" features only one side of a phone conversation as the duplicitous protagonist hurtles toward his own demise; Adam Hirsch's "Airport Paperback" is a heavily redacted letter from a prisoner to his beloved Maria; Carmen Maria Machado's "Mary When You Follow Her" is a bravura performance consisting of one long sentence. The tenor of each piece varies from the dreamlike (Laura van den Berg's "Friends") to the deliciously gruesome (Richie Navarez's "Withhold the Dawn"). Other notable efforts include stories from international authors such as Yuri Herrera and Fuminori Nakamura, with the original text running alongside the English translation. Though some stories succeed in delivering suspenseful thrills more than others, in all cases a hard-boiled attitude prevails, and the range of writers from leading independent presses is impressive. VERDICT Recommended for fans of Akashic Books's long-running and popular geographic "Noir" series.

Copyright ©2018 Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. Reprinted with permission.

[enricocioni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful. Microfiction anthologies should be more of a thing. Also, four of the stories are in translation (from Spanish, French, Japanese, and Danish), and I appreciated (1) that the source text is shown alongside the translation, and (2) that the translators are included in the author bios at the end of the book.

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

All these stories are so fun, dark and quirky. Circuit City was an excellent choice as the first story as it pulled me right in.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many little stories, most of them told with humor and charm. Few taking the criminal aspect terribly seriously, which is fine by me. Hard to put a finger on the standouts, but also there weren’t any that overstayed their welcome either.

[Ylenia · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

This collection started out with really strong, interesting stories & then I slowly lost interest in them.

[Goda Astrauskė · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have written the review for each story either immediately after reading it or 1-2 days after reading it, so mostly it is just some initial reactions I had. Since overall I was not blown away by most of the book‘s content, I did not revisit it to write anything more, I think this will suffice for this particular book. The score, naturally, is the average derived from individual scores I gave to each story (it was 2,7 to be exact). Also, I wrote most of the review on my phone, so there are bound to be some mistakes, even though I tried to edit a bit before posting it here.

My general impression about the book is as follows: some stories were nice, but overall it kind of feels like many of the stories were written because the authors were asked to write something for this collection. I get that the idea was to get the „tiny“ really really short stories you could read in a minute or two, so they could not simply collect the already existing good stuff in this genre as there probably are not a lot of stories this short and of this particular genre out there to choose from, but the overall result of asking authors to write something very short and very engaging, when short stories not necesserily may be the author‘s strong suit, is quite bland.

I think I put on a warning before any review of a story that may be more spoilery, so watch out for those.

Circuit City by J. Robert Lennon
4 Creative, memorable, has some nice twists and 4th wall breaks.

Any Other by Jac Jemc
2 Not the worst, but basically need to reread after a few days to remember what it is about.

Nobody Checks Their Voicemails Anymore not even Detectives by Sasha Fletcher
1 Too obscure for my liking, also I don't enjoy mock noir stories that are not really that noir but has characters named Jimmy Boy and such just to seem edgier.

Give Me Strength by Karen Heuler
3 Nice idea, the story does not try to be too cliche detective-y story noir as some others.

The Luser by Yuri Herrera
1 Very confusing, and the story is too short to fully and comprehensively develop rules and relationships the author is trying to develop.

Hygge by Dorthe Nors
0 Read it two days ago from writing this, already forgot the plot, only remember this one thought I had about it: "Why is this even in here?".

Exit Interview by Christian Hayden
3 Interesting delivery of the story, but done a bit on the nose, everything is spelled out as if the reader couldn't work it out with subtler hints, also minus points for Tony, what‘s with these generic "gangster" names all over this book.

Ratface by Paul la Farge
0 ***SPOILERS*** Why the hell am I plunged into the narator‘s tragic family life aka "my wondrously smart and angel like son was the only one to die in a freak accident at the prime if his youth"? This is as standard and boring as it gets, especially in a short story where nothing is developed and there is no buildup to give the reader a reason to give a shit about the characters. The true...I guess „mystery“ would be the word I'd use if I didn't know what it meant, was the Polanski character. He reappears at the end, which was not that mysterious when I think about it, since the narrator was pretty clear at the very beginning of the story, that we'll see him again, and his reapearance added nothing, offered no twists, his allegedly criminal lifestyle makes no sense and has nothing to do with the goddamned family drama I was forced to read about.

