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Murder on the Run
The Adams Round Table is a group of noted mystery writers who get together monthly to hone their craft. This collection of short stories includes works by Lawrence Block, Mary Higgins Clark, Warren Murphy, Whitley Strieber, and Peter Straub. Many of these stories allow readers to see their favorite authors in a different light or writing
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First published February 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 28, 2022
CONTENTS
◾Introduction
▪️"I suppose you're wondering..." - Lawrence Block
◾Fiction:
▪️"Keller's Choice" - Lawrence Block
▪️"Lady Sleuth, Lady Sleuth, Run Away Home!" - Mary Higgins Clark
▪️"Homeless, Hungry, Please Help" - Stanley Cohen
▪️"The Scream" - Dorothy Salisbury Davis
▪️"Amazon Run" - Mickey Friedman
▪️"Eunice and Wally" - Joyce Harrington
▪️"Morphing the Millennium" - Judith Kelman
▪️"Another Day, Another Dollar" - Warren Murphy
▪️"A Shooting Over in Jersey" - Justin Scott
▪️"Isn't It Romantic?" - Peter Straub
▪️"Desperate Dan" - Whitley Streiber
The blurb on the inside back cover of the 2003 Berkley Crime Club paperback edition of this book states that "the Adams Round Table is today's counterpart to the legendary Algonquin Round Table." The Adams Round Table was made up of mystery writers of widely varying ability. But unlike the Algonquin group, there are no winners of four Pulitzer Prizes, like Robert Sherwood, and no renowned actors, like Tallulah Bankhead. Lawrence Block can be a very funny writer, but he is not the equivalent of Robert Benchley. And who among the Adams Group substitutes for Harpo Marx? Very decidedly not "today's counterpart to the legendary Algonquin Round Table."
Another cover blurb says that the authors present "a thrilling new collection of the desperate days and nerve-shattering nights of criminals on the run." That is the situation in one of the eleven stories. I know, I know, you can't judge a book by its cover and certainly not by its cover comments, but foolish and misleading comments do not help.
Murder on the Run is not a very good anthology. Lawrence Block's introduction gives a (very) brief overview of the purpose of the group and how it was founded.
Block also has the lead-off story, "Keller's Choice." Keller, a continuing character in a series by Block, is a hired killer, confronted here by a sort of ethical dilemma. I have mentioned in previous posts that I have an ethical dilemma of my own; I usually enjoy the entries in this series, while at the same time thinking that a murderer for hire should not be as appealing as Block portrays Keller. As it happens, I also think this is one of the poorer stories in this series.
I suspect that "Lady Sleuth, Lady Sleuth, Run Away Home" (a terrible title) by Mary Higgins Clark might also be part of a series, but, if so, not one with which I am familiar. Alvirah and Willy are an aging couple who hit the lottery and now live in luxury on Central Park South in Manhattan. However, they have held onto their old apartment in Jackson Heights. A young woman has died after falling down stairs in their old building. A police officer friend of Alvirah and Willy believes that the woman was murdered, and he wants the couple to see if they can find out anything from the people with whom they used to live.
This is a bit too long and has a few too many false leads, but it is somewhat entertaining.
Stanley Cohen had a very good story, "A Night in the Manchester Store," in another Adams Round Table anthology, Murder among Friends: Tales of Mystery and Suspense by the Adams Round Table. It was about a man who let himself be persuaded to do something he didn't want to, a decision that changed his life forever. That is also the situation in "Homeless, Hungry, Please Help," although the stories are not otherwise alike. In "Homeless," a wealthy man makes a sudden decision to take a couple begging at the side of a road to lunch. This leads to extreme complications. I find the main character's actions literally incredible, but somehow Cohen makes the incredible seem possible. This is not as good a story as "A Night in the Manchester Store," however.
In "The Scream" by Dorothy Salisbury Davis, a high school student is driving - too quickly - home from a party. He believes that he almost hit a woman standing next to a car by the side of a road, but he isn't sure what actually happened.
There is an almost-magical figure, a most unrealistic attorney, who brings further developments.
