As if the Mystery Writers of America weren’t busy enough crafting essays celebrating Edgar Allan Poe’s 200th birthday for the new anthology IN THE SHADOW OF THE MASTER, they’ve also managed to find time to write some original stories in his honor for the companion book, MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA PRESENTS ON A RAVEN’S WING: NEW TALES IN HONOR OF EDGAR ALLAN POE.
Edited by Stuart M. Kaminsky, the 20-tale collection may not boast the name wattage of its sibling, but no matter: These are, by and large, excellent stories, making for a book of which Poe would be proud. Since he’s not around, we’ll have to pinch-hit.
Some of these stories are pastiches and quasi-sequels, while others are good-natured parodies, and a few simply use the spirit of Poe as a jumping-off point. Despite the diverse tones, the book nevertheless maintains a flow that keeps the reader wanting to read “just one more” before calling it a night.
Organized alphabetically by contributor, WING may not immediately soar to great heights by starting with Doug Allyn’s “Israfel,” a slightly heavy-handed bit about a Poe-obsessed rock band, but it does with the second story, Michael A. Black’s “The Golden Bug.” Like Poe’s “The Gold Bug,” it tells an adventurous tale of treasure, but here it’s set among castaways and cannibals during World War II.
Jon L. Breen offers the clever “William Allan Wilson,” constructed as journal entries by an author commissioned to write a modern Poe anthology, and who uses the opportunity to resurrect a real-life unsolved crime. It’s wickedly good. Mary Higgins Clark’s “The Tell-Tale Purr” is better than expected, but still a little silly (and eerily similar to the later “The Tell-Tale Pacemaker,” from P.J. Parrish), whereas Thomas H. Cook’s “Nevermore” couldn’t be more serious; it has a dying father make amends to his angry son via the master of the macabre.
Brendan DuBois’ “The Cask of Castle Island” is a blue-collar update of Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado.” As such, you know exactly where it’s headed from the start, but will have a ball following it every step of the way. Meanwhile, James W. Hall sets up a love triangle destined to collapse into madness with “Bells.”
The Edgar Awards — and specifically, the theft of one — take center stage in Jeremiah Healy’s “In My Ancestor’s Image,” while Rupert Holmes draws upon the Roger Corman film adaptations of the 1960s for the shrewd and macabre “A Nomad of the Night.” If all you know of Holmes is that annoying “Piña Colada Song,” get ready to have your expectations turned upside-down; the guy has quite a gift when it comes to crime time.
No shock to anyone who’s read to his SOLOMON VS. LORD novels, Paul Levine goes straight for the funny bone in “Development Hell,” which imagines how Poe would fare against today’s Hollywood execs wanting to adapt his work for the screen. John Lutz aims for this style of goofiness in the self-parodic “Poe, Poe, Poe,” although not as successfully.
Two late entries emerge as among the book’s finest, both nostalgia pieces. Don Winslow’s “Poe, Jo, and I,” depicting a special relationship between teacher and unmotivated pupil, is quite touching; its emotions feel far too genuine to be fiction. And Daniel Stashower — author of the nonfiction Poe work THE BEAUTIFUL CIGAR GIRL — turns in “Challenger,” outlining the course of a friendship between our boy narrator and an unhappy girl named Annabel Lee, in the wake of the 1984 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. It also works the reader’s heart over.
The book is made all the more special by including the final story by the recently departed Edward D. Hoch, whose “The Poe Collector” is another of his brain-teasing mysteries. The man could do so much in so few pages, and it’s bittersweet to read the last whodunit he ever did. —Rod Lott
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS IN THIS SERIES:
• MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA PRESENTS DEATH DO US PART: NEW STORIES ABOUT LOVE, LUST, AND MURDER edited by Harlan Coben
• MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA PRESENTS IN THE SHADOW OF THE MASTER: CLASSIC TALES BY EDGAR ALLAN POE edited by Michael Connelly
• MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA PRESENTS THE BLUE RELIGION: NEW STORIES ABOUT COPS, CRIMINALS, AND THE CHASE edited by Michael Connelly
Related posts:
- Mystery Writers of America Presents In the Shadow of the Master: Classic Tales by Edgar Allan Poe
- Mystery Writers of America Presents The Blue Religion: New Stories About Cops, Criminals, and the Chase
- Mystery Writers of America Presents Death Do Us Part: New Stories about Love, Lust, and Murder
- BOOKS 2 FILM >> The Edgar Allan Poe Collection: Volume 1 – Annabel Lee & Other Tales of Mystery and Imagination
- Haunt of Horror: Edgar Allan Poe