Mary When You Follow Her by Carmen Maria Machado
3 It's ok I guess, but why does it all have to be one sentence. I felt like holding my breath while reading this and not in the good suspenseful way, but in the bad „can I just take a break from this for a second“ way.

Ghost Light by Elisabeth Hand
3 ***SPOILERS*** A standard revenge of a wronged lover story, it's ok, but I will forget it soon. Also, the whole explanation how the death occurred and how the killer did it was very redundant, there's no pleasure in knowing when there's no investigation to get to it, just someone listing out plain facts and technical details. Yawn

Highway One by Benjamin Whitmer
2 Not terrible, but, like many, quite predictable and boring. I think many of the authors involved thought that it would be fun to write using detective noir tropes for this collection and what we ended up having is a book stock full of very similar texts using the same tropes and it is a snoozefest.

Airport Paperback by Adam Hirsch
0 No point, no plot, no intelligible story and a lot of fancy words that, when added together, do not compose a solid story

A Bead to String By Michael Harris Cohen
4 Finally a story that used tropes, but not bored me to death. It's tight, finished and intriguing. An interesting read which I can recommend.

The Fifth of July by Helen Phillips
3 It's not a bad one, maybe even a good one if one would bother reading into the hints and symbolisms. Unfortunately for Ms Philips, I've been too numbed by the rest of the stories to care by this point, so I‘ll just give it the standard 3 stars and move along.

Withhold the Dawn by Richie Narvaez
4 Hahahaha, that was a good one! Amusing, did not take itself so goddamn seriously as all the others, just a neat lil tale of murder with some giggles thrown in.

Good Hair by Marta Balcewicz
3 ***SPOILERS?*** She wrote about a real person without knowing her? What? I feel like the author tried to do something here and either she failed at delivering or I failed at understanding. The story‘s ok, nothing to rave about

Dogface by Sarah Wang
3.5 Too refreshingly different to be a 3, not enough of a standout to be a 4, quite interesting, the ending was fun.

See Agent by Anonymous
4 This was really interesting and, again, amusing. There was a mystery, an intrigue, a nun, no tropes and cliches and my peeked interest.

These are Funny Broken Days by Amber Sparks
0 Gaaaaahhhh thank God it was just two pages, what a waste of paper. Enough space to cram it full of what the author reckoned were edgy noir tropes and cliches, not enough to build a narrative of any sort since more attention was paid to the style than to the actual story the style should be embroidering.

Loophole by Adam Sternbergh
4 Beautiful, interesting, the story is more sci-fi than mystery, so the few tropes that were there felt a bit out of place, but other than that it was an interesting read which, for this book, is a lot.

Knife Fight by Julia Elliott
2 Odd and unpleasant, but there were good ideas.

The Meme Farm by Adam McCulloch
4 Nice idea, brilliant twist, good execution, there is crime, there is intrigue, there is the x factor, loved it.

The Rhetorician by Adrian van Young
3 A bit messy, but the premise is nice and original and the story overall is put together well. One of the few stories here I would like to see continued, because I do see a life for it as a longer story

No Exit by Fuminori Nakamura
4 A great display of Japanese minimalism, simple set up, not much needed to create real tension, I have enjoyed this quite a bit.

The Hall at the End of the Hall by Ryan Bloom
3 It was by no means bad, and quite long compared to the other stories in this book, but it still suffered from being too short. The author created a nice lil‘ world, made some neat connections and wove a compelling story, but I think it could've been even better if fully developed into a lengthier text.

Friends by Laura van den Berg
5 This one I really loved. It felt like a teaser for a novel almost. Almost none of the stories in the book has definitive endings and most of them have that "to be continued" vibe, but this is the only one I want to be continued and would read if it was.

Minor Witchcraft by Chiara Barzini
3 It's ok.

Three Scores by Nick Mamatas
3 Pleasantly confusung, could be a good draft for a Guy Ritche film. Absurd, yet entertaining.

