Transgressions by Ed McBain (Editor)

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Veteran crime writer Ed McBain has done a bang-up job selecting the contents of Transgressions, an anthology of ten original novellas by some of the top names in the mystery/suspense field. McBain says, "Except for length and a loose adherence to crime, mystery or suspense, I placed no restrictions upon the writers who agreed to contribute." The results of that challenge are varied and outstanding, including Donald E. Westlake's Dortmunder caper, McBain's own dramatic 87th Precinct story, a chilling psychological suspense offering by Joyce Carol Oates, and Stephen King's short and anything-but-sweet post-9/11 tale. By the time you add powerful stories by Lawrence Block, Jeffery Deaver, John Farris, Sharyn McCrumb, Walter Mosley, and Anne Perry, you've got a volume that any self-respecting suspense fan would consider it a "transgression" to miss. Sue Stone

From the Publisher

Forge Books is proud to present an amazing collection of novellas, compiled by New York Times bestselling author Ed McBain. Transgressions is a quintessential classic of never-before-published tales from today's very best novelists. Faeturing:

"Walking Around Money" by Donald E. Westlake: The master of the comic mystery is back with an all-new novella featuring hapless crook John Dortmunder, who gets involved in a crime that supposedly no one will ever know happened. Naturally, when something it too good to be true, it usually is, and Dortmunder is going to get to the bottom of this caper before he's left holding the bag.

"Hostages" by Anne Perry: The bestselling historical mystery author has written a tale of beautiful yet still savage Ireland today. In their eternal struggle for freedom, there is about to be a changing of the guard in the Irish Republican Army. Yet for some, old habits-and honor-still die hard, even at gunpoint.

"The Corn Maiden" by Joyce Carol Oates: When a fourteen-year-old girl is abducted in a small New York town, the crime starts a spiral of destruction and despair as only this master of psychological suspense could write it.

"Archibald Lawless, Anarchist at Large: Walking the Line" by Walter Mosley: Felix Orlean is a New York City journalism student who needs a job to cover his rent. An ad in the paper leads him to Archibald Lawless, and a descent into a shadow world where no one and nothing is as it first seems.

"The Resurrection Man" by Sharyn McCrumb": During America's first century, doctors used any means necessary to advance their craft-including dissecting corpses. Sharyn McCrumb brings theSouth of the 1850s to life in this story of a man who is assigned to dig up bodies to help those that are still alive.

"Merely Hate" by Ed McBain: When a string of Muslim cabdrivers are killed, and the evidence points to another ethnic group, the detectives of the 87th Precinct must hunt down a killer before the city explodes in violence.

"The Things They Left Behind" by Stephen King: In the wake of the worst disaster on American soil, one man is coming to terms with the aftermath of the Twin Towers-when he begins finding the things they left behind.

"The Ransome Women" by John Farris: A young and beautiful starving artist is looking to catch a break when her idol, the reclusive portraitist John Ransome offers her a lucrative year-long modeling contract. But how long will her excitement last when she discovers the fate shared by all Ransome's past subjects?

"Forever" by Jeffery Deaver: Talbot Simms is an unusual cop-he's a statistician with the Westbrook County Sheriff Department. When two wealthy couples in the county commit suicide one right after the other, he thinks that it isn't suicide-it's murder, and he's going to find how who was behind it, and how the did it.

"Keller's Adjustment" by Lawrence Block: Everyone's favorite hit man is back in MWA Grand Master Lawrence Block's novella, where the philosophical Keller deals out philosophy and murder on a meandering road trip from one end of the America to the other.

Library Journal

Transgressions are not normally viewed as opportunities, but this eponymous collection of novellas by Stephen King, Lawrence Block, Walter Mosley, Anne Perry, and more offer a superb opportunity for readers of mystery, crime, and suspense fiction. Compiled by perennial best-selling author McBain, these ten tales, three to four times longer than a typical short story, provide just enough vital depth to entrap readers, as well as the requisite brevity to fit them into one collection. From the disaffected teenager in Joyce Carol Oates's "The Corn Maiden" to the haunted 9/11 survivor in King's "The Things They Left Behind" to the reluctant grave robber in Sharyn McCrumb's "The Resurrection Man," this assortment of stories and characters does not disappoint. Although the ten novellas analyze a variety of topics and situations, they all exhibit the level of quality expected from such a stellar collection of writing talent. Highly recommended for all fiction collections.-Ken Bolton, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

What's a novella? McBain says, 10,000 to 40,000 words-and adds, "It ain't easy." Still, a marquee list takes a shot at it here, including the editor himself. The range is wide, the success rate high, and the degree of pleasure on offer remarkable. John Farris's engrossing "The Ransom Women," in which a tough cop, a lovely girl and a famous painter collaborate in a lethal Faustian bargain, may be the best, though Sharyn McCrumb's grim, heart-rending, beautifully modulated "The Resurrection Man" is close behind. McCrumb's improbable hero, a gravedigger, finds redemption through suffering, courage and Ghandi-like adherence to principle. McBain in "Merely Hate" and Donald E. Westlake in "Walking Around Money" add worthwhile installments to long-running sagas: Steve Carella and his 87th Precinct buds have what may be a series of hate crimes on their hands, while Dortmunder, pricklier than usual, has thieves falling out on his. "The Corn Maiden" is Joyce Carol Oates's disturbing portrait of a monstrous 12-year-old girl, a spooky distaff echo of Leopold and Loeb. Stephen King tells the chilling, though strangely moving, tale of a 9/11 survivor to whom survival becomes a burden. Lawrence Block's deft, cheeky "Keller's Adjustment" is 9/11-themed, too, after a fashion, in its focus on a lonely hit man's career change in the wrenching aftermath. Anne Perry's "Hostages" revisits the Troubles in Northern Ireland a bit melodramatically, and Jeffery Deaver's take on cloning in "Forever" is a bit dull. But Walter Mosley's "Archibald Lawless, Anarchist at Large" is the only real disappointment here: such great prose, so little story. McBain himself doesn't quite make the point, but the best of theseperformances do: The novella, once called the novelette, may be the ideal form for most crime fiction, if only there were a market for it. $200,000 ad/promo budget

Product Details

• ISBN: 0641819552
  
• ISBN-13: 9780641819551
• Format: Hardcover, 783pp
• Publisher: Doherty, Tom Associates, LLC
• Pub. Date: April 2007
• Edition Description: Special Value

• Table of Contents
• Interviews & Essays

Table of Contents

Interviews & Essays