Despite the title, Mickey Friedmam's "Amazon Run" is not the story that I mentioned above that actually fits the expressed theme of the book. A man is being pursued by someone who evidently wants to kill him.
"Eunice and Wally" by Joyce Harrington is narrated by a thirty-five year old woman in prison for the murder of her husband, talking to a reporter who has come to interview her. The prisoner appears to be of at least average intelligence, which makes this passage unbelievable:
How many [children do I have]? Five or six, I don't know. Can't keep their names straight anymore.
Let me repeat: This is a reasonably intelligent woman, only thirty-five, who can not remember how many children she has. Nonsense!
I should also note that this is one of the rare stories that portrays incest as perfectly acceptable.
In Murder among Friends: Tales of Mystery and Suspense by the Adams Round Table, the only other Adams Round Table anthology I have read, the worst story by far was the one by Judith Kelman. Kelman retains her title with her story "Morphing the Millennium." This is dismal.
In "Another Day, Another Dollar" (a totally inappropriate title) by Warren Murphy, Stephanie, a smart, courageous black woman finds out that the younger brother that she raised and his wife have been found strangled to death. Their baby is missing. The woman is determined to find the child.
There are severe plot holes in this story. The police detectives in charge of the investigation come to talk to the woman:
"I will be seeing Catrice now. Where is she?"
"Who?"
"Catrice. Their baby. They went skiing with their baby."
"Was there a baby?" one detective asked the other.
"I don't know of any baby."
This seems like it should be an important part of the story. The police have seen no signs that the couple had a baby. This might put the baby into the class of people who may never have existed, like the mother in the film So Long at the Fair, Miss Froy in the film The Lady Vanishes, or Bunny Lake in the book and movie Bunny Lake Is Missing. Why have the police not found baby things at the house, why have none of the couples' co-workers mentioned a child?
Do the police believe that there is a baby and are they searching for her? They do at some point realize that there is a baby. A "detective with compassion" tells Stephanie, "Every year, maybe twenty-five thousand, maybe fifty thousand children disappear and are never seen again... Do yourself a favor. Bury your niece in your heart." And the police evidently make no effort at all to locate the missing infant.
This, and the rest of this story, like so much else in this book, is simply not believable.
Justin Scott has a tale about the early days of motion pictures, "A Shooting Over in Jersey." In 1910, when the film industry is centered in the New York/New Jersey area, a director of a firm being shot in New Jersey appears to have been murdered. The search for the killer takes the detective all the way to Los Angeles.
"Isn't It Romantic? " by Peter Straub is the longest story in the book. This is another story of a professional killer. This takes place in "Basque country." The hired killer believes that he is being set up to be killed at the conclusion of his assignment, and he has no intention of letting that happen. There are quite a few characters, most of them not central to the plot. This is one of the best stories in the book, ending with fifteen pages of unremitting action.
The final story, "Desperate Dan," by Whitley Streiber is, at last, the story that I said above is the one tale in this book that actually fits the description in the cover blurb and deals with a criminal on the run. A once-wealthy man has turned to what he has convinced himself is justified embezzlement. The police come to arrest him. He flees, using a combination of daring and ingenuity to avoid the law.
As with the other Adams Round Table anthology that I have read, no editor is mentioned. The list of authors is not only almost the same, but the authors appear in the same order. The only difference is that the other collection, Murder among Friends: Tales of Mystery and Suspense by the Adams Round Table, has a story by Susan Isaacs and does not have one by Joyce Harrington.
There is nothing in this book that I consider truly outstanding. I would recommend only "Isn't It Romantic?" and "Desperate Dan."
