Mystery Writers of America Presents Death Do Us Part: New Stories about Love, Lust, and Murder

Harlan Coben
Little, Brown and Company (2006)
ISBN 0316012505
Reviewed by Cherie Fisher for Reader Views (9/06)

“Mystery Writers of America Presents Death Do Us Part: New Stories about Love, Lust and Murder” is a must read for anyone who loves stories about mystery, misery and murder.  Harlan Coben, the editor, brought together some of today’s best mystery writers to create this book of 19 short stories, including one of his own “Entrapped”.  As Coben tells us in the introduction, most of these stories are going to end badly for at least one person, maybe more.  The commonalities of the stories end there.

“Queeny”, written by Ridley Pearson, is a story about a famous mystery writer whose wife is brutally murdered and he is mistakenly forced to stand trial for it.  After what has happened, no matter what the outcome, and I won’t tell you what it is, no one can win. Then there is the City electrician in “Safe Enough” by Lee Child, who moves to the country to be with a woman who is suspected of killing her husband, but did she really?
A few war stories come into play, the most poignant one being “Home Coming” by Charles Todd, a story about an English woman who becomes frightened of her home because it feels like someone has invaded it while her husband is away fighting in the war.  AND, the most chilling story of all is Cyberdate.com by Tom Savage, which is about two teenage kids (are they really who they say they are?) who meet on the internet and the boy finally convinces the girl to meet in person.  How many of us live with that worry about our children doing exactly the same thing?  Revenge is even thrown into the mix with stories like “The Last Flight” by Brendan DuBois.

My two personal favorite stories were “Till Death Do Us Part” by Tim Maleeny and “Wifey” by R.L. Shine.  “Till Death Do Us Part” is a about a chemist and botanist celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary by each preparing a meal for the other. What is on the menu turns out to be the surprise.  “Wifey” is a dog who witnesses the brutal murder of her master and is forced to live with the murderer afterwards.  Wifey does not take this lying down. 

Other contributors to this collection of great stories are Charles Ardai, Bonnie Hearn Hill, Steve Hockensmith, William Kent Krueger, Rick McMahan, P.J. Parrish, Tim Wohlforth, Jeff Abbott, Jim Fusilli, Laura Lippman and Jay Brandon.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it highly.  The short stories make it great for reading before bed, taking to the beach, or if you have small children and frequent small slots of time to read.   

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