The Odds by Amelia Gray
4 An odd story about two oddbals being odd together. It was nice.

Nobody's Gonna Sleep Here, Honey by Danielle Evans
3 Cool premise. If it would be explored further and in more detail, it would make a great story, now it's more of a draft for an actual story.

The wrong one by Erica Wright
0 Not even three pages long and I got bored twice while reading it.

The Trashman Cometh by J. W. McCormack
4 No crime detected, but I don't think that's really an issue, just an observation. Interesting and spooky concept, good delivery, nice story.

Actual Urchin by Henry Hoke
1 Read it two days ago before writing this and already don't remember a thing, remember I was not outraged or bored by this enough to not give at least a star.

The Law of Expansion by Brian Evenson
4 Unexpectedly dark and quite engaging, one of the few stories that really fit this length. It was not lacking substance or explanation and not envoking wishes for it to be continued. It's just right.

Night Train by Fabien Clouette & Quentin Leclerc
3 I always had trouble imagining how two people can write one story, especially one not fully 5 pages long. It has a nice mystical vibe but does not seem substantial enough for two people to have labored over it.

What We Know by Misha Rai
5 ***SPOILERS*** Gosh darn the description of how they avoid being caught is so premeditated you'd think the author is a regular gang member there and slithers to rob people on weekends as an extra curricular activity. Very convincing, very well constructed.

Final Rescue by Kenneth Nichols
3 I don't have any problems with this story, it's well crafted, has an original premise and is quite interesting. But it was so sad and dark I can't really bring myself to love it.

[Purple pills] by Rion Amilcar Scott
3 Eeeeh, it was ok. Once again, feels like a teaser for a full length story but not sure I would read it. Maybe for the style as the manner of writing was quite more engaging than the story the writing was telling.

We are Suicide by Benjamin Percy
3 Nice premise, sufficiently spooky. Quite predictable though, you kinda can see a mile away in a story like this anyways, but if it would be longer, there would be some place for twists and turns, in a story of this length there isn't, there's just the sequence of events you predicted a page ago.

Alibi by Charles Yu
2 To the end of the book I got really tired of these monologue that is actually a dialogue type of stories where we only hear one side of the conversation but not the other. There were quite anumber of those here and most were dull as dirt. This one was no exception.

[Vel Veeter]

This collection of short stories is about tiny crimes. It’s a grouping of writers that see their ways in and out of the New Yorker and Kenyon Review and similar publications. They most have university jobs and write for a variety of publications. And then a collection like this comes together. The stories here detail small moments, small transgressions, and in some case are small stories about bigger crimes.

My issue with a collection like this, and this includes any time you have a collection of stories pooled together around a theme in genre fiction, is that writers tend not to rise to the challenge of the format they are being asked to write in or within or with the constraints of the publication. So you have an idea or a theme being presented and then writers write to that idea or theme. And the result is a group of mixed results, with the totality being rather mediocre. Some of the stories are quite good, but none of them are great. I like themed story collections, but ones that select from works written for themselves first, and then anthologized after. This is the more organic process and doesn’t always allow for new forms of creativity, but actually makes for a good book.

[Call Me [Brackets]]

The mystery genre is one of predictable formulas. Enter the carefully long drawn-out plotline, the detective, the damsel-in-distress. Now consider these forms and cast them all aside. This is the realm you enter when you pick up Tiny Crimes. In a genre as old and frustrated as the mystery in today’s world, the authors of Tiny Crimes unearthed a refreshing way to turn these classic patterns on their heads: make them flash.

Told in only a few hundred words each, Tiny Crimes presents its readers with forty short stories of murder, mystery, and mayhem all quick enough to read over the morning coffee or between commercial breaks of your favorite crime drama. From fantasies of robberies at the office place to conversations over the phone, strange meetings in the park to psychological experiments, these stories draw from all spheres of crime and villainy to question what our darkest fantasies have to tell us about our lives and culture today.

