Weird Detectives: Recent Investigations

We'll begin on a positive note. There are a few good, standout stories here. Neil Gaiman is always great and his Sherlock Holmes story here does not disappoint. Lillian Stewart Carl's "The Necromancer's Apprentice" is by turns mysterious and hilarious. Joe R. Lansdale channels William Hope Hodgson replacing the venerable Carnacki with a young woman who acts and speaks just like him in "The Case of the Stalking Shadow." Bradley Denton's "The Adakian Eagle" is a great little wartime novella. Caitlin R. Keirnan serves up weird, erotic noir in "The Maltese Unicorn." Finally "Fox Tails" by Richard Parks, set in medieval Japan, is a welcome break in setting from the 20th & 21st century urban landscapes which most of these stories take place, show more and was good enough to make me rush out to order a whole collection of stories about the main character.

That said, there is plenty of room for criticism. Although there are a few middling stories among those not listed above, many of them were a bit of a chore at times and nearly a third are indistinguishable save for the details. Out of the 23 stories in this anthology, around 8 could be summarized as "A (detective/bounty hunter/private investigator), who is secretly a (vampire/werewolf/wizard/witch), tracks down a criminal that turns out to be a (vampire/werewolf/wizard/witch)". There is a lot of derivative urban fantasy pastiche here, and it probably isn't worth wading through it all like I did. show less

Weird Detectives: Recent Investigations is anthology of supernatural detective stories featuring some great investigators and some weird cases. This book contained stories of some of my favorite authors including Patricia Briggs, Jim Butcher, PN Elrod, Charlaine Harris, Tanya Huff, and Carrie Vaughn. It also includes a great Faith Hunter story that I had read in another anthology. All of these authors deliver engaging stories full of thrills and entertainment. I also found some new authors with stories I enjoyed making me want to look for other books by those authors. I found that I enjoyed nearly all the stories, and I enjoyed the detective theme that the book featured. I absolutely love reading anthologies because I get to find new show more authors and visit the stories from favorite authors. Overall Weird Detectives was a great read that I would definitely recommend.

Received by Net Galley for Review show less

A book of short stories of detectives doing their jobs in various fantasy/noir settings.
Varied quality, some entertaining, some not so good, but the last story involving the drugging and rape of the protagonist left a bad taste in the mouth.

I got this book free. I don't read a lot of short stories, but I did want to read Neil Gaimen's story before passing the book along to someone else.

The Case of Death and Honey was great! I love that NG chose to write a Sherlock Holmes story!

quite enjoyable. need to go back and pick out the best new authors to add to my lists.