Review

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Mystery maven Penzler has gathered 17 stories from top writers for an all-original suspense anthology with results that are about the same as if a master chocolatier had assembled a new sampler box: everything of high quality but with enough variety to appeal to all tastes. All the contributors are true to their own very familiar voices. Ed McBain's "Improvisation," a chilling story of two young actresses who commit murder to learn what it feels like, is cut-to-the-bone sharp. In the haunting "Cielo Azul," Michael Connelly allows both detective Harry Bosch and profiler Terry McCaleb to brood, as only they can, about a murder victim never identified. In "Dear Penthouse Forum (A First Draft)," Laura Lippman uses an original format to showcase a truly frightening woman with a most unusual collecting mania who preys on men in airports. S.J. Rozan's "The Last Kiss" features a dangerous woman who's all the more dangerous because at first she seems so sympathetic. Jeffrey Deaver's "Born Bad" is a brilliant double play, with tight characterizations and an unforgettable plot twist. It's a joy to watch these talented authors, who also include J.A. Jance, Elmore Leonard, Walter Mosley and Joyce Carol Oates, embrace the short story form and produce magic.
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From AudioFile
DANGEROUS WOMEN is an outstanding mystery anthology, with nary a dud and many star turns by five actors reading the likes of Nelson DeMille, Joyce Carol Oates, Anne Perry, and Elmore Leonard, certainly a personal best for Editor Otto Penzler. And praises be, the narrator of each story is identified as the story begins. Alan Sklar's deep, velvet voice has just enough grit in it to create a delicious sense of danger. Michael Prichard provides deadpan wit in readings with a slightly steely tang. Patrick Lawlor ably handles the stories narrated by younger men, and Ellen Archer's warm, contemporary voice, the women. These two even switch mid-sentence when the narrative voice breaks off in Laura Lippman's wonderfully creepy "Dear Penthouse Forum." Additional pluses are the three-minute tracks, and notations on each disc of the stories on it and the track at which each begins. A terrific production. B.G. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the edition.

From Booklist
Mystery guru Penzler (prolific editor, bookseller, and founder of Mysterious Press) has convinced 17 contemporary mystery writers to submit never-before-published short stories for this anthology. The lineup includes plenty of heavyweights: Ed McBain, Anne Perry, Elmore Leonard, Joyce Carol Oates, and Ian Rankin. Penzler's introduction showcases the entire squad and provides a witty look at dangerous women in mysteries past, such as Philip Marlowe's Brigid O'Shaughnessy and Conan Doyle's Irene Adler. The stories, just about all of which feature a woman gleefully luring a hapless male to destruction, often rely on abrupt power shifts, as in McBain's "Improvisation," which begins with a seductress in a bar saying, "Why don't we kill somebody?" Oates sustains suspense through a pathological love letter in "Give Me Your Heart," and Laura Lippman's "Dear Penthouse Forum (A First Draft)" delivers a twisted O'Henry ending. The cumulative effect is more than a little poisonous--best to take these small ampoules of crime one at a time. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the edition.