cover image John Creasey's Crime Collection, 1987: The Annual Anthology of the Crime Writers' Association

John Creasey's Crime Collection, 1987: The Annual Anthology of the Crime Writers' Association

. St. Martin's Press, $13.95 (192pp) ISBN 978-0-312-01452-0

Why is it that only the science fiction and mystery fields have magazines devoted to the short story? Fans of those genres are lucky, for the short story collection can provide a very satisfying read as this collection of 16 tales from members of Britain's Crime Writers' Association consistently demonstrates. In the lead story, Ruth Rendell deals with the consequences of old age and the theft of a clock. Michael Gilbert's ""A Sense of History'' tells about an arrogant landowner who tries to impose his will on his neighbors and the government. In ``House Poison,'' Antonia Fraser writes about a brother and sister, each of whom tries to survive the other in order to inherit a legacy. Reginald Hill and George Sims offer strange contributions, the former writing not about a crime in the common sense but maybe in a universal one; the latter depicting madness in one of its many forms. All of the stories in the 11th of this series, have a definite English flavor that adds greatly to their appeal. (April)