◾Introduction
▪️"I suppose you're wondering..." - Lawrence Block
◾Fiction:
▪️"Keller's Choice" - Lawrence Block
▪️"Lady Sleuth, Lady Sleuth, Run Away Home!" - Mary Higgins Clark
▪️"Homeless, Hungry, Please Help" - Stanley Cohen
▪️"The Scream" - Dorothy Salisbury Davis
▪️"Amazon Run" - Mickey Friedman
▪️"Eunice and Wally" - Joyce Harrington
▪️"Morphing the Millennium" - Judith Kelman
▪️"Another Day, Another Dollar" - Warren Murphy
▪️"A Shooting Over in Jersey" - Justin Scott
▪️"Isn't It Romantic?" - Peter Straub
▪️"Desperate Dan" - Whitley Streiber
The blurb on the inside back cover of the 2003 Berkley Crime Club paperback edition of this book states that "the Adams Round Table is today's counterpart to the legendary Algonquin Round Table." The Adams Round Table was made up of mystery writers of widely varying ability. But unlike the Algonquin group, there are no winners of four Pulitzer Prizes, like Robert Sherwood, and no renowned actors, like Tallulah Bankhead. Lawrence Block can be a very funny writer, but he is not the equivalent of Robert Benchley. And who among the Adams Group substitutes for Harpo Marx? Very decidedly not "today's counterpart to the legendary Algonquin Round Table."
Another cover blurb says that the authors present "a thrilling new collection of the desperate days and nerve-shattering nights of criminals on the run." That is the situation in one of the eleven stories. I know, I know, you can't judge a book by its cover and certainly not by its cover comments, but foolish and misleading comments do not help.
Murder on the Run is not a very good anthology. Lawrence Block's introduction gives a (very) brief overview of the purpose of the group and how it was founded.
Block also has the lead-off story, "Keller's Choice." Keller, a continuing character in a series by Block, is a hired killer, confronted here by a sort of ethical dilemma. I have mentioned in previous posts that I have an ethical dilemma of my own; I usually enjoy the entries in this series, while at the same time thinking that a murderer for hire should not be as appealing as Block portrays Keller. As it happens, I also think this is one of the poorer stories in this series.
I suspect that "Lady Sleuth, Lady Sleuth, Run Away Home" (a terrible title) by Mary Higgins Clark might also be part of a series, but, if so, not one with which I am familiar. Alvirah and Willy are an aging couple who hit the lottery and now live in luxury on Central Park South in Manhattan. However, they have held onto their old apartment in Jackson Heights. A young woman has died after falling down stairs in their old building. A police officer friend of Alvirah and Willy believes that the woman was murdered, and he wants the couple to see if they can find out anything from the people with whom they used to live.
This is a bit too long and has a few too many false leads, but it is somewhat entertaining.
Stanley Cohen had a very good story, "A Night in the Manchester Store," in another Adams Round Table anthology, Murder among Friends: Tales of Mystery and Suspense by the Adams Round Table. It was about a man who let himself be persuaded to do something he didn't want to, a decision that changed his life forever. That is also the situation in "Homeless, Hungry, Please Help," although the stories are not otherwise alike. In "Homeless," a wealthy man makes a sudden decision to take a couple begging at the side of a road to lunch. This leads to extreme complications. I find the main character's actions literally incredible, but somehow Cohen makes the incredible seem possible. This is not as good a story as "A Night in the Manchester Store," however.
In "The Scream" by Dorothy Salisbury Davis, a high school student is driving - too quickly - home from a party. He believes that he almost hit a woman standing next to a car by the side of a road, but he isn't sure what actually happened.
There is an almost-magical figure, a most unrealistic attorney, who brings further developments.
Despite the title, Mickey Friedmam's "Amazon Run" is not the story that I mentioned above that actually fits the expressed theme of the book. A man is being pursued by someone who evidently wants to kill him.
"Eunice and Wally" by Joyce Harrington is narrated by a thirty-five year old woman in prison for the murder of her husband, talking to a reporter who has come to interview her. The prisoner appears to be of at least average intelligence, which makes this passage unbelievable:
How many [children do I have]? Five or six, I don't know. Can't keep their names straight anymore.
Let me repeat: This is a reasonably intelligent woman, only thirty-five, who can not remember how many children she has. Nonsense!
I should also note that this is one of the rare stories that portrays incest as perfectly acceptable.
In Murder among Friends: Tales of Mystery and Suspense by the Adams Round Table, the only other Adams Round Table anthology I have read, the worst story by far was the one by Judith Kelman. Kelman retains her title with her story "Morphing the Millennium." This is dismal.
