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Editorial Review Product Description
Forge Books is proud to present an amazing collection of novellas, compiled by New York Times bestselling author Ed McBain. Transgressions is a quintessential classic of never-before-published tales from today's very best novelists. Faeturing:
"Walking Around Money" by Donald E. Westlake: The master of the comic mystery is back with an all-new novella featuring hapless crook John Dortmunder, who gets involved in a crime that supposedly no one will ever know happened. Naturally, when something it too good to be true, it usually is, and Dortmunder is going to get to the bottom of this caper before he's left holding the bag.
"Hostages" by Anne Perry: The bestselling historical mystery author has written a tale of beautiful yet still savage Ireland today. In their eternal struggle for freedom, there is about to be a changing of the guard in the Irish Republican Army. Yet for some, old habits-and honor-still die hard, even at gunpoint.
"The Corn Maiden" by Joyce Carol Oates: When a fourteen-year-old girl is abducted in a small New York town, the crime starts a spiral of destruction and despair as only this master of psychological suspense could write it.
"Archibald Lawless, Anarchist at Large: Walking the Line" by Walter Mosley: Felix Orlean is a New York City journalism student who needs a job to cover his rent. An ad in the paper leads him to Archibald Lawless, and a descent into a shadow world where no one and nothing is as it first seems.
"The Resurrection Man" by Sharyn McCrumb": During America's first century, doctors used any means necessary to advance their craft-including dissecting corpses. Sharyn McCrumb brings the South of the 1850s to life in this story of a man who is assigned to dig up bodies to help those that are still alive.
"Merely Hate" by Ed McBain: When a string of Muslim cabdrivers are killed, and the evidence points to another ethnic group, the detectives of the 87th Precinct must hunt down a killer before the city explodes in violence.
"The Things They Left Behind" by Stephen King: In the wake of the worst disaster on American soil, one man is coming to terms with the aftermath of the Twin Towers-when he begins finding the things they left behind.
"The Ransome Women" by John Farris: A young and beautiful starving artist is looking to catch a break when her idol, the reclusive portraitist John Ransome offers her a lucrative year-long modeling contract. But how long will her excitement last when she discovers the fate shared by all Ransome's past subjects?
"Forever" by Jeffery Deaver: Talbot Simms is an unusual cop-he's a statistician with the Westbrook County Sheriff Department. When two wealthy couples in the county commit suicide one right after the other, he thinks that it isn't suicide-it's murder, and he's going to find how who was behind it, and how the did it.
"Keller's Adjustment" by Lawrence Block: Everyone's favorite hit man is back in MWA Grand Master Lawrence Block's novella, where the philosophical Keller deals out philosophy and murder on a meandering road trip from one end of the America to the other.
... Read more Customer Reviews (13) 
A Nice Thick Collection
Most people will purchase Transgressions simply to read a novella by one of their favourite authors. I myself picked this up just for the Westlake novella inside.I don't think anyone, no matter which author motivated them to buy this, will put down this collection only satisfied by one story.Yes like any various author anthology the quality varies as do the stories fitting into your personal tastes, but I doubt there will be anyone that either doesn't find a new author to check out or at the very least is reminded of the talent of an author they've maybe only read one or two books of a long time ago in the past.Some novellas such as Walking Around Money can only be found in these pages and others such as The Things They Left Behind you may well have already read before (Just After Sunset).
Keller's Adjustment in my opinion is the best of the lot.I've read a few of Block's other books containing stamp collecting hit man Keller, and this is easily the best story.You don't need to have read any previous ones to follow or get the most out of Keller's Adjustment.It reads like a standalone novel with no plots of previous novels given away.Keller a man who used to have no problems getting on a plane in New York and flying anywhere in the US without any serious searching by security for weapons he would take with him to commit the crime or validating his fake ID has had his world suddenly change. The post September 11 2001 demand for the airlines and airports to wake up and take security seriously for domestic flights now means a lot of complications if there's someone that needs to be killed on the other side of the continent.On a road trip across America in a rental car to get to his next victim Keller starts talking to himself out loud, something he's never done before which consequently freaks him out.His target also lives in a high security gated retirement community causing quite the challenge for Keller as well as plenty of time to ponder if a post 9/11 world is really a world where you can have a satisfying career as a hit man.
