"Dangerous Woman"

(Reviewed by Jana L. Perskie FEB 17, 2005)

The film, Fatal Attraction, features a dangerous woman - lethal, in fact. The Maltese Falcon's Brigid O'Shaughnessy is certainly a hazard. "What makes a woman dangerous?" Is she irresistible? Seductive? Does she wound with her eyes? Is she a femme fatale, "aware of her power, or utterly innocent of it?" Otto Penzler, editor, bookseller, and founder of Mysterious Press, asks this question in his Introduction to this short fiction anthology, Dangerous Women. The answer is subjective; a matter of opinion.

Seventeen outstanding authors, some of the best writers in the mystery/suspense genre, answer the question here, creatively, diabolically, deliciously. Lying, manipulation, seduction, horror, murder, suicide - they're all covered in these stories. Dangerous Women is an outstanding, wicked, absolutely amazing collection. Consistent excellence is what makes this book so special and sets it apart from the rest. Ed McBain, Michael Connelly, Joyce Carol Oates, Anne Perry, Elmore Leonard, Walter Mosley, Laura Lippman, Nelson DeMille, Thomas Cook, Andrew Klaven, John Connolly, Lorenzo Carcaterra, J. A. Jance, Jay McInerey, S. J. Rozen, Jeffrey Deaver and Ian Rankin, are all at their best here.

In Ed McBain's "Improvisation," a man approaches a tall, willowy blonde at a bar and asks her, "So, what do we do for a little excitement tonight?" The woman, a stranger, suggests, "Why don't we kill somebody?" Their mating ritual lightens up, but only momentarily. Michael Connelly's Detective Harry Bosch, says, in "Cielo Azul," that his LAPD partner always believed "the most dangerous women are beautiful in life, heartbreaking in death." "A black and silver diamond-headed spider, the so-called 'happy spider,' " who spins her web with venom, is Joyce Carol Oates' kind of woman in "Give Me Your Heart." Talk about a woman scorned! Walter Mosley's "Karma" loved somebody so much she'd die for him. "Rendezvous," Nelson DeMille's first short story in twenty-five years, takes you into a sweltering Vietnamese jungle where the most lethal enemy is not a man at all. Ian Rankin writes about a prison warden fascinated by the steamy prison mail he censors in "Soft Spot." Jeffrey Deaver's "Born Bad" is chilling! Every one of these stories is a gem, along with those I have not mentioned.

This is the perfect book to take on a trip....or on the train to work...or for reading during lunch hour. You can read a short story as satisfying as any novel, and put the book down without feeling that you have left at a crucial moment in the narrative. You can read selectively, or read only one story at a time. They are all winners. Dangerous Women is probably the best and most exciting mystery anthology I have ever come across. Highly recommended!

• Amazon readers rating: from 7 reviews

Read a chapter excerpt from Dangerous Women at TWBookmarks.com

Bibliography: (with links to Amazon.com)

• Danger: White Water (1976)
• Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection (1977)
• Whodunit? Houdini?: Thirteen Tales of Magic, Murder and Mystery (1977)
• The Crown Crime Companion: The Top 100 Myster Novels of All Time (1995)
• Murder for Love (1996)
• The Best American Mystery Stories 1997 (1997) (with Robert B Parker)
• Murder for Revenge (1998)
• The 50 Greatest Mysteries of All Time (1998)
• The Best American Mystery Stories: 1998 (1998) (with Sue Grafton)
• Murder and Obsession (1999)
• The Best American Mystery Stories 1999 (1999) (with Ed McBain)
• The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century (2000) (with Tony Hillerman)
• 101 Greatest Films of Mystery & Suspense (2000)
• The Best American Mystery Stories 2000 (2000) (with Donald E Westlake)
• The Best American Mystery Stories 2001 (2001) (with Lawrence Block)
• Murderers' Row: Baseball Mysteries (2001)
• The Mighty Johns (2002)
• The Best American Crime Writing (2002)(with Thomas H. Cook)
• The Best American Mystery Stories 2002 (2002) (with James Ellroy)
• The Best American Crime Writing 2003 (2003) (with Thomas H. Cook)
• One Clue Beyond: Tales of Supernatural Suspense, Psychic Puzzles and Occult Investigators (2003)
  (with Michele Slung)
• Murder at the Foul Line: Original Basketball Mysteries (2003)
• The Best American Mystery Stories 2003 (2003) (with Michael Connelly)
• Murder on the Ropes: Original Boxing Mysteries (2004)
• The Best American Crime Writing 2004 (2004) (with Thomas H. Cook)
• The Best American Mystery Stories 2004 (2004) (with Nelson DeMille)
• Dangerous Women (January 2005)
• Murder Is My Racquet: Original Tennis Mysteries (June 2005)
• Murder at the Foul Line: Original Tales of Hoop Dreams and Deaths (January 2006)
• Murder at the Race Track: Original Tales of Mystery and Mayhem Down the Final Stretch (April 2006)
• Murder in the Rough: Original Tales of Bad Shots, Terrible Lies, and Other Deadly Handicaps from Today's Great Writers (June 2006)

Book Marks:

• The Economics of Publishing - speech by Otto Penzler
• WhoDunnit review of Dangerous Women
• Boston Herald brief review of Dangerous Women

About the Author:

Otto Penzler (b. 1942) is the proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City. He was the publisher of The Armchair Detective, the Edgar-winning quarterly journal devoted to the study of mystery and suspense fiction, for seventeen years. Mr. Penzler was also the founder of The Mysterious Press, which has now become part of the Time Warner publishing empire; he also created the publishing firm of Otto Penzler Books, which is now an imprint at Carroll & Graf, and The Armchair Detective Library, a publishing house devoted to reprinting classic crime fiction for the collector and library markets.

Penzler is also the recipient of the Ellery Queen Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his contributions to the publishing field and he received a Raven in 2003.

Penzler lives at his bookstore in New York City.