You can read the rest of our review on our website here: https://callmebrackets.net/tiny-crimes/

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd enjoyed Tiny Nightmares, which I'd received in a Night Worms box, so I thought I'd try out Tiny Crimes. Maybe it's because I'm a horror fan, but not so much of a crime or mystery reader. Or maybe it's that horror lends itself better to flash/micro-fiction, more so than crime or mystery. This collection just didn't do it for me. There were a few gems, to be sure, but most of the stories just didn't work: they didn't make sense, they were so opaque as to be unintelligible, they fell flat. A disappointment.

[HB · Rating 1 out of 5]

No. Just no. Don't bother. Incredibly disappointing. "Unfair!" cry the enamored. Fine, a couple of these are good, but the rest are so aimless or unsatisfying that I've already forgotten which ones were good.

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

A couple okay stories but most were bad or just plain stupid

[Joann Im · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tiny Crimes is an anthology of flash fiction reimagining crime writing from leading and emerging array of literary voices. A unique spin of crime in modern life which varies in definition that is considered illegal and culpable. This collection of stories focuses more on the interrogation aspect of crime and questions the readers on our understanding of "crime". All of the intriguing stories are written in only a few hundred words but the weight of the brevity imbues an insidious tone and atmosphere. The forty stories presents different colors and textures in various subject matters but the common theme that connects all of these stories delves into the expression of darkness all humanity harbors and potential in falling into.

A thought-provoking collection of stories, filled with hidden gems of discovery in between the lines that are both engaging and thrilling. The anthology is meticulously curated, detailed and executed well. I must also highly praise the aesthetically pleasing book design and its illustrations. The meticulous planned design of this book mirrors the detailed textual content that encourages the readers to take a closer look. Tiny Crimes presents readers stories where one can devour our favorite crime fiction in between moments throughout the day without disruption from our busy lives. A refreshing and compelling anthology that addresses the sphere of evil and crime parallel to our present society. Recommended for all crime and mystery fans!

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Each of these tiny crimes, or tiny mysteries, or tiny murders are very much their own. Some are wry, some poetic, some gruesome. One or two don't really rise to the level of the others. And some take the "mystery" and make it a little too meta for my liking ... the mystery is what in the hell is going on before POOF, you're at the end. Still, all are well written and for such short-short-SHORT stories some really manage to deliver a bigger than expected punch.

Favorites: [in order of appearance]
Ghost Light by Elizabeth Hand
Loophole by Adam Sternbergh
The Law of Expansion by Brian Evenson
Final Rescue by Kenneth Nichols

[DeAnna Knippling · Rating 4 out of 5]

40 flash fiction pieces that are supposed to be crime-based, but are more literary than crime.

They stories here are fine, but not great. There are a lot of nonsense non-endings and complete lack-of-setups, as authors try out what seems to be a new length for them, and don't quite nail it. I got frustrated, then would run into a great story that balanced out the next few slipshod ones. I think this means that I wish the editors had taken a firmer hand. "Yes, yes, you're a great short story writer and novelist, but sell me an ennnnnnnding." And yet I found myself pleased with the experiment as a whole.

In short, your mileage may vary. Recommended for literary short story readers, rather than fans of, say, Agatha Christie.

[Heidi Kirsch · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I picked up this book I saw ‘tiny’ & ‘murder.’ So I unfairly assumed this was like minute mysteries. But no, it was like the editors reached out to literary authors with the basic idea of a very short tale of any kind of crime. As in any anthology, I liked some way more than others. The ones that set up the usual premise could have been easily saved by not going there. Several were so good I read them again. My personal favorite is “Knife Fight” by Julia Elliott. Her two novels are now on my to read list.

[Stevie Faye · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories were potato chips and I was craving something salty. Microfiction is fun because sometimes it can feel like a slice of life story, where you know you're missing stuff but you're enthralled even so, and sometimes it's a whole world contained in three crisp pages. This book had a bit of both and much more. I loved rooting for, being appalled by, and rolling my eyes because of the characters in these stories. Well done.

rep: all kinds

spice: none

tw: murder, gore, arson, poisoning, violence, death, death of a pet

[Nat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked Tiny Nightmares better, but this was still pretty enjoyable. A bit hit or miss, though. I felt like a lot of these were confusing and weird, and probably would have worked better with just a couple more pages. Still a really neat medium and of course it makes for a pretty quick read.