Dark City Lights (Have a NYC – 4) by Lawrence Block
4 stars
