Death do us Part

Death do us Part
Harlan Coben
Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 0-316-01263-7
Fiction; Thriller, Mystery, Anthology
Reviewed by Tanya Boudreau

It’s a treat to read a good book; a book where after you are finished, you want to read more by the same author. Reading a good anthology intensifies that feeling. In Mystery Writers of America Presents Death do us Part: new stories of love, lust and murder, there are nineteen good stories; nineteen good authors to look up. Contributors include Ridley Pearson, Lee Child, Laura Lippman, R.L. Stine, Harlan Coben, Jim Fusilli, Jeff Abbott, and twelve others.

Each short story causes different feelings to arise. A gasp, a shiver, a sigh, or sometimes an exclamation of “Oh No!” These are all great stories. New writers and best-selling authors have contributed short stories for this book, edited by Harlan Coben. The stories mix relationships and crimes.

Inside are stories about families, lovers, and friends committing crimes. Is a man who makes crepes and fishies in the brook for his children at breakfast capable of killing his wife while she’s out jogging? Would a son who is finally clean from drugs, go back to that world to get drugs for his dad? What would push a man to kill his friend and business partner? You’d be surprised.

In these stories, settings and circumstances differ greatly. Crime takes place in marriage for many reasons. The story Entrapped is about not being in love anymore, and about being greedy for money. On the opposite end, Brendon DuBois writes a story about a man who loved his wife very much. His plan is to get revenge for his wife’s murder.
Sometimes things are seen in a different light and circumstances change. In Part Light, Part Memory, a slave girl changes her mind about the crime she was originally going to commit. And in Home Coming, Eleanor deeply regrets screaming at her unwanted guest.

The stories take place in modern times and in the past. Cyberdating is the setting of one modern story. A few stories go further back in time- to war time. In The Home Front, limits are tested until they stretch and break.

Never boring, this is the book to read for a getaway into other lives and other minds.
Some twists and turns in the stories are unexpected and sudden. Some you see coming, and you enjoy them to the end too!