Fiction River Special Edition: Crime

As Edgar-finalist Rusch (aka Kris Nelscott; A Dangerous Road) indicates in her introduction, the emphasis in the 16 stories in this uneven all-original crime anthology is more on wrongdoing than on detection. Among the volume’s better entries are Doug Allyn’s “Hitler’s Dogs,” in which narrator Doc Bannan seeks the truth about his gang mentor’s death, and Steve Hockensmith’s “Wheel of Fortune,” which relates the schemes of a pair of con artists. Rusch’s intro to Brendan DuBois’s “The Good Brother” provides too much information to enable the ending to have the intended impact. Rusch’s own “FoL,” in which a son of privilege has his life sabotaged at key moments, starts off well, but loses its way. M. Elizabeth Castle’s “Gas, Tan, Video,” a tale of murder told as a series of haikus, comes across as gimmicky. Other contributors include Kate Wilhelm, Julie Hyzy, and Libby Fischer Hellmann. (Mar.)