Every few years, we read about the death of the short story. Not so. Outlets for short fiction are sparse on the ground even as we speak – uh, type – but folks are still out there writing them.

The literary form that is really having a hard time of it is the novella. How often have you picked up one of the “best of the year” anthologies and read an apology from the editor for excluding certain boffo pieces because they were just too long to fit in with a bunch of short stories? Happens all the time.

So blessings on thee, Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg, to bring us THE WIDOW OF SLANE AND SIX MORE OF THE BEST CRIME AND MYSTERY NOVELLAS OF THE YEAR, as cumbersome a jawbreaker of a title as ever graced the cover of a highly readable volume.

The novellas, averaging around 45 pages each, were collected from ELLERY QUEEN’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE (three), ALFRED HITCHCOCK’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE (one), WILD CRIMES (one) and the theme anthology DEATH BY DICKENS (two). All are copyrighted 2004 and my guess is that they were finalists for Gorman’s YEAR’S FINEST CRIME AND MYSTERY STORIES, but were just too long. Our thanks to him for not allowing them to fall through the cracks.

Authors include Doug Allyn, Dana Stabenow, Clark Howard, Carole Nelson Douglas, Terence Faherty, Steve Hockensmith and Anne Perry. No bonus points for guessing that the Dickens-inspired pieces are by Douglas and Perry.

The title story is from Faherty. Set in Ireland, it’s about what can happen to an unreconstructed ghost chaser. Hockensmith’s “Tricks” sets retired cop Larry Erie on the trail of a kidnapped monkey, and you can read the first part of this sentence as many times as you want to and it’s still going to be “on the trail of a kidnapped monkey.”

Douglas puts a seasonal cyber-spin on the reclamation of one Mr. Scroggs, while Perry sends Sidney Carton, he of the best and worst of times, in search of stolen cheese during the Reign of Terror.

Stabenow takes us to Alaska in the winter to find out why what appears to be the victim of a mob hit should be hidden in a truck delivering groceries, and Howard’s story offers sound if romantic advice on how to bust out of a tough federal prison. My favorite tale among the lot is Allyn’s “The Gin Mill,” about a hidden booze parlor and the ghosts it contains plastered up behind the walls of an old hotel.

Honestly, none of the stories are bases-loaded home runs, but they’re all extra-baggers and Allyn, Douglas and Hockensmith are good for solid triples. But the bottom line is that you have to buy the book so the publishers won’t run screaming down the hallway when Gorman goes back to them next year with another collection of novellas. Seven long stories. Seven nights in a week. My guess is you won’t be able to ration them out that way. I couldn’t. –Doug Bentin

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OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THESE AUTHORS:
• THE ADVENTURE OF THE MISSING DETECTIVE AND 19 OF THE YEAR’S FINEST CRIME AND MYSTERY STORIES edited by by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg
• THE BEST HORROR STORIES OF ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE edited by Frank D. McSherry, Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh
• BLACK RIVER FALLS by Ed Gorman
• DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN: BOOK TWO – CITY OF NIGHT by Dean Koontz and Ed Gorman
• DIFFERENT KINDS OF DEAD AND OTHER TALES by Ed Gorman
• GHOST TOWN by Ed Gorman
• GRAVES’ RETREAT by Ed Gorman
• GUNSLINGER AND NINE OTHER ACTION-PACKED STORIES OF THE WILD WEST by Ed Gorman
• INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS: A TRIBUTE edited by Kevin McCarthy and Ed Gorman
• NIGHTMARES ON ELM STREET: FREDDY KRUEGER’S SEVEN SWEETEST DREAMS edited by Martin H. Greenberg
• WOLF MOON by Ed Gorman