Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: Nov. 17th, 2020
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Blurb from goodreads:
The sun sets. The moon takes its place, illuminating the most evil corners of the planet. What twisted fear dwells in that blackness? What legends attach to those of sound mind and make them go crazy in the bright light of day? Only Suspense Magazine knows…
Teaming up with New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver, Suspense Magazine offers up a nail-biting anthology titled: “Nothing Good Happens After Midnight.” This thrilling collection consists of thirteen original short stories representing the genres of suspense/thriller, mystery, sci-fi/fantasy, and more.
Readers’ favorites come together to explore the mystery of midnight. The ‘best of the best’ presenting these memorable tales, include: Joseph Badal, Linwood Barclay, Rhys Bowen, Jeffery Deaver, Heather Graham, Alan Jacobson, Paul Kemprecos, Shannon Kirk, Jon Land, John Lescroart, D. P. Lyle, Kevin O’Brien, and Hank Phillippi Ryan.
Take their hands…walk into their worlds…but be prepared to leave the light on when you’re through. After all, this incredible gathering of authors, who will delight fans of all genres, not only utilized their award-winning imaginations to answer that age-old question of why “Nothing Good Happens After Midnight”—they also made sure to pen stories that will leave you…speechless.
My Thoughts:
Anthologies can be such a mixed bag; often you get one or two good stories and the rest are duds. Sometimes you luck out and get a solid collection, and that was the case here. "Nothing Good Happens After Midnight" is wonderful story telling. Short stories are a challenge to do well, with not much room for character development or world building and the story has to be tight. Another challenge with anthologies is whether or not the writers can all successfully pull off the theme and this group did. The stories happen at or right after midnight or involve midnight as a plot point.
There are some heavy hitters in this group of authors and I think it works well as an introduction to any you haven't read before. The stories are all stand alones and most are not part of an existing series. I was impressed with the author lineup; honestly, that was the attraction for me. The theme was interesting but it was the authors who grabbed me. I had read some before and others were new to me. While a couple of the stories were underwhelming, the rest were very good and I got to sample authors I hadn't read yet. It was a win.
My favorite stories were Cell Phone Intolerant by Kevin O'Brien - most of us can relate to people who are rude in their cell phone usage; Night Shift by Linwood Barclay - a fascinating premise with an ending I never saw coming; Easy Peasy by John Lescroart - an all too realistic comedy of errors that fortunately has a happyish ending; and ATM by Jon Land - slightly odd and radically different from the one book of his I've read, which I hated. So that was a nice surprise.
"Nothing Good Happens After Midnight" is very good and well worth reading. Tight, engrossing stories written by authors who are masters of their crafts. I expect I'll be rereading some of these.
I like anthologies to find new things but often the stories are too short and not as good as the author's regular writing. So some are great; some are not.
ReplyDeleteAnne - Books of My Heart
Yep, a very common problem. There was only here I felt was too short. The rest hit the mark for me.
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