Streets of Shadows

Too few of the 21 entries in this urban fantasy anthology hit the mark. The high point is Seanan McGuire's "Best Served Cold," which opens with a classic PI first sentence: "The temperature dropped six degrees when she walked into the office, going from balmy evening to the first breath of winter in the time it took for one silk-wrapped leg to step across my threshold." Gary Kloster's "Shooting Aphrodite" also grabs the reader by the labels with its opening, "I found Marrow in Gehenna's back room, sitting with Peter Lorre and a bottle of dead god's blood," and doesn't let go. Damien Angelica Walters makes the most of her conceit of human chameleons who can only be detected by others of their kind in "Such Faces We Wear, Such Masks We Hide." But even these quality works are unlikely to become classics. Urban fantasy fans will find these works palatable but not entirely satisfying. (Oct.)