Perri O’Shaugnessy is one of those mystery writers who regularly cranks out novels with such similar, generic-sounding titles (i.e. OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE, BREACH OF PROMISE, ACTS OF MALICE) that I’m left with a presumption of inconsequence. Yet put out a story collection with a decidedly more animated title of SINISTER SHORTS, and you have my full attention.
Such bite-sized fiction makes it easier for me to gauge untested authors without having to commit to a full-length effort. From the 19 stories that appear here, it’s clear to me that O’Shaugnessy – actually sisters Pamela and Mary – excels in the short form.
This is not readily apparent from the start, however. It begins with two stories that are rather conventional and unspectacular, before hitting you over the head – bludgeoning you, even – with “Dead Money,” one of the finest crafted suspense stories of the past few years. Not because of the mystery at hand (and it’s a good one), but because it bursts with such rich characters – small-town denizens beaten down by the pain of loneliness and the misery of their surroundings. It’s a haunting stunner.
“House Afire” is also unexpectedly moving, though there’s nothing criminally oriented about it (a few other stories also are felony-free). “O’Shay’s Special Case” is a legal thriller involving workmen’s comp that builds up some steam … then left me nonplussed by an unclear ending I simply don’t get.
Perri goes Poe with “The Master’s Hand,” which follows the traditions of the Victorian/Gothic confessional in its brief tale of a man robbing Mozart’s grave in order to purchase an original Dostoevsky manuscript. It works. But “Gertrude Stein Solves a Murder” doesn’t, as it is written in an experimental (read: frustrating) style similar to Stein: shorn of most punctuation and thus full of run-on sentences.
With acumen, “Trio” details a love triangle, and you know how those always turn out. One can’t get much more disturbing (this side of Chuck Palahniuk, at least) than “Chocolate Milkshake,” while “Juggernaut” is an aptly named whodunit, featuring attorney Nina Reilly, the franchise butter to O’Shaughnessy’s bread.
Other pieces of fiction – many originally printed in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine – deal with babynapping, infidelity and a housewife’s diary of descent into mental illness. More often than not, the sisters O’Shaughnessy connect when at bat. And while that doesn’t quite move me to seek out an entire novel, I certainly will welcome any short story on which they collaborate, because there are few greater pleasures in life than a crime story well-told. –Rod Lott
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- The Adventure of the Missing Detective and 19 of the Year’s Finest Crime and Mystery Stories
- Murder in the Rough
- More Twisted: Collected Stories, Vol. II
- A New Omnibus of Crime
- Different Kinds of Dead and Other Tales
