Over the weekend I finished a collection of short crime stories collectively called Wild Crimes and edited by Dana Stabenow. The best of the stories take place in rural mountain areas within the United States but there are areas from all over the world included in this compellation. Of the lot I thoroughly enjoyed about a third of the stories, another third were interesting but not necessarily entertaining and the last third were a chore to read.
Wild Crimes is a collection of eleven short mysteries all taking place in wild or remote locations. My favorites of the book are "Following the Quarters" by Michael Armstrong, "The Man Who Thought He Was A Deer" by Margaret Coel and "The Bog" by Loren D. Estleman. The others are good too but they don't have the ironic humor that sets this small list of stories apart from the others.
"Following the Quarters" starts of the collection with an Alaskan cop is called to the scene of a robbery where a young man has apparently been steeling quarters from newspaper dispensers. When the man insists that he had been hired to put quarters in the machines, the real mystery begins. Why put extra quarters into the dispensers?
"The Man Who Thought He Was A Deer" is basically Wild Animus light. Here though the main character doesn't think he's a ram, instead he thinks he's a deer. As it's hunting season and this "deer" carries a gun, things don't go well for a local hunter.
"The Bog" reminded of Poe's short stories in that a murderer is undone by his own cleverness.
