I’ve got a problem with the enormously popular paranormal genre: Most of its practitioners have no business writing about ghosts and monsters. They sap such supernatural beings of their power, turning them from something scary into something more on the side of the cute and cuddly. It works for millions of readers — just not for me.
I was reminded of that over and over in MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA PRESENTS CRIMES BY MOONLIGHT: MYSTERIES FROM THE DARK SIDE, an anthology edited by Charlaine Harris, one of the genre’s (and publishing’s) most bankable authors, who’s made a fortune from making over vampires and werewolves into objects of female lust.
The idea behind this MWA collection is for its members to write a paranormal tale. Harris kicks it off with one of her own, “Dahlia Underground,” set in the rubble of a vampire hotel, and therefore, in the world of her Sookie Stackhouse novels that beget the HBO series TRUE BLOOD. As with Harris’ recent A TOUCH OF DEAD — SOOKIE STACKHOUSE: THE COMPLETE STORIES, if you aren’t already familiar with the characters — via either the books or the show — I wouldn’t bother reading it, or you’ll be lost.
Over and over, I hoped for a story that would stand out. A few of them did, if they didn’t exactly pay off. The family traveling through S.W. Hubbard’s “House of Horrors” makes a disturbing discovery about their adopted daughter, and e-mails from the dead plague the protagonist of Barbara D’Amato’s “The Conqueror Worm,” but both carry unsatisfying endings that leave the reader not with a chill, but a “Yeah, and?”
Max Allan Collins resurrects a Mike Hammer story he plotted with Mickey Spillane in “Grave Matter.” With Hammer’s trademark dialogue, it crackles with fun, which is exactly why it doesn’t fit with the rest. And the rest includes contributions from Parnell Hall, Harley Jane Kozak, Carolyn Hart, Margaret Maron and William Kent Krueger. —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 ON A RAVEN’S WING: NEW TALES IN HONOR OF EDGAR ALLAN POE edited by Stuart M. Kaminsky
• MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA PRESENTS THE BLUE RELIGION: NEW STORIES ABOUT COPS, CRIMINALS, AND THE CHASE edited by Michael Connelly
• MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA PRESENTS THE PROSECUTION RESTS: NEW STORIES ABOUT COURTROOMS, CRIMINALS, AND THE LAW edited by Linda Fairstein
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• A TOUCH OF DEAD — SOOKIE STACKHOUSE: THE COMPLETE STORIES by Charlaine Harris
Related posts:
- Mystery Writers of America Presents On a Raven’s Wing: New Tales in Honor of Edgar Allan Poe
- Mystery Writers of America Presents The Prosecution Rests: New Stories About Courtrooms, Criminals, and the Law
- 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
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I agree.
“House of Horrors” and “The Conqueror Worm” were both adequate. The, “yeah, and” ending is a staple of short stories, intended to allow we, the readers, to fill in the blanks ourselves. An example of a writer not even going that far with it would be “Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque” (1994) by Joyce Carroll Oates. She doesn’t gives us “yeah, and” endings, nor does she give us twist endings. She gives us no endings at all. Stephen King’s “Everything’s Eventual” would be a prime example of how to do short stories. [Mind you, I find most of his short stories better than some of the novels he should have just left as short stories.]
Dana Cameron’s “Swing Shift” was also a great tale…until she introduced the not-so-supernatural element of the Fangborn into it.
“Grave Matter: A Mike Hammer Story” By Max Allan Collins and Micky Spillane was also a good read. I’m certain I’ve caught a few other good Mike Hammer stories in other anthologies such as this one.
What I think you failed to point out about this anthology, and others ‘edited’ by Charlaine Harris, is that someone such as her, who cannot edit her own pieces, take any Sookie story for example, has no business editing anyone else’s stories. Sure, she is, as you put it, a “bankable author” in this genre, but she lacks consistency.
When we’re reading along in her text and at the top of one page Sookie’s asking a former Merlotte’s waitress about Wiccans and she receives a reply along the lines of: “I’m Wiccan. We believe in balance and nature.” But by the time we reach the bottom of said page and Sookie asks about another former waitress only to be told something like: “Don’t mess with her! She’s a Wiccan. They’re evil!” Well, it’s apparent that neither Mrs. Harris, nor her editor, nor any of her inner circle of would-be junior editor friends noticed or cared enough about such an inconsistency to suggest a change before putting it to print. Same goes for other inconsistencies throughout the series. It’s bad enough that her characters suffer from a complete lack of communications skills with regards to each other. But when a character does happen to explain something to another character on one page and then somehow completely forgets the explanation a page later, something is horribly wrong with the writing and the editor needs to be not only fired, but fined for incompetence.