Review: Kwik Krimes edited by Otto Penzler

A Mysterious Review of Kwik Krimes by Otto Penzler, editor. A Collection of Short Fiction.

Review summary: Nearly all of these 1000-word or less short stories are well-written if not always well-crafted, which, given the caliber of the roster of authors whose work is included here, is a bit disappointing in and of itself. It seems unlikely few of these stories will encourage readers to go out and sample an author's other work, and that's a missed opportunity for all involved. (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

Kwik Krimes
Otto Penzler, editor
A Collection of Short Fiction
Thomas & Mercer (August 2013)

Publisher synopsis: Entire novels are often written about a single crime, detailing every gruesome, dark detail until the last drop of blood spatters across the page. Yet in this mystery anthology, renowned editor and author Otto Penzler weaves together to heart-stopping effect more than ninety tales of brutality, terror, and unexpected demise, with each story told in a swift one thousand words or less.

These crimes may be fast in both form and fallout, but none lack the dark impulses that too often guide human hands to ill ends. Prepare to be transported into the diabolical schemes of criminal masterminds … into robberies and pranks gone horribly awry … into closets crammed with skeletons … into families bound not by love but wickedness.