Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery

Billed as the first-ever anthology of mystery short stories by Latino authors, this volume will disappoint readers looking for fiction examining distinctively Latino themes. Of the 17 selections, the best is Edgar-finalist Manuel Ramos's “The Skull of Pancho Villa,” a terse, twisty tale of theft purporting to tell the real story of the fate of that relic. A.E. Roman's smart-ass New York City PI, Chico Santana, gets a nice lead-in to his debut novel, Chinatown Angel (Reviews, Jan. 12), in a tale of revenge, “Under the Bridge.” While Lucha Corpi's “Hollow Point at the Synapses” may be the first story told from the perspective of a bullet traveling from a sniper's rifle to the target's head, that novelty comes across more gimmicky than clever. Other contributors include such established writers in the genre as Mario Acevedo, Carolina García-Aguilera and Steve Torres. (Mar.)