Thriller: An Anthology of New Mystery Short Stories, edited by Don Bruns, is the second in The Music and Murder Mystery Series following Hotel California, and is every bit as fun.

A collection is always going to be uneven, different writers, different voices, but this one holds together quite well with each story being solid. You'll have your favorites just as I did, but I think you will enjoy them all. The two writers with whom I was most familiar were Heather Graham and Jeffery Deaver, but I am now interested in looking up some of the other writers' works.

I tend to read a collection one story at a time, by which I mean I don't immediately start the next story, even if I plan to keep reading at the time. I will pick up one of the other books I am reading. I like to give the story a chance to sit with me before jumping into another story that might be thematically related and thus weaken the impact of both. That method works well here, these stories offer some things you might want to think about after reading.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )