JOHN CREASEY'S CRIME COLLECTION 1989

A low-key, pleasant diversion, these 15 stories by members of the British Crime Writers' Association include four original-to-this-anthology tales (a stodgy Jemima Shore offering from Antonia Fraser; a moping ""bad seed"" youngster from Stephen Gallagher; a slight, turn-the-tables scamper from editor Harris; and an honor-spawned-by-dishonor mishmash from George Sims); four EQMM reprints, among them Ruth Rendell's ""The Wrong Category,"" a weak twist on a twist (who's the serial killer/who's the next victim?) and seven tales that will be largely unfamiliar to American readers--who will treasure Julian Symons' sexually manipulated Everyman in ""The Murderer,"" a man driven to mismurder by a cuckolding and a prostitute's scolding. The ubiquitous Edward D. Hoch here appeals to ratiocination fans with ""The Bad Samaritan,"" in which G.K. Chesterton, lecturing in Nashville, unmasks a fake circus clown; and Peter Lovesey (""Vandals"") unfrocks sisterly devotion at the expense of artistic expression. Reginald Hill exploits bribery and gluttony in the delicious ""Snowball,"" and the highlight of the collection, Tony Wilmot's ""Voices in the Night,"" begins in a casino and ends in a Carpathian crypt. Amiable reading, then, in the clipped, consummately English mode.