Blood Work

by Rick Ollerman, Reed Farrel Coleman, Jen Conley

Edited by Rick Ollerman. Alphabetical list of Scott Adlerberg, Eric Beetner, Kristi Belcamino, Michael A. Black, Michael Bracken, Don Bruns, Gary R. Bush, Austin Camacho, Dave Case, Jessie Chandler, Reed Farrel Coleman, Jen Conley, John Gaspard, Lois Greiman, Libby Fischer Hellmann, David Housewright, William Kent Krueger, Jess Lourey, Michael Allan Mallory, Terrence McCauley, Jenny Milchman, Stuart Neville, Rick Ollerman, Nick Petrie, Gary Phillips, Lissa Marie Redmond, Michael Stanley, Duane Swierczynski, Randy Wayne White, and Case Younggren.

Many of today’s top writers get together to celebrate the themes of books and bookstores (and even a tuba or two!) As we celebrate the life of Mystery Writers of America Raven Award-winning Gary Shulze, long-time owner of the legendary Once Upon a Crime bookstore in Minneapolis. Gary left an indelible mark on the crime fiction community across the world before he passed away in 2016 due to complications from leukemia.

Join as Duane Swierczynski, William Kent Krueger, Randy Wayne White, Jess Lourey, Stuart Neville and more come together in this tribute to a man whose legacy will not be forgotten.

Genres: Fiction

418 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 27, 2018

Reviews

[Mrs. Read]

Blood Work, edited by Rick Ollerman et al. is a collection of mystery short stories written in honor of Gary Shulze, owner the Once Upon a Crime Mystery Bookstore. With a few exceptions (“Lush,” “Just Another Cold Case,” and “Faith”) they did not impress me (although I did find the preoccupation with tubas intriguing). Nothing offensive; just very banal. Noticeable but likely of interest only to me, was the misquotation of the Bible* in Lois Greiman’s “Unsafe.” I found the book really disappointing, but a lot of GRers liked it. A reader can sample any of the tuba stories and decide for himself which camp he is in.

*Neither the phrase nor the concept “mortal sin” is Scriptural. The sorting of sins into degrees of seriousness is an aspect of a denominational doctrine.

[John Stanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good stories - some not so good. But there were a couple of things by authors I was not familiar with and will now keep an eye open for and isn’t that at least part of the reason for something like this. But, in this case, maybe the more important reason was to raise some money for the Memorial Blood Centers in St. Paul, MN, in memory of Gary Schulz who, together with his wife Pat, ran the Once Upon a Crime bookstore in south Minneapolis - nationally recognized as one of the best little bookstores dedicated to mysteries, suspense and the like and also particularly supportive of local authors, some who contributed their time and talent to this collection. Thanks to all of you and thanks to you too, Rick, for putting this all together. -JS

[Dan Downing · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most pleasurable ways to reacquaint yourself with known but neglected authors, or to discover new literary lights, is the anthology. In the present case, stories were collected to honor a North country book store owner Gary Shulze.
Edited by Rick Ollerman, who also wrote an introduction to the book and introductory paragraphs to each story, the package tells us that Mr. Ollerman knows his stuff. Give that there must be a certain amount of unevenness in a book which includes stories ranging from poetry to solid noir to espionage, there is not a loser story among the 30 presented here.
Recommended.