Reader, I Murdered Him: Original Crime Stories by Women

The 16 short stories in this collection (not exclusively centering on the murder of men, as the title might suggest) range from a farcical send-up of bookfairs and feminism (Barbara Wilson's `` Murder at the International Feminist Bookfair '' ) to Rebecca O'Rourke's detailed `` Standing Witness, '' which describes police procedure at a death scene as observed from a nearby window. Accomplished offerings from such familiar names as Amanda Cross, Sara Paretsky, Susan Dunlap and Margaret Yorke are matched by newcomers Penny Sumner, Sue Ward and Anne Stanesby--whose first published crime fiction appears here. Some standouts: Millie Murray's `` A Blessing in Disguise, '' written in a Jamaican/British dialect; Dunlap's `` A Burning Issue, '' similar in subject and style to Poe's `` Telltale Heart '' but with an outlandish comic twist, and Val McDermid's `` A Wife in a Million, '' which sensibly confronts unemployment and product-tampering while sensitively describing a lesbian relationship. Green edits crime fiction for The Women's Press in England. (Aug.)