In "Another Day, Another Dollar" (a totally inappropriate title) by Warren Murphy, Stephanie, a smart, courageous black woman finds out that the younger brother that she raised and his wife have been found strangled to death. Their baby is missing. The woman is determined to find the child.
There are severe plot holes in this story. The police detectives in charge of the investigation come to talk to the woman:
"I will be seeing Catrice now. Where is she?"
"Who?"
"Catrice. Their baby. They went skiing with their baby."
"Was there a baby?" one detective asked the other.
"I don't know of any baby."
This seems like it should be an important part of the story. The police have seen no signs that the couple had a baby. This might put the baby into the class of people who may never have existed, like the mother in the film So Long at the Fair, Miss Froy in the film The Lady Vanishes, or Bunny Lake in the book and movie Bunny Lake Is Missing. Why have the police not found baby things at the house, why have none of the couples' co-workers mentioned a child?
Do the police believe that there is a baby and are they searching for her? They do at some point realize that there is a baby. A "detective with compassion" tells Stephanie, "Every year, maybe twenty-five thousand, maybe fifty thousand children disappear and are never seen again... Do yourself a favor. Bury your niece in your heart." And the police evidently make no effort at all to locate the missing infant.
This, and the rest of this story, like so much else in this book, is simply not believable.
Justin Scott has a tale about the early days of motion pictures, "A Shooting Over in Jersey." In 1910, when the film industry is centered in the New York/New Jersey area, a director of a firm being shot in New Jersey appears to have been murdered. The search for the killer takes the detective all the way to Los Angeles.
"Isn't It Romantic? " by Peter Straub is the longest story in the book. This is another story of a professional killer. This takes place in "Basque country." The hired killer believes that he is being set up to be killed at the conclusion of his assignment, and he has no intention of letting that happen. There are quite a few characters, most of them not central to the plot. This is one of the best stories in the book, ending with fifteen pages of unremitting action.
The final story, "Desperate Dan," by Whitley Streiber is, at last, the story that I said above is the one tale in this book that actually fits the description in the cover blurb and deals with a criminal on the run. A once-wealthy man has turned to what he has convinced himself is justified embezzlement. The police come to arrest him. He flees, using a combination of daring and ingenuity to avoid the law.
As with the other Adams Round Table anthology that I have read, no editor is mentioned. The list of authors is not only almost the same, but the authors appear in the same order. The only difference is that the other collection, Murder among Friends: Tales of Mystery and Suspense by the Adams Round Table, has a story by Susan Isaacs and does not have one by Joyce Harrington.
There is nothing in this book that I consider truly outstanding. I would recommend only "Isn't It Romantic?" and "Desperate Dan."
October 14, 2021
This book was a gift from a friend for my birthday. I like short story mysteries as they are quick and easy and can be read in bits and pieces. Sadly, this book was not really mysteries -- more tales of suspense, a lot of them involving criminals and hired killers. There were two really good stories, though, Lady Sleuth, Lady Sleuth, Run Away Home! by Mary Higgins Clark (I don't normally get that into her novels, but if she had more short stories featuring this amateur sleuth, I would read them happily) and Another Day, Another Dollar by Warren Murphy (an author I was unfamiliar with but will be looking to read more of, particularly the short stories).
August 17, 2021
Je vais donner ce livre. Certaines nouvelles sont bien mais la plus part sont bien ordinaire. J’aime moins le mélange de tout ces écrivains.
December 6, 2024
I’ve read some harsh reviews, I would say not all the stories were terrible, some better than others, but all easy to get through. However I found “Isn’t it romantic” to be too long compared to the rest. The story went in-depth on such insignificant details, like antique furniture. It made finishing the book truely drag on that I quit at the last 2 chapters.
3/5 for being underwhelming
3/5 for being underwhelming
December 19, 2009
Most of the stories were really bad, but I liked Eunice and Wally, and Another Day, Another Dollar, which both had women doing what needed to be done.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews