Chesapeake Crimes I

Chesapeake Crimes

by Donna Andrews

Tales of mystery, mayhem and murder from fifteen of the Chesapeake Bay region's most talented crime writers. Includes the Agatha and Anthony award-winning story, "Wedding Knife" by Elaine Viets and a foreword by Laura Lippman.

Genres: Mystery, Short Stories

228 pages, Paperback

First published February 22, 2004

About the author

Donna Andrews was born in Yorktown, Virginia, the setting of Murder with Peacocks and Revenge of the Wrought Iron Flamingos, and now lives and works in Reston, Virginia. When not writing fiction, Andrews is a self-confessed nerd, rarely found away from her computer, unless she's messing in the garden

http://us.macmillan.com/author/donnaa...

Reviews

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good collection of cozy mysteries.
Some of them were predictably flat.
A few handled very dark issues despite being structured like simple linear tales.
Several stories were absolutely brilliant with wit, warmth, and worst aspects of humanity getting mixed neatly, to produce just the right effect.
Recommended.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only thing chilling about these "15 chilling tales" is that the book is titled Chesapeake Crimes 1, which I take as a threat that there's more to come. In fact, there appear to be about five of these in various forms. I won't be reading them. I picked this up because I've really enjoyed the "Noir" series in which a group of local, well-known writers publishes a book of short story mysteries dealing with their city or region. Although many of the stories in this collection are from published authors, they read more like a collection of final papers from an advanced creative writing class. They are not clever. (Enough with the wrong-person-ended-up-dead cliche!) They are not particularly well written. (Or well edited - tip: periods go inside the quotation marks.) And more than half of them aren't even set in the Chesapeake Bay area.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another collection of short stories geographically centered on the area surrounding the Chesapeake Bay. I think that I enjoyed these more than the average reader because there were lots of "I've been there" and "Love that restaurant" moments as I read them. Otherwise the short stories were interesting, but I wouldn't search the library for this book.

[Gail]

A nice collection of crime stories, most taking place in and around Baltimore and the Cheseapeake regions. Laura Lippman, Donna Andrews, Elaine Viets and others. Pretty good.

[Julie Fetcho · Rating 4 out of 5]

15 short stories by various authors. Most were 3 or 4 stare. The short story Vital Signs by Marcia Talley was excellent at 5 stars. There is one I won't even give it one star. The writing was ok I just feel it didn't even belong in the book.. No stars to Possessing Martine by Judy Pomeranz

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an OK book of crime mysteries. I thought the writing was fine. It just wasn't my cup of tea. I quit after the first two stories.

[Judi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short stories. Fun reading and recommended.

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun collection of short stories, with some great authors including Donna Andrews and Elaine Viets. For the most part all were wonderful stories. I even finished the vampire story, and I've pretty much burned out on the whole vampire craze. This is the first collection I've started in a while that I finished every story.

There are a couple of other anthologies from this group so I'll be watching for them.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fifteen short stories in this 2006 collection offer an entertaining mix of voices, settings, criminals and detectives from “The Kosher Pickle Murder” by Ellen Rawlings to “Night Shades” by Donna Andrews, “Through the Roof” by Verna Suit, “Vital Signs” Marcia Talley and “Wedding Knife” by Elaine Viets, all authors I’d like to read more of.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collection of good short story mysteries...authors all living/from Northern VA & DC area - one is my neighbor! Karen Cantwell lives 3 doors away.

[John Bohnert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the short stories in this book.