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Dec 22, 2008

Julie (jjmachshev) rated it:

How I love a good surprise. From running upon this gem unexpectedly in the bookstore, to the stories it contains, reading it gave me a lift all around. "Unusual Suspects" is an anthology of twelve stories that blend mystery and fantasy into a delicious confection. The stories range from historical to contemporary urban fantasy, from mages to witches, and from werewolves to vampires to humans. Authors include Charlaine Harris (a new Sookie story!), Carole Nelson Douglas, Simon R. Gr More...

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Aug 19, 2009

Wendy rated it:

This anthology includes twelve stories from well-known authors such as Charlaine Harris and Simon R. Green, two of my favorite authors. I have never read anything by the others - Carole Nelson Douglas, Laurie R. King, Michael A. Stackpole, Sharon Shinn, Mike Doogan, Donna Andrews, Michael Armstrong, John Straley, Anne Gilman, and lastly, Dana Stabenow. Charlaine's story, Lucky, features the heroine of her popular series, Sookie Stackhouse which coupled with her housemate do some detective work f More...

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Feb 05, 2011

Alan rated it:

Another find from the discount bin. Dana Stabenow surprises me both as an editor and a writer with this collection. I was a little underwhelmed by the Kate Shugak Alaska mystery novel of her that I read. While the emphasis was essentially stated as being supernatural detective stories, the selection was wider than that. The Duh Vice really is science fiction, and well executed with a small political statement. There are touches of magic and science fiction is Carole Nelson Douglas' Bogieman More...

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Dec 07, 2008

CJ - You Carry On As If I Don't Love You rated it:

Review on a story by story basis. More at my blog: There's Nothing Wrong with Anything

Lucky- Charlaine Harris

It's a story set in the world of Sookie and it seems to take place right before the most recent book. Anyhoo, there is an absence of Eric which sort of made me go "aw man" but there is a Bill appearance. This is not a Sookie romance nor strictly a Sookie Vampire story, it explores Sookie's powers and it teams her up with Amelia.

It's a decent More...

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Jul 30, 2009

Kathy rated it:

The House of Seven Spirits by Sharon Shinn

This was a fun short story. Erica has rented a haunted house for the summer while she goes through a nasty divorce, living with seven ghost’s sounds a lot more inviting then dealing with her soon-to-be ex. As she settles in she realizes that not everything is as it seems and soon discovers a mystery that needs to be solved in order to release the seven ghosts from their eternal prison. I really enjoyed this story, although it was mainly abou More...

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May 05, 2009

Sue rated it:

I enjoyed this collection of short stories. Here are my notes on the stories included in the book:

Lucky-Charlaine Harris
Sookie and a girlfriend help a local realtor figure out who has been breaking into his office, and a whole lot more. Not my favorite Sookie story, but I’ll take what I can get!

Bogieman-Carole Nelson Douglas
Classic film characters brought to life in a strange world. I just couldn’t get into this one.

Looks Are Deceiving-Michael A More...

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Oct 23, 2011

Cathy rated it:

It wasn't a great anthology. The Sookie Stackhouse story by Charlaine Harris was fine, not thrilling, but I'd read it before. I really enjoyed the Deliah Street story by Carole Nelson Douglas, it was the highlight of the book. Her stories are alway charming and interesting. And Laura Anne Gilman's story was a real find, I didn't know she had a prequel to her PSI series with Bonnie investigating Zaki's murder. A couple of the other stories were cute but not thrilling. I liked John Straley's story More...

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Dec 13, 2008

Elizabeth (Miss Eliza) rated it:

To be fair, I've only read the Charlaine Harris story, so the rating may change if I ever get around to finishing the book. After the incident with One Word Answer becoming integral to the plot of Definitely Dead I'm careful not to skip Sookie stories in anthologies. Let's put it this way, this story isn't integral or even that interesting, seeing as it centers on the peripheral character of Sookie's insurance agent. Sure it's mildly funny, but it doesn't really fill the void left waiting for De More...

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Jan 30, 2011

Colleen rated it:

I finished Unusual Suspects today. It's a compendium of short stories that is the karmic sequel to Powers of Detection (which I've also read). It was pretty good, though nothing it in caused me to say Oh Wow I have to find that author now! or any other declarations of lust. I enjoyed Sharon Shinn and Laura Anne Gilman.(I haven't bought anything of Shinn's, and I've only dabbled in Gilman.) Many of the stories were plainly predictable, which was a bit painful for me. I may need to focus on story More...