Walking Around Money although not Westlake's best story or even best Dortmunder novel is an important find for any fan of the late grandmaster's work.You won't find Walking Around Money published anywhere else as it was written after Thieves' Dozen (Westlake's collection of the Dortmunder short stories) was published.In fact it is actually the third last Dortmunder adventure written before Westlake's death and takes place time wise between Watch Your Back and What's So Funny.Important for fans of the series as you find out if repulsive fencer of stolen items Arnie Albright sticks to his rehabilitation.In this adventure Andy Kelp and Dortmunder meet through a friend of a criminal friend an old man named Querk. Querk's angry and bored with his life as a forklift driver, working for a rural printing company who shattered his dreams of using his printing skills he learnt behind bars, which they told him are now obsolete in this computer designed modern world. Querk has plans for counterfeiting currency for a South American country during a night the plant is shut down, however he needs a couple of fellow criminals who don't live in his small town to help with the heavy work and to get it done in time.Like any Dortmunder novel, outside factors and Murphy's Law always play a part in a should be smooth caper not turning out quite that way.
Anne Perry's Hostages about a rural cottage holding a couple and their adult son at gunpoint is interesting, however the husband of the main character is such a racist, bully and just in general not bright or nice guy that you are actually hoping he will be killed and/or the objectives of the Protestant extreme group hoping to replace him as leader will actually come off.
Archibald Lawless, Anarchist at Large was a bit disappointing for me.I've read and enjoyed other Mosley stories and was enjoying this one to begin with about a young guy from the country who moves to New York and notices a weird advertisement for a job in a few different papers so decides to apply. He then meets a very strange man who gives him a list of people and tells him to go visit them and talk to them if he can.When one dies before his eyes he becomes a suspect. However then the story just got a little stupid.
The other stories Corn Maidern by Joyce Carol Oates, Resurrection man by Sharyn McCrumb, Merely Hate by Ed McBain, The Things They Left Behind by Stephen King, Ransome Women by John Farris or Forever by Jeffery Deaver were no stand outs to what those authors normally produce.However I did find McBain's intro to this collection to be a really interesting read.
Fun Anthology
This anthology includes ten crime novellas.
EXCELLENT
Lawrence Block "Keller's Adjustment" -- Block is a master. In this one hitman Keller ponders his future after September 11. Great writing especially dialogue.
Sharyn McCrumb "Resurrection Man" -- This is less crime and more literary. It's about a black graverobber who works for a Georgia university before, during, and after the Civil War. Stars slow but great storytelling.
Anne Perry "Hostages" -- I usually get irritated with Perry because it often seems that she's being paid by the word. This one, however, surprised me. It's lean, mean, and compelling.
Donald Westlake "Walking Around Money" -- Westlake is another master who knows exactly what he's doing and how to do it.
GOOD
Ed McBain "Merely Hate" -- Good procedural with a few twists.
Walter Mosley "Archibald Lawless" -- Interesting if implausible piece about a naive New Orleans young man who gets involved with a larger-than-life personality after moving to New York City.
Stephen King "The Things They Left Behind" -- Per usual, King is repetitive and can't quite pull off a great concept. I kept wanting this September 11 piece to get better, but it never did.
Jeffery Deaver "Forever" -- Deaver just can't end a story. He's got to add twist after twist after twist until the story becomes this unsatisfying scifi thing. Still, Talbot is a great character.
FAIR --
John Farris "The Ransome Women" -- John Farris is one of the worst writers ever. He is just awful. However, he is so bad he sometimes becomes good. Shlocky, soap operish, melodramatic romance novel--you've got to read it to believe it. I was laughing out loud at some of the hackneyed lines and plot twists. I about died when a character and his doomed relative roasted marshmallows over the burning ashes of one of his paintings.
Joyce Carol Oates "The Corn Maiden" -- Oates is not a bad writer. But she's certainly not a good one either. The story was disturbing and really kind of gross. I don't know what it is about Oates, but I get the feeling that she's never lived but only written and read. If that makes any sense.
Forever by Jeffery Deaver
Over approximately the last month, I've slowly made my way through Transgressions, the 2005 anthology of crime-fiction novellas edited by the late Ed McBain. As with most anthologies (especially those composed primarily of "big names"), the results have been of mixed quality. A few stand out among the rest -- among them The Ransome Women by John Farris and The Resurrection Man by Sharyn McCrumb -- but only one stood high enough to be recognized as definitely the best of the bunch: Forever by Jeffery Deaver, an author I'd not previously read.
