Review

From Publishers Weekly
The idea of a collection of crime stories with the common theme of showing what it means to be a man sounds like the loosest of requirements. But editor Harvey, whose series about British copper Charlie Resnick still stands as a genre icon, has chosen the 17 stories in this handsome trade paperback with a sharp eye. Harvey has included some of the crime field's leading players (Lawrence Block, Michael Connelly, Reginald Hill, Dennis Lehane, George P. Pelecanos, Peter Robinson) as well as fine writers who deserve to be better known and sold (Bill James, James Sallis, John Straley, Don Winslow, Daniel Woodrell). In his introduction, Harvey quotes Donald Westlake that writing short stories is like playing jazz: "a sense of vibrant imagination at work within a tightly controlled setting." Harvey's own story, "Chance," certainly fits that description: ex-cop and professional soccer player Jack Kiley, now working as a private detective, tries to help a former soccer star with a serious gambling addiction. Other contributions are similarly impressive in their poetic simplicity, making this a book to keep close at hand.
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From Booklist
Veteran British mystery writer Harvey assembles an impressive list of hard-boiled writers from both sides of the Atlantic, offering stories about what it means to be a man, a theme that both is nebulous enough to coax some fine individual contributions and substantial enough to enable the collection to read as a coherent whole. There's quite a range, from the merest of vignettes (Daniel Woodrell's broken account of a prodigal son and George Pelecanos' slice of the high life), to traditional suspense stories from Michael Connelly and Jeffrey Deaver, to a spare and beguiling, tip-of-the-iceberg family saga from Andrew Coburn. Other highlights from this consistently interesting collection include Mark Billingham's searing tale of initiation rituals old and new, Don Winslow's gritty rust-belt parable on the sins of the father, a haunting impressionistic road trip from James Sallis, and, from Dennis Lehane, a father-and-son reunion worthy of Jim Thompson. This bumpy ride on the cycle of violence makes a rewarding sampler for any fan of hard-boiled crime and an excellent addition to that murky masculine nongenre offsetting women's fiction. David Wright
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