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Jan 30, 2009

Rachel rated it:

This is an excellent collection of supernatural crime stories. I got it mainly for the Laurie King story, though I really enjoy Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse stories and Simon Green's Nightside (also in here, though Green's doesn't feature John Taylor). The stories range from lighthearted mystery to outright ghost stories, which certainly scared me, but might not scare folks more used to them. I enjoyed almost all the stories in the collection, and found it worthwhile enough that I'm ge More...

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Jul 01, 2009

Connie rated it:

I had a good time reading these. Here is a sentence or two about each story.

Sookie's story in this is "Lucky" and is about her insurance salesperson. It was kind of cool.
The Nightside story in this was kind of weird as usual and had a wow ending. It was called Appetite for Murder.
Woman's Work, by Dana Stabenow, was very nice indeed!!
I did not like Bogieman, but it was a good try and others may like it, so don't go by me for it.
Looks are Deceiving, by More...

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Dec 22, 2008

Kate rated it:

I should start by saying that I find most short story collections aren't that wonderful. It's common to discover a few gems among a pile of rocks in such books. This one, a set of fantasy/paranormal detective stories, fits that trend nicely. The only story I liked was Laurie R. King's "The House," and maybe Sharon Shinn's "The House of Seven Spirits." But "The House," while well written, turned out to have an overused premise, and Shinn's story started out better th More...

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Dec 06, 2011

Tracey rated it:

I've never liked short stories, as a class. (This might be why I've never tried writing them.) There are certainly exceptions; several writers are always exceptions to the rule, and other stories have come out of the blue and surprised me. I found several authors through Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress series, for example. But on the whole short story collections are not my favorite creatures, usually picked up to fill in a gap or for something to read quickly. (Also, in this case, t More...

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Dec 30, 2010

Tori Benson rated it:

Original review at http://www.smexybooks.com/2010/12/review...

Unusual Suspects is a 12 story anthology composed of some of today's best known authors. All of the stories deal with the same theme-solving a mystery based on a supernatural theme.

Lucky by Charlaine Harris gives us a glimpse into the life of Sookie Stackhouse and her witchy roommate Amelia Broadway. When Sookie's insurance agent Greg Aubert suspects someone is trying to ruin him, he wants Sookie to use her "g More...

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Dec 26, 2010

Caleb rated it:

This is a short story anthology containing the following stories:

"Lucky" by Charlaine Harris -- a Sookie Stackhouse short
"Bogieman" by Carole Nelson Douglas
"Looks are Deceiving" by Micheal A. Stackpole
"the House of Seven Spirits" by Sharon Shinn
"Glamour" by Mike Doogan
"Spellbound" by Donna Andrews
"the Duh Vice" by Michael Armstrong
"Weight of the World" by John Straley
More...

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Nov 21, 2010

Cynthia rated it:

Another uneven anthology. I still have it in my hands, so I'll try to hit each story briefly.

"Lucky" by Charlaine Harris - Sookie is much easier to take in short form. I can't help it, the woman grates on me (in the TV show even worse than in the books). The other characters keep me reading.

"Bogieman" by Carole Nelson Douglas - Delilah Street does more than grate on my nerves in long form. She's more palatable in short form, too, but there are reminder More...

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Apr 18, 2009

Mireille rated it:

I read anthologies to pass the time between books in series that I read & to find new authors in genres I like. I got this one specifically for the Sookie Stackhouse story. Overall, this anthology gets 3 stars. Below is a list of the stories within & what I thought of them specifically.

1. Lucky – Charlaine Harris – Sookie Stackhouse story – 28 pgs – 3 stars Fun & cute short story that even someone who hasn’t read the series can enjoy. For someone like myself who’s trying to pass More...

