Publisher's Weekly on The Interrogator

The Interrogator and Other Criminally Good Fiction

Edited by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg. Cemetery Dance (www.cemeterydance.com), $19.99 trade paper (488p) ISBN 978-1-58767-336-8

Heavyweights of the genre such as Lee Child, Laura Lippman, and David Morrell headline this strong anthology of 26 crime stories. Unsurprisingly, there’s not a dud in the bunch; surprisingly, the best entry may be a comic riff on Rex Stout—Dave Zeltserman’s “Archie’s Been Framed.” It’s hard to resist a line like: “While Julius refers to me as Archie, and I act as his private secretary, research assistant, unofficial biographer, and all-around man Friday, I am in actuality a four-inch rectangular piece of advanced technology that Julius wears as a tie clip.” Wry humor is in play in Jeffery Deaver’s “The Plot,” which takes some affectionate pokes at the James Patterson fiction factory. Other highlights include Loren D. Estleman’s Valentino mystery, “The List”; T. Jefferson Parker’s twisty “Luck”; and Doug Allyn’s Civil War thriller, “The Scent of Lilacs.” (Nov.)