Carolina Crimes: 21 Tales of Need, Greed and Dirty Deeds

Obsession is the thread that runs through many of the contributions to this welcome anthology from North and South Carolina members of Sisters in Crime, an organization for anyone who shares a love of reading and writing mysteries. Highlights include Toni Goodyear’s “Writer’s Block,” in which a popular thriller writer comes up with a drastic solution to this age-old problem, and Jamie Catcher’s “A Calceologist Has a Bad Day,” in which a woman’s love for her shoes is not to be sniffed at. Antoinette Brown’s “Silk Stalking” plunges the reader into the murky world of a collector who hoards silk fabric and will go to any lengths to acquire more, while Carolina Taylor’s epistolary “Intervention” concerns a fixation with which everyone can identify. Memorable protagonists include a small-town police chief during WWII (Sarah R. Shaber’s “All That Glitters”), a frustrated second wife (Ruth Moose’s “The Two-Faced Dog”), and a widow out to trap her husband’s killer (Karen McCullough’s “Dead Man’s Hand”). Jeffery Deaver (The Burial Hour), a North Carolina resident, provides the amusing introduction. [em](July) [/em]