Shannon C.’s review of Mean Streets by Jim Butcher, Simon R. Green, Kat Richardson, and Thomas E. Sniegoski
Urban fantasy anthology released by Roc 6 Jan 09

This anthology features four prominent private investigators currently with series in the urban fantasy market. Headlining this book is Jim Butcher, with another Harry Dresden story, and Kat Richardson, Thomas Sniegoski, and Simon R. Green finish out the anthology. Anthologies aren’t particularly my bag, but this one didn’t really have any stories that completely failed to work for me, and it was a relatively quick read.

The Warrior by Jim Butcher

I’m not a particular fan of the Dresden Files, and I haven’t read past the second book. There’s no really good reason for this beyond just personal taste, but still. This story involves a mad priest kidnapping the daughter of a friend of Harry’s in exchange for a couple of magic swords. I thought the whole idea, which involves the exploration of faith and what it means to do good works was well-executed. Harry’s a likeable narrator, and I’m almost tempted to go back to the Dresden books I haven’t read yet. But not quite, since whatever element is in these books that doesn’t quite work for me is here, too. But still, this isn’t a bad way to start the anthology.

Grade: B

Summary:
New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher delivers a hard-boiled tale in which Harry Dresden’s latest case may be his last.

No excerpt available.

The Difference a Day Makes by Simon R. Green

This was my favorite story in the anthology. Easily. We first meet John Taylor, private eye and denizen of the Nightside, in a bar where he’s having drinks with his friend Dead Boy. Their night gets more interesting when Liza Barclay enters. Liza has no memory of her life before stumbling into the Nightside, and the only clue she has to her identity is a torn-up picture of her husband Frank. John Taylor offers to assist Liza, because he’s a chivalrous guy and he’s drawn to how well she seems to be coping with the weirdness that is the Nightside.

When I read this story, I felt like I was reading what would result from the pen of Charles de Lint’s evil twin. The Nightside really isn’t a place people want to visit, but I felt Green conveyed a real sense of magic and wonder in this quick tour of it. I want more, and this is the only story in the collection that had me wanting to start in on the author’s full-length work.

Grade: B+

Summary:
Nightside dweller John Taylor is hired by a woman to find something she lost—her memory—in a thrilling noir tale from New York Times bestselling author Simon R. Green.

No excerpt available.

The Third Death of the Little Clay Dog by Kat Richardson

I started Greywalker some time ago, and found it to be interesting but not overly compelling, which is how I felt about this story in the Greywalker Universe. This time, our protagonist is Harper Blaine, who can see into the realm between life and death. She’s compelled to travel to Oaxaca, Mexico, when she is written into an eccentric woman’s will. All she has to do is leave a clay dog figurine on a man’s grave and stand vigil over it all night and she’ll receive $30,000. She’s intrigued by the odd request, and she needs the money, so off to Mexico she goes. There, of course, things turn out to be a lot more complicated than she thought as she finds an intriguing mystery, a teenager with a bad attitude, and a ghost dog.

I liked this story well enough. In the end, I was left smiling and satisfied, which is really all I can ask for in a short story. I felt distanced from Harper herself, but I did like the secondary characters and I found the story’s description of Mexican culture fascinating. I wasn’t too lost even though I’ve never read the series.

Grade: B-

Summary:
National bestselling author Kat Richardson’s Greywalker finds herself in too deep when a “simple job” goes bad and Harper Blaine is enmeshed in a tangle of dark secrets and revenge from beyond the grave.

Read an excerpt.

Noah’s Orphans by Thomas E. Sniegoski

I wanted to like this story more than I did, but I just couldn’t get over the high concentration of cheese such a short story offers. First there’s our protagonist, Remy Chandler. (Get it?) He has a dog named Marlowe, and he is, wait for it, a private investigator. Also, he’s a former angel struggling to live as human, except stupid things like the apocalypse keep getting in his way. Now Noah (of the Ark fame) has been murdered, and Remy gets drawn into heavenly affairs once again.

There were things I did like. Remy seems like a nice enough guy, and the death of his wife and his struggles to come to terms with it were well-written. And I loved Marlowe, who acted in a believable doglike fashion.

What I didn’t love so much was the ham-handed religious stuff. I feel like I’ve read this kind of story in a much more subtle incarnation, and the result left me cold, and uninterested in keeping up with the series.

Grade: C

Summary:
For centuries, the being that we know as Noah lived among us. Now he is dead, and fallen-angel-turned-detective Remy Chandler has been hired to find out who killed him in a whodunit by national bestselling author Thomas E. Sniegoski.

No excerpt available.

Overall, this was a good anthology. The Greene and Butcher stories are the best of the bunch, and even the Sniegoski piece has its moments.

Overall Grade: B

Summary:
From four of today’s hottest fantasy authors—all-new novellas of dark nights, cruel cities, and paranormal P.I.s.

The best paranormal private investigators have been brought together in a single volume—and cases don’t come any harder than this.

New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher delivers a hard-boiled tale in which Harry Dresden’s latest case may be his last.

Nightside dweller John Taylor is hired by a woman to find something she lost—her memory—in a thrilling noir tale from New York Times bestselling author Simon R. Green.

National bestselling author Kat Richardson’s Greywalker finds herself in too deep when a “simple job” goes bad and Harper Blaine is enmeshed in a tangle of dark secrets and revenge from beyond the grave.

For centuries, the being that we know as Noah lived among us. Now he is dead, and fallen-angel-turned-detective Remy Chandler has been hired to find out who killed him in a whodunit by national bestselling author Thomas E. Sniegoski.