Fiction River: Past Crime

Laws change from culture to culture, decade to decade. Strange laws make criminals of ordinary citizens. Like the Massachusetts woman whose brother asks her for help, slave hunters at his heels. Or the Chinese immigrant who finds himself in the middle of a crooked game of Fan Tan. Or the Native American detective searching New York’s Stonewall Bar for a ratfink on the night of a world-changing riot. These stories and more prove that once again, Fiction River’s crime volumes have, in the words of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, “high quality throughout.”


“Fiction River: Crime edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch leads off with strong new tales by three familiar EQMM contributors: Doug Allyn with a gangster whodunnit, Steve Hockensmith with a con game story, and Brendan DuBois with a fresh variation on the old brothers-who-took-different-paths ploy. A sampling of other contents, including experimental short-shorts by Melissa Yi and M. Elizabeth Castle and a clever turn on the greedy-relatives-want-inheritance by Kate Wilhelm, suggest high quality throughout."

—Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine on Fiction River Special Edition: Crime



“Among the volume’s better entries are Doug Allyn’s “Hitler’s Dogs,” in which narrator Doc Bannan seeks the truth about his gang mentor’s death, and Steve Hockensmith’s “Wheel of Fortune,” which relates the schemes of a pair of con artists.”

—Publishers Weekly on Fiction River Special Edition: Crime


“… [this] fabulous collection runs the genre gamut and more.”

—Genre Go Round Reviews on Fiction River Special Edition: Crime