MURDER ON THE RUN

by Adams Round Table ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 1998

Eleven more stories by the self-styled successors to the Algonquin Round Table who seem to defray the costs of their monthly dinners by periodic anthologies (Justice in Manhattan, 1994, etc.). The theme this time--murderers on the ton--is construed pretty loosely: Murder on the Road might have been a better title for Lawrence Block's mid-grade Keller story or Peter Straub's overlong tale of a traveling assassin. Most of the stories, from Dorothy Salisbury Davis's sketch of a hit-and-run perp to Mickey Friedman's lazy Caribbean saga of an innocent who sails into the middle of a killing field to Mary Higgins Clark's latest about Willy and Alvirah, are typical rather than distinctive; even the most offbeat--Stanley Cohen's cautionary, Kind Lady--ish fable of why you shouldn't take the homeless to lunch and Whitley Strieber's portrait of arum-of-the-century gentleman trying to maintain his gentility despite his antisocial activities--seem incomplete, as if they were preliminary studies rather than final products. Joyce Harrington, Judith Kelman, Warren Murphy, and Justin Scott complete the party. An all-star lineup that, sadly, offers no more excitement than the average All-Star game.

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1998

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Berkley

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1998

Categories: FICTION