Transgressions
I defy you to find a better literary value out right now than the late Ed McBain-edited anthology TRANSGRESSIONS, which offers 10 new short novels in one, letting writers do whatever they want as long as there’s at least a loose connection to crime or suspense. With the exception of Anne Perry’s politically charged hostage tale, this collection is world-class all the way.
Donald E. Westlake provides a humorous heist of foreign currency, McBain himself dishes out an 87th Precinct investigation into murdered Muslim cabbies, Stephen King gets serious with a post-9/11 tale of being haunted by “The Things They Left Behind,” Jeffery Deaver plants a police statistican in the middle of an unusual string of elderly suicides (one hopes this character soon spins off into his own novel) and Lawrence Block’s hitman contemplates retirement while also figuring out how to kill an aging golfer.
Two novellas stick out as the cream of the crop, however. One is Sharyn McCrumb’s “The Resurrection Man,” a 19th-century story about a freed slave who works for a medical college, where his job is retrieving fresh corpses from the graveyard for study. The other, and really on a higher plane than everyone else, is Joyce Carol Oates’ disturbing and uniquely told “The Corn Maiden,” about a group of young girls who kidnap a fellow student with learning disabilities and hold her against her will in their basement, prepping her for sacrifice.
All in all, a strong contender for the year’s best anthology. With McBain’s recent passing, it’s a damn shame he won’t be around to follow this up with another volume.
[...] 2. TRANSGRESSIONS edited by Ed McBain – It’s strange that an anthology almost became the best book we read, but consider the talent behind it: Joyce Carol Oates, Lawrence Block, Stephen King, Jeffrey Deaver, Donald E. Westlake and so many others, all given free reign to write whatever the hell they want, and most of them respond at the top of their game. [...]
[...] Like other Mysterious Press anthologies, Penzler presents the stories alphabetically by author. Even if they weren’t, opening with Lawrence Block is always a safe bet. In “Keller’s Double Dribble,” he once again revisits his popular hitman character Keller (last seen – at least by my count – in last fall’s stellar anthology TRANSGRESSIONS), who takes in a Pacers game before he scopes out his scheduled target. The assignment doesn’t go as planned (do they ever?), and Block’s story offers unexpected glimpses at Keller’s childhood, which prove moving and more than a little heartbreaking. [...]
[...] LONG FICTION • BEST NEW HORROR by Joe Hill • IN THE MIDNIGHT MUSEUM by Gary Braunbeck • SOME ZOMBIE CONTINGENCY PLANS by Kelly Link • THE THINGS THEY LEFT BEHIND by Stephen King [...]
[...] DIVIDING UP YOUR ‘TRANSGRESSIONS’ While we’re on the subject of last year’s best, the Ed McBain-edited anthology TRANSGRESSIONS – our year-end pick for one of 2005’s three best books – is coming out in paperback. Or make that four paperbacks. Rather than issue the 10-novella collection in a sure-to-bust-its-spine edition, Forge has chosen to package two to three of the crime tales together in a series of mass-market paperbacks. Thus, VOL. 1 with Lawrence Block and Jeffery Deaver and VOL. 2 with John Farris and Stephen King are already available. Following in October are VOL. 3 with McBain, Walter Mosley and Donald E. Westlake, and VOL. 4 with Sharyn McCrumb, Joyce Carol Oates and Anne Perry. We wholeheartedly recommend them all. [...]
[...] THESE GUNS FOR HIRE, MURDER AT THE RACE TRACK, MURDER AT THE FOUL LINE and Ed McBain’s TRANSGRESSIONS, leaving five new to my eyes. This is not a complaint, because even just one new Keller story would [...]
[...] HEAR IT FOR THE DEAF MAN by Ed McBain • THE PUSHER by Ed McBain • SHOTGUN by Ed McBain • TRANSGRESSIONS edited by Ed [...]
[...] PUSHER by Ed McBain • SHOTGUN by Ed McBain • SO LONG AS YOU BOTH SHALL LIVE by Ed McBain • TRANSGRESSIONS edited by Ed [...]