Arresting Anthologies

Summer is often a lull time for story anthologies, but there are three recent releases that feature original crime fiction shorts:

Jochem Vandersteen edited the first Shamus Sampler and has followed it up with Shamus Samper II sequel. As the title would suggest, the book includes 13 international tales of private investigators, pulp fiction and hardboiled detectives. As Tim Hallinan writes in his Foreword, "The private eye, it would appear, is infinitely variable. He/she/it will apparently be with us as long as we read and write stories."

The Untreed Detectives, edited by J. Alan Hartman, includes 12 stories culled from various novels published and distributed by Untreed Reads. As Hartman states, "Whether it's a gritty clown or a children's book author, a pig or an investigator of crimes in the nursery rhyme universe, you'll discover a wide variety of short mysteries here from both best-selling authors and fresh voices."

Exiles, on the other hand, departs from the detective theme with its assortment of 26 short stories all featuring the common theme of "outsiders." Edited by Paul D. Brazill, the book is dedicated to Jeff Luke and Colin Graham, with all proceeds going to the Marfan Foundation in aid of people suffering from Marfan syndrome.