In Forever, Deaver introduces police statistician Talbot Simms. Tal in a numbers whiz who is happy to remain at his desk, crunching arithmetic means and standard deviations. But when a couple of elderly suicides present themselves as statistical "outliers" (meaning the combination of events fall far outside the norm of mathematical likelihood), Tal declares them "2124" (suspicious) and inadvertently heads toward solving his first case as a "real" police detective.
Deaver skillfully portrays Tal Simms as a novice among veterans, concurrently showing the reader all the tiny details needed to follow procedure. But Tal slowly feels his way along, with the reluctant help of Detective Greg LaTour, who develops a grudging respect for the "Einstein" of his department. Both characters are fully three-dimensional, and I would welcome a series from Deaver featuring them. Forever also features some of the most original plotting and imagination this side of classic science fiction. Odd that I put off reading it for so long, primarily from not knowing his work, because Deaver's is the name I'll come away from Transgressions most praising.
AReading Buffet
Transgressionsprovidesreaders with the opportunity to sample ten different offerings from ten different authors.There is a gritty 87th Precinct novella from Ed Mcbain and a lyrical offering on a child abduction from Joyce Carol Oates.Steven King is well represented with a short but strangely moving tale of a 911 survivor haunted by his souveniers from his unlucky co-workers.
I enjoyed Transgressions for both its quality and variety. While no story in particular was a stand out, each provided a sample of the particular author's style.Like a buffet, a taste is really all you need to determine where (and whether) you will return for second and third helpings.
A smorgasbord of great reads!
After the success of his novel BLACKBOARD JUNGLE, Evan Hunter (Ed McBain) turned to what were then referred to as "novelettes," his subject being the 87th Precinct detectives of Isola (think New York). As time passed, the 87th Precinct novelettes grew to full-length novels. Fifty years later, McBain persuaded nine other mystery, thriller, and horror writers to submit what are now called "novellas" of around a hundred pages each.
The result was one of my most enjoyable reads of 2006. I don't know why I don't read more anthologies. It was in an anthology that I first experienced Stuart Kaminsky, Sharyn McCrumb, and Lawrence Block.
Coincidentally, one of the best novellas in this anthology is one by Block. Block returns with his enigmatic hit man Keller in KELLER'S ADJUSTMENT. Block manages to make us feel empathy for the man. Although he has sex with a Phoenix real estate saleslady, Keller is essentially a lonely man. He needs somebody to talk to. He once had a dog, but a former girlfriend took it with him when she left; he went to a therapist, but the therapist turned into a snoop, and he had to dust him. Unwilling to take a chance on a living breathing entity, Keller buys a stuffed animal to talk to.
Jeffrey Deaver also responded to the call with FOREVER. In it he introduces Tal Simms, a mathematician/statistician working for Westbrook County Sheriff's Department. Simms is considered a "computer geek" by the rest of the detective squad, especially homicide detective Greg "Bear" LaTour. Simms and his eventual partner LaTour are confronted with several suspicious suicides. Older rich couples are killing themselves under dubious circumstances. In most respects, the underdog character Simms is every bit as likable as Lincoln Rhymes. I would definitely buy a full length novel featuring Simms.
A new discovery for me was John Farris.Farris's THE RANSOME WOMEN concerns a beautiful art appraiser named Echo Halloran who agrees to pose for the great artist John Leland Ransome. She's not only flattered, but as a budding artist herself, she wants to learn from him. Her boyfriend, police detective Peter O'Neil, is suspicious, and with good reason. I enjoyed this novella so much I ran right out and bought FURY, THE TERROR Farris's masterwork.
I have to admit that Ed McBain's own contribution, MERELY HATE, was my principal motivation for purchasing the anthology. I needed my 87th Precinct fix, and it's great as usual. It is post 9/11 in Isola, and the detectives are called to investigate the murder of a Muslim cab driver. Through these cab driver murders, McBain capsulizes the reason for the problems in the Mid East.
Other writers who contributed novellas were Donald Westlake, Anne Perry, Joyce Carol Oates, Walter Mosley, Sharyn McCrumb, and Stephen King. All of them were excellent.
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