It's hard to find horse stories with a sci-fi/fantasy twist, and there are some good ones here. Four hooves up(haha)!

Most are classics. Some of them are otherwise hard to find. This book has again to be reprinted.
Highlights:
Trouble with Water - H. L. Gold
Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius - Jorge Luis Borges
That Hell-Bound Train - Robert Bloch
The Bazaar of the Bizarre - Fritz Leiber
And many more. Classic writers; the best of these writers.
If you can find it, buy it immediately.
Too bad there is only one story of each writer. I would love to have seen more of Tanith Lee. Her short stories are_very_hard to come by.
I think this is the best F anthology ever printed. These are multi-functional stories; elements of H too. Very good atmosphere. Fritz Leiber story will......you. Leiber is so good!
Happy hunting!

This is an ecclectic collection of short stories in settings that rage the American West by a wonderful variety of writers. They are all new, never before published, stories.

Each story is a "mystery" of some sort. I found them all to be quite facinating, even if most are not about cats. One story is most decidedly about a cat, Midnight Louie.

Louie has his own series of novels. The short story in this anthology is a good example of Midnight Louie's other adventures.

If you or your purrrson like mysteries and stories of susspense, deceit and excitement, this is a great book to have. The stories are completey engrossing, easy to read and a treat! Take the book along when you have to wait for your next medical, dental or other appointment. Each tale is like a piece of gormet canip--a pleasure that almost doesn't last long enough.

A book for adult readers, but without sleaze, or the need for parental discression!

Twist, a prrroud member of CLAW, and the CLAW Bookstore Committee

-George Hulseman

Pay particular attention to "Releve", the story contributed by Patricia Wallace and her daughter. This story introduces us to Sydney Bryant, the private eye that Pat Wallace has featured in a terrific series for adults. The titles in the series include "Deadly Devotion" and "Blood Lies".

Other outstanding stories include those by Wendy Hornsby, Scott Turow, Stuart Kaminsky, and Sharyn McCrumb (and their collaborators). This is a book that parents can read and enjoy with their children. It might inspire them to collaborate on some mystery stories of their own!

I look forward to reading the companion volume, "Great Writers and Kids Write Spooky Stories". I

"When you think of a mystery, what comes to mind? A dark secret? An unsolved crime? A curious detective hunting for clues?"

The only mystery, the only secret, the only crime is how this anthology could be so easily overlooked. "Great Writers and Kids Write Mystery Stories" (1996) is a collection of stories written by some of today's greatest mystery authors in collaboration with their children and grandchildren. Jonathan Kellerman, Sharyn McCrumb, and Scott Turow are three of the thirteen award-winning writers that create wonderous whodunits with their offspring, ages 6 to adult.

While written at about the junior high/ middle school level, this complilation is enjoyable to all. The stories are five to several pages. Some are written with the child as the amateur detective, some are written as a type of psychological thriller.

The introduction serves as a "mini-lesson" on mystery writing. And, each story features a short personal introduction by the adult and child writing team on what it was like to collaborate on their included story. Other contributors include Barbara D'Amato, Ed Gorman, Stuart Kaminsky, Elizabeth Engstrom, and many others.

This book has the unique ability to be educational as well as entertaining. Those that enjoy this book may also enjoy the first volume as well: "Great Writers and Kids Write Spooky Stories" (1995).

The second volume of interviews with best-selling authors of mystery and suspense is an insightful book that provides fans with information about favorite authors. The twenty-two interviews include a Who's Who with noted writers like Koontz, Evanovich, Jance, and Parker (Robert B.) providing readers with motivations and inspirations to their story lines as well as why they avoid some topics.

The Gorman-Greenberg duo provides another insider's look at fan favorites. The interviewers consist of individuals with varying degrees of fame within the field. The dialogues are for the most part interesting though they occasionally drags on too long. Still, another masterful non-fiction from the kings of anthology interviews.

Harriet Klausner

All the interviews are revealing as little known, but fascinating facts about the interviewees surface. The one recurring theme that all the authors agree on is that writing is a demanding and difficult advocation. Readers, who enjoy stepping behind the scenes, will take great pleasure from this collection.

Harriet Klausner

Arntzen, Bernie: "On My Honor" Nicholas, the narrator, is and isn't the Oranian Royal Assassin; he's also Roarke's most secret agent in the Oranian court. Now he's been ordered to bite off the hand that feeds him: the queen has ordered him to kill her despicable brother-in-law, the King of Roarke. (Nicholas' humor isn't quenched by his dilemma. "Assassin sarcasm. Another occupational hazard.")

