Mystery Writers of America Presents Vengeance
edited by Lee Child
Mulholland Books (e-book)

The brief is simple. 21 stories by 21 writers all on the subject, chosen by editor Lee Child, of vengeance. Some of the authors are from the Who's Who of modern crime: Dennis Lehane, Michael Connelly, Karin Slaughter and Child himself. Others are less familiar: Jim Fusilli, Zoe Sharp, Brendan DuBois. Lehane provides a typically gritty, but slightly offbeat offering. In The Consumers, our heroine discovers her husband has been running a Ponzi scheme that will cause devastation not only to her but countless others. She takes action of the lethal variety, hiring a hitman. But what, Lehane asks, gives her the right? Connelly's A Mist of Red Blood is a high-quality Harry Bosch, who is once more investigating an old case to solve a new one. In Slaughter's The Unremarkable Heart, a dying woman tells the story of her relationship to the man at her bedside in unreliable slices. I was often more impressed by the lesser lights: DuBois' The Final Ballot will have me downloading his novels. Fusilli adds a much-needed comic note. Twist Phelan's writing is almost as good as her name. Child offers sensitive commentaries on each and a bouncy introduction.