Crime Montage: A Collection of Crime Short Stories

Variety isn't necessarily Morin's friend in her second short story collection (after Mystery Montage). The opening act%E2%80%94the poem "Cold Pizza, Warm Beer," a lyric encounter between a burglar and his victim%E2%80%94may elicit some chuckles, but is instantly forgettable. Things don't improve from there, and Morin's self-serving introduction (e.g., describing one entry as a "powerful historical") doesn't help. The tone swerves wildly from story to story, making it unlikely many readers will complete the volume without finding at least a couple of entries not to their taste. The depressing windup of "Daughter Mine," just isn't in the same universe as the cloying "Detective Peter Cotton's Tale: The Case of the Silver-Haired Fox," whose title, at least, does manage expectations fairly. And the self-styled "powerful historical," "Going Home," inspired by the SS St. Louis%E2%80%94a ship of refugees fleeing the Nazis, but unable to find a welcoming port%E2%80%94doesn't come close to capturing that tragedy. (Mar.)