Powers of Detection presents a dozen stories loosely based around mystery and a fantasy or science fiction or magical element of some sort. I'd originally picked up the anthology to read Charlaine Harris's story, Fairy Dust, a quick mystery set in Bon Temps where Sookie Stackhouse solves a murder mystery sans vampires. Her story expanded the Sookie's universe a little, but remained open to someone who may not be familiar with the world of Bon Temps.

The rest of the collection presents a bit of a mixed bag. Highlights for me included The Nightside, Needless to Say where a zombified detective finds himself in the interesting position of being able to solve his own murder; Lovely which was told from a Raven's rather angry perspective and Justice is a Two-Edged Sword where a simple stop for a young seer and soldier turns into a search for justice in a town determined to lynch a young man for the murder of a pretty young girl.

Each of these stories felt like introductions to new writers for me, and they felt like stories that were given attention and care.

On the downside, The Judgement started out as a good idea, but grew increasingly sloppy; The Boy Who Chased Seagulls read like a rejected Aesop fable and The Death of Clickclickwhistle began to collapse under the weight of its own cleverness.

In the case of these stories, it felt almost as if these authors suddenly remembered that they'd promised to deliver a short story to an anthology and that they'd just suddenly remembered their deadline.

Still, between the hits and the misses, there are some more than passable stories. This is an easy read and a worthwhile introduction for some authors you may not have read before. ( )

This anthology was one of the better ones I've read recently. Out of the twelve stories presented I enjoyed nine of them. My favorites included Cold Spell by Donna Andrews, The Nightside, Needless to Say by Simon R. Green, Palimpest by Laura Anne Gilman, and Justice Is A Two-Edged Sword by Dana Stabenow. The Price by Anne Bishop, Fairy Dust by Charlaine Harris, The Sorcerer’s Assassin by Sharon Shinn, Cairene Dawn by Jay Caselberg and The Death of ClickClickWhistle by Mike Doogan were pretty good if a bit predictable or somewhat lacking in interesting characters. I do think this compilation would have been better with out Lovely by John Straley, The Judgement by Anne Perry, and The Boy Who Chased Seagulls by Michael Armstrong as they were completely uninteresting. ( )

It's the usual mix of quality and styles in an anthology. Some good stories, some bad ones, and some that make you wonder whether the authors realized they were supposed to write a mystery. ( )

I enjoyed most of these short stories but none of them stood out as being fantastic. A few of them may have been more enjoyable if you had read the other novels set in the same world, and a different few I would like to read more set in the same world.

These stories are a great mix of fantasy and mystery, with one having a science fiction motif. I liked Simon R. Green's story of a detective who solves his own murder in the Nightside (The Nightside, Needless to Say), Sookie Stackhouse's interaction with local fairies in Charlaine Harris's Fairy Dust and the sometime humorous account of an alien murder investigation in Mike Doogan's The Death of Clickclickwhistle. ( )