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Sep 25, 2010

Bruce rated it:

Another anthology of fantasy and mystery stories edited by Dana Stabenow. Charlaine Harris of "True Blood" fame provides a new Sookie Stackhouse story. Dana Stabenow provides another fantasy short story, yet, like for her better known novels, the investigator(s) and protagonist is (are) female. Though I am unfamiliar with the other authors, all the stories are enjoyable to read. And being short stories, one is not kept up late at night reading, unless one wants to go on to the next

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Apr 15, 2009

Amanda rated it:

I chose to read only several short stories from this book--the Charlaine Harris, Carole Nelson Douglas, and Simon R. Green stories. Harris' story centered around her character Sookie Stackhouse and was much too brief for my tastes. The Carole Nelson Douglas story made me want to delve back into the Delilah Street PI series (I love Cocaine!). The Simon R. Green was a bit lacking in his usual biting wit, but I did enjoy getting to know Ms. Fate a bit more. I really missed John Taylor though.

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Apr 08, 2011

Susan rated it:

Like all collections, some stories in this were better than others. There were only a few I really enjoyed: "Lucky," "House of 7 Spirits," and "The House." The others were, well, just sort of ok. And then I got to the last one, "A Woman's Work," which just blew me away.

In most cases the paranormal predominated, and there often wasn't really much mystery, so I think the collection might have been misnamed. The opposite would've been my preferen More...

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Dec 06, 2008

Donna rated it:

Anthologies are always hard to review, but I'd say that this is a good one because the ratio of enjoyable to iffy stories is fairly high. I liked the style of several new-to-me authors, so it was also a success in terms of introducing me to some different writers.

My reviews of the individual stories can be found here.

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Dec 19, 2011

Alice rated it:

A very nice collection for sampling authors new to me. It runs the gamut from Noir to High Fantasy. Not everything was to my taste, but that is the upside to short stories - you get through them quicker. I had only read work by 2 of the authors previously - Charlaine Harris and Simon R. Green. I will definitely be looking for addition work by many of the authors.

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Mar 13, 2009

Cissa rated it:

Some of these stories were really excellent- I especially liked Shinn's and Stabenow's. Others wer iffy, especially Simon Green's; I do think it'd be helpful if editors of anthologies would have the stories read for consistency so a casually-referenced character were not referred to by 2 different names in a handful of pages (Tommy Oblivion/Larry Oblivion).

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Mar 16, 2009

Kassie rated it:

I initially got this collection of short stories to read Charlaine Harris' Sookie story. I then picked it back up in hopes of finding a new writer to check out, given that I've completed all of Charlaine's books to date. I think I found a couple of writers, but many of the stories are more "sword & sorcery" than I typically like.

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Sep 06, 2011

Ron rated it:

Enjoyable collection of mystery, investigation, PI stories which I picked up as Borders disappeared. Ran across tales I had not seen such as Simon Green's Nightside Detective tale as well as a Sookie tale. I had read before. Read for favorite authors/charcters and to meet other authors.

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Jul 27, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

There were some good stories in this one, some of my favorites...

Lucky by Charlaine Harris Sookie and a Amelia team up to solve a mystery.

The House of Seven Spirits by Sharon Shinn A really good story about a woman who moves into a house that is haunted by seven spirits and must solve the mystery as to why they are still around.

Spellbound by Donna Andrews A mystery set in a school of magic-good story.

The House by Laurie R. King A very interesting More...

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Nov 03, 2009

Justine rated it:

Good intro to each of these series...the Butcher story is the star, but the others have great merit, too. Loved Richardson's offering. Green's was fun, but a little heavy on the "paint the Nightside world" imagery.

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Mar 23, 2009

Jenny rated it:

Really LOVED the short Sookie story in this. Laughed at poor Bill and Amelia proves to be a great character. The other stories are just as good. Some a bit more twisted than others, but still had me guessing.

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Nov 13, 2009

Mary rated it:

Some really great shorts...Charlaine Harris, Sharon Shinn, Donna Andrews, and all the others--it's hard to say which stories I liked best--I liked them all. Nicely paced, clever, tightly composed....

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Sep 02, 2011

Cher rated it:

Half these stories are great and the other half are awful or boring. And, I hate to say this, because this is not how I generally view fiction, but it was consistently the male authors who were dreadful. Their short stories tended to be pedantic rants on how the world should be with some kind of gimmick thrown in almost as an afterthought to make it count as fantasy and sci-fi. There is nothing more annoying than political propaganda masked as fiction.

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