Miscreants, Murderers, and Thieves
This collection of stories from independent authors is edited by Samuel W Reed, who also contributes one of his own tales. Authors include Don Bapst, David Beeler, Shawn D. Brink, Dori Ann Dupre, Gabriel DiDomenico, Dane G. Kroll, Ethel Lung, Casey Mensing, Suzanne Crain Miller, Katherine Tomlinson, Will Wallace & Nicholas Zemin, with illustrations by Jared Sloger.
As with any collection of stories, you never know quite what you’re going to get. In this case, there are the inevitable few that stand out, such as ‘Equity’ by Don Bapst, the quirky dark mystery ‘Murder at the Magic Castle’ by Gabriel DiDomenico (my particular favourite) and ‘Last Night in Quartzsite’ by Casey Mensing, where a would-be Bonnie-and-Clyde set the scene for a story with a twist. Of the others, there were several I skimmed over, simply because nothing about the writing or the story grabbed my attention. ‘Mercy in the West’ by David Beeler is worth a mention, but even that went off the rails towards the end, which is a shame.
All in all, an interesting collection, with a few writers whose work I’ll be watching out for.
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