Original Sins: A Crime Writers' Association Anthology

Martin (Mysterious Pleasures) has assembled a high quality all-original CWA anthology, with many headline names among its 18 contributors. Fans of Charles Todd's Ian Rutledge series will be tickled by "Yesterday," in which a France-bound Lieutenant Rutledge meets Pvt. Hamish MacLeod, who will play a huge role in the inspector's post-WWI life. Peter Lovesey demonstrates his proficiency at the short crime story with a bite in "Ghosted," in which a successful romance writer is asked to write a new novel based on the life of a young and callow celebrity, to be published under the latter's name. Christopher Fowler conveys the spirit of his outré Peculiar Crimes Unit novels in "Bryant and May in the Soup," effectively using a deadly 1952 London fog as the background for a sneaky murderer. Only Simon Brett's "Doctor Theatre," featuring his alcoholic actor sleuth, Charles Paris, disappoints with its letdown of an ending. (Mar.)