Powers of Detection
Stories of Mystery & Fantasy
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Investigations of a Different Kind
Conjured from the minds of today’s most innovative authors, Powers of Detection features a dozen tales of mystery and fantasy, set in worlds where sleuths may wield wands instead of firearms—and criminals may be as inhuman as the crimes they commit.
From a magical boarding school murder to a courtroom where a witch stands trial, from ancient legends of Alaska and Egypt to stories featuring such familiar faces as Sookie Stackhouse and such familiar places as the Nightside, these paranormal procedurals reveal the mysterious behind the mystery…
Includes stories by…
Donna Andrews ٠ Michael Armstrong ٠ Anne Bishop ٠ Jay Caselberg ٠ Mike Doogan ٠ Laura Anne Gilman ٠ Simon R. Green ٠ Charlaine Harris ٠ Anne Perry ٠ Sharon Shinn ٠ Dana Stabenow ٠ John Straley
“Highly original tales.”—Publishers Weekly
“Everyone’s heart is in the right place and, in the best stories, their tongues are firmly in their cheeks.”—Mystery Scene
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This uneven all-original story anthology, edited by Edgar-winner Stabenow, showcases 12 authors from both the mystery and fantasy fields. Highly original tales include Anne Perry's "The Judgment," which presents a trial for murder by witchcraft in a stunning new moral light; Alaska-based Michael Armstrong's "The Boy Who Chased Seagulls," which sensitively reworks an Aleut legend of crime and punishment; and Anne Bishop's "The Price," which offers gender-reversal with a vengeance. Deft irony pervades Laura Anne Gilman's ESP-ridden "Palimpsest," but other attempts at shape-shifting hard-boiled detectives and cunning criminals into fantasy realms are less successful. Simon R. Green's gloomy "The Nightside, Needless to Say" and Jay Caselberg's "Cairene Dawn" seem forced, though Caselberg has a whopper of a closing line, while John Straley's stomach-wrenching raven story, "Lovely," has a lot of gore and little saving grace. Mike Doogan's "The Death of Clickclickwhistle," an interstellar romp, has its StarTrek roots showing, and both Donna Andrews's "Cold Spell" and Sharon Shinn's "The Sorcerer's Assassin" suggest Harry Potter's Hogwarts without the special effects. Stabenow's own "Justice Is a Two-Edged Sword," her first sally into sword and sorcery, treads ground already familiar from a multitude of feminist quest trilogies. .
