Death Do Us Part: New Stories about Love, Lust, and Murder

by Harlan Coben (Editor)

This volume compiles 18 gripping stories about relationships from some of the top mystery writers working today, including Harlan Coben, P.J. Parrish, Lee Child, Ridley Pearson, R.L. Stine, Jim Fusilli, Jeff Abbott, Charles Todd, and Tom Savage.

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

Hardcover

First published August 28, 2006

About the author

Harlan Coben is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and one of the world's leading storytellers. His suspense novels are published in forty-five languages and have been number one bestsellers in more than a dozen countries with seventy-five million books in print worldwide.

His books have earned the Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony Awards, and many have been developed into Netflix Original Drama series, including his adaptations of The Stranger, The Innocent, Gone for Good and The Woods. His most recent adaptation for Netflix, Stay Close, premiered on December 31, 2021 and stars Cush Jumbo, James Nesbitt, and Richard Armitage.

Reviews

[Mark Soone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow this was a great collection! Perhaps the best short story collection featuring various authors that I have ever read, certainly the best I have read in quite some time. Based upon the stories the average would make this a 4 star read, but since about 10 of them were 4-5 stars, I enjoyed this so much I am willing to call it a 5 star short story collection (Even though I will still rate it 4)...if you are a fan of short stories, especially mystery/crime/suspense/thrillers this is a book you need to check out. very enjoyable, with only a couple of stories that truely bored me.

01 Queeny by Ridley Pearson- 5 stars
Lead off homerun, by one of my all time favorites. A brilliant narrative...innocent untill proven guilty...yeah right!

02 Safe Enough by Lee Child- 5 stars
So far I still have not read any full length novels by Child, but have enjoyed a couple of short stories by him...I keep meaning to read him, but there are so many great books/authors that I still have not gotten around to it (anyone with a rec?) yet. This was a cool story about a city man living in the suberbs,and spies and abusive husband wife situation...he begins to stalk her...The husband disappears...and whodunnit????

03 The Home Front by Charles Ardai- 4 stars
I have only encountered Ardai in another short story collection somewhere??? This was a very cool story, but does not really fall into line with mystery or the love/murder scenerio I was excpecting. Still a decent enough read.

04 The Last Flight by Brenden DuBois- 4 stars
Now this was a very cool story,about a man who makes that dreaded journey to scatter his wifes ashes following her death. We follow him through his past, sharing the events of her death...coming face to face with her unpunished killer....

05 Part Light, Part Memory by Bonnie Hearn Hill- 2.5 stars
Thsi was not a bad story, but I am not sure I would have included it in this collection..although there was certainly a crime and a murder there was very little suspense or mystery. A trip to the end of the era of slavery in the US, and a dangerous encounter.

06 Blarney by Steve Hockensmith- 2 stars
IMHO 2 stars may just be a tad too generous. This was a very dry story from the outset, and while I kept waiting for it to pick up steam and becomeinteresting it never did...The best part of the story was the end (Only because it was finally over) and the murder and they just happened to coincide.

07 Heat Lightening by William Krueger- 2.5 stars
This was an OK read, albeit a bit slow. Really not so much a mystery or thriller at all.

08 Till death Do Us Part by Tim Maleeny- 3 stars
I have only encountered maleeny in another short story anthology, this was pretty good. Certainly not a thriller nor a major mystery. It is about a couple who is celebrating their 60th anniversary...as you may have guessed Thats a long time to married...or so I have heard!

09 The Cold Hard Truth by Rick McMahon- 3 stars
A decent enough story, and seems to fit into the mold cast from the title...unfortunately there is very little in the way of mystery, suspense or thrills. A nice perspective on a good person who does a horrific deed.

10 One shot by P.J. Parrish- 2.5 stars
I usually enjoy Parrish (or the two ladies who write under this name), but this was my first short story encounter. It was not bad, but did not meet the excpectations I have developed for Parrish. A man returns home and revisits a traumatic event fromhis childhood...as the story progresses he realizes how horribly inaccurate his memory was.

11 Cyberdate.com by Tom Savage- 4 stars
This was a cool little read. The dangers of duplicity in cyberdating are taken to the extreme (Yes, on both sides)...be careful.

12 Homecoming by Charles Todd (Pseudonym)- 2 stars
This just never connected with me from start to finnish!

13 The Masseuse by Tim Wohlforth - 5 stars
I guess you micht call this erotica suspense rather than romantic suspense? Either way, in spite of the lurid detail a very good read.

14 A Few Small Repairs by Jeff Abbott- 4 stars
I love Abbotts, work, and his short story was on par with his longer ones as well. A dying father seek to reconcile with his estranged son, with the ulterior motive of asking for a strange request...a great ethical deliemma ensues...and an ending that made me scream!

15 Chellini's Solution by Jim Fusilli- 1 star
Upon finishing this story I realized that I was either a masochist who loved inflicting pain upon himself or an eternal optimist for believing that no story could bore me this much...I also discovered dogged perserverance as I endured all the way to the end...without a gripe untill now!

16 One True Love by Laura Lippman- 5 stars
A very cool read! A neat story on blackmail, and deciding whether to cave or....how far would you go?

17 Wifey by R.L. Stine- 5 stars
Stine can write for adults as well. I came acroos another of his adult short stories in another collection, although this one was crafted much more intensely. A very cool read, about getting away with murder, perhaps...

18 Pushed or Was Fell by Jay Brandon- 5 stars
this was a very cool story. A loner meets a woman, and all too quickly falls in love and gets married. Upon the honeymoon cruise he realizes he made a mistake...all to soon the circumstances become tragic and continue rapidly spirialing out of control, with the guilty seemingly in a variety of directions.

19 Entrapped by Harlan Coben- 5 stars
This was super cool, and I was immediately drawn in. A womans reports to the police that her husband has gone missing....only to return home and find him there....only he does not look or sound like her husband...all signs indicate that he is....what is true and what is not?

[Shaelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mediocre mystery anthology. These kind of books are usually my go to bedtime reads/ listens , or if I want to hear a whole story while on a bus ride or a long wait, so even though it was just ok, I'm still very appreciative of these anthologies that let me enjoy quick gratification.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

With books of this sort, I like to list all the stories & rate them individually, but I didn't get around to it. I really enjoyed most of the stories in the first half, a few less toward the end. One was a ghost story that wasn't very good. Overall, the stories were pretty good, though. Well narrated, too. 3.5 stars.

[Raimey Gallant · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first stories stood out from the pack, and Harlan Coben, who edited this anthology together, saved the best--his--for last. His introduction was great, too, enlightening as to why he writes the kinds of stories he writes.

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of mystery stories by the Mystery Writers of America is amazing. So many good stories. It's like a box of very good chocolates... you eat one and then go "I'll just have one more....one more....one more" and so forth. The stories are all about love, lust, marriage, and, of course, murder!

[Saralyn McMorris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stories were enjoyable, some were forgettable.

[Robyn]

Mystery WRITERS OF AMERICA PRESENTS DEATH DO US PART: NEW STORIES ABOUT LOVE, LUST, and MURDER
Harlan Cohen

There were 18 stories in this book and I have to say that I actually enjoyed most of them. I might become a fan of short stories... but probably not.

4 stars

Happy Reading!

[Katie Middaugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook on a road trip. Short stories were diverse and interesting. Enjoyed it.

[jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Listened to the audiobook.) It was a nice change of pace to listen to a book of short stories. I actually listened to most of the CDs more than once since I didn't have another audiobook to start once I was done. It gave me a chance to analyze the stories a bit more (I felt like I was back in high school or college). Some of the stories were better than others, and it gave me ideas for authors I might like to read in the future. Overall, not a bad book to pick up on the fly.

[Nicole Marble · Rating 5 out of 5]

18 stories leading off w/ a 'beaut' by Ridley Pearson, then Lee Child's story about a blue collar guy and a wealthy suburban woman and then.............
well I love short stories and I love mysteries - and this collection delivers!

[Marisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great collection of short stories. I initially bout if cause it was in the bargain bin and I saw that it had some of my favorite authors in it. The stories blew me away. They all had some sort of twist and every story in the book kept me interested.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. I’ve read others in this series. Nothing stood out to me in this anthology installment. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not big on short stories, but, I think it had something to do with the chosen subject matter of this grouping not appealing to me.

[Shirley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The narrators are sometimes chilling! I like shorts when I have been reading heavier material. This does a very good job of meeting that need.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost all these stories are fabulous. My favorite was easily Till Death Do Us Part. It is a darkly entertaining read I will share with many other friends in a relationship.

[Diana H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found another eight great writers to start reading in this mystery/suspense/thriller anthology.

[Peacejanz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another anthology of crime stories about marriage, partners, love and lust published by the Mystery Writers of America. I think they sponsor an anthology each year with a guest editor, this time it is Harlan Coben, who has many mysteries under his own name. As guest Editor, Coben has chosen 18 short mystery stories to go with his story. Some of the authors are famous, some are not. But this book in a series of books from the Mystery Writers has a focus on people in marriages, who want to be in marriages, who want our of marriages; in short, each has some element of people in marriages. This series of mystery short stories is a way to introduce us to writers we have never heard of or to see what our favorite mystery novelists can do with a short story. All of the books in the series are short reads. Not always the best from authors but in many cases, award winners from other groups. I found writers I have never heard of as well as old favorites such as Lee Child and William Kent Krueger. I love these books because I really have found some wonderful new authors. I check out a book by one of my new found authors - no expense for me except the time and energy to borrow a book from my local library. They are all quick reads; you can read a story while you are waiting for the dentist. Many of them are out in paperbacks. Worth the time or the money.

[Papuchochoe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was rather disappointed, some stories start good but end in a boring or unsatisfying way, some I just didn't enjoy at all unfortunately, basically forcing myself to finish that book :( "Wifey" disappointed me the most, because the potential was there! But I guess the only solution was to make the guy an idiot? I did like two stories fully though! "Blarney" by Steve Hockensmith and "Till Death Do Us Part" by Tim Maleeny were fun due to the idea, writing and overall execution in my opinion, these two I can recommend 🙏

[Nancy Fink · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a big crime/mystery fan and love these short story collections. I always find a few new authors for my “to read” list. I also discover, through a short, 10-page investment of my time, a few authors I probably won’t read again either because of style, characters or plot. Either way the stories are quick and there are always a couple of masterful tales that stick with me. Great read!

[Paskal · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 étoiles parce que certaines nouvelles sont vraiment excellentes. Mais c'est une anthologie qui ne restera pas dans mes annales ;-). Trop inégales, les nouvelles s'enchaînent, mais certaines ne donnent pas réellement envie de poursuivre. peut-être que je n'ai pas réussi à rentrer dedans.

[Fabienne Le Dorze · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un peu particulier comme roman vu que ce sont de petites nouvelles sur le thème de l'amour et de sa fin , souvent violente. L'exercice est plutôt difficile. Ça m'a permis de découvrir de nouveaux auteurs ( dont j'ai relevé le nom pour de prochaines lectures) .

[Ewa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wypożyczyłam tę książkę na szybko z biblioteki i nie wiedziałam, ze to zbiór opowiadań. Trochę mnie to zaskoczyło, ale mimo wszystko było ciekawe i szybko się czytało. Taki przerywnik w czytaniu większych książek, bardzo na plus :)

[drowningmermaid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most antologies-- a mixed bag.

Most of them actually don't seem like mysteries. They don't have that 'puzzle' element. Maybe a twist ending.

One genuinely made no sense at all to me, even though I listened to it twice. But it's got an R.L. Stine mystery, a Tom Savage, a Laura Lippman.

[Gary Olson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hose this book because it was edited by Harlan Coben. Big mistake. There were a couple decent short stories in here but most were boring and not worth the read at all. Surprised by how bad this book was.

[Gale Costa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. I listened to it on audio, and the Narrators for the various stories were good also. I liked being able to listen to a few of the short stories at bedtime. This is the second Mystery Writer’s book I have listened to and I intend to read the whole series!

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great anthology of short stories about people who kill those they love, or kill for those they love. I liked some stories better than others (my favorites were by R.L. Stine, Lee Child, Charles Ardai and Bonnie Hearn Hill) but there really wasn't a bad one in the bunch.

[Marty Solotki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan Sklar, with an assist from Karen White, does a great job narrating 18 short murder mysteries revolving around crimes of passion in all their many forms. None of the stories are mind-blowing, but as a whole this was an excellent array of whodunnits.

[X. Natasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were a lot of really great stories in this anthology - some where you didn't want them to end. I don't think they all fit the theme of what this book was supposed to be about though.

[Dee’s Cozy Corner Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is edgy. I love it.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gave this 4 stars because it is a compilation of
Very Good short stories..., I could not finish though,
because they are more Thriller genre than I can handle and still sleep soundly 😆

[Rennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to as an audio book which fortunately had a good narrator. They were all worth listening to but I found the second story to be particularly good.