Edgerton, Teresa: "Dying By Inches" Set in the same world as _The Queen's Necklace_. Few of the Rowans survived the two years of imprisonment in barbarous conditions before their names were cleared. When Odilia hears a rumour that the Marquis committed the crime that sent her family into limbo, she plans to exact revenge, with or without proof.

Edghill, Rosemary: "War of the Roses" In the Argestian States, assassins have replaced war as the last resort of diplomacy. But checks and balances are necessary: the Flower Guild exists to hunt down assassins who have become too dangerous. Redlorn, who styles himself the Red Rose, is their next target; the Guild's agent is the legendary White Rose. The feel is _Thief_-like, as Redlorn makes a point of getting into and out of his target's home without touching the guards, and *his* pursuer likewise toys with *him*.

Elrod, P.N. "Myhr's Adventure in Hell" Terrin and Myhr *really* want to earn enough gemstones to let them escape to a more civilized world, broadly defining 'civilized' in terms of plumbing. Their client's husband - this world's Hitler-equivalent - is already dead; she wants to make sure his soul can never reincarnate. Myhr, the narrator, is nominated by his wizard-partner to make the hit. (Myhr trusts him on magic, if not on splitting red velvet cake equally.)

Flewelling, Lynn: "Raven's Cut" The young foreign assassin, when it's his turn to tell the evening's tale, remembers the best assassin he ever knew.

Huff, Tanya: "Death Rites" Very Thiefy feel: the two young assassins attached to 7th Army are the best hope of prying the rebel commander out of her captured stronghold - the secret entrance can't be blocked without cutting off her water supply.

Jefferson, Leyte: "He" Moonback is an assassin whose master remade him into a werewolf. His canine instincts predominate as the moon waxes; at that point, even in human form he reacts like a dog, approaching his master on his belly, licking his hands - losing some of his vocabulary, but remembering some of his professional skills even when he can't remember the word 'army'. Disturbing.

Leigh, Stephen: "Green Stones" The scarred man is only the latest in a long series of fools seeking to learn at the feet of the Green Stone. The trademark green stones left on the victims were always from the flanks of Goat Fell, so the would-be assassin's apprentice has come to Maire's lonely tavern. (Scar doesn't have the sense he was born with, but the reader shouldn't be *too* smug.)

Lindskold, Jane: "A Touch of Poison" Set in the same world as _Through Wolf's Eyes_. The assassins' tool of choice to reach the Supreme Affluent is Adalia, his chief baker; they've taken her infant son as surety. But Adalia knows she has no guarantee they'll return the baby, or that they won't reveal whose hand poisoned her master's pastry. (The culture of Waterland, where administration - there is no 'government' as such - and status are tied directly to money, is interesting in itself.)

Oster, Anna: Mallon is being stalked by a young fool who believes she killed his sister; Mallon, in exasperation, tells him he should have studied "History and Economics" instead of (obviously) poetry at university. (The Silent Guild is quite legal - and it's the client, not the assassin, the boy should be concerned with.)

Patton, Fiona: "The Svedali Foundlings" 'In Cercicava, the dead were revered far more than the living.' Coll can testify to this on several counts; he survived the burning of the Svedali Innocenti Foundling Home fourteen years ago during the duc's little expansion project for the necropolis, only to be picked up as an organ collector by the death mages. But someone else survived the burning: Drey, an assassin now stalking the corridors of power.

Reichert, Mickey Zucker: "Darkness Comes Together" Josafah envies the fame of the assassin known as Nightfall; no hire would dare waste Nightfall's time, as he'd just as soon destroy an unworthy hire as destroy his target. When Josafah encounters Nightfall outside his target's home, he suggests that they cooperate - who's to know? (Josafah's gratuitous violence contrasts with Nightfall's minimalist approach.)

Rusch, Kristine Kathryn: "Coin of the Realm" Orsem's assassins are competing for the public executioner's job - most of whose work is outside the kingdom - and the winner will be he who kills the most important victim, increasing the king's holdings in the process. *Not* the safest time to bring foreign dignitaries to court, as the king's daughter Rosalind is being sold into marriage to a neighbouring kingdom's heir.

Sherman, Josepha: "Never Say...Uh...Die?" Rather than ordinary humans, the narrator assassinates rampaging ogres, sorcerers plotting to usurp kingdoms - like that. His current target, a Koshchei, has learned subtlety in the art of hiding his heart outside his body. (*Not* a retelling of the Firebird legend.)

West, Michelle: "Echoes" Kallandras' family was murdered because someone learned they had a child with demonic powers - command-voice, among other things - and sought to take him. Kallandras survived as a beggar until the day the Kovaschii, the brotherhood serving the Lady's darkest face, took him for testing. The story is told in flashback, as the adult Kallandras remembers the tests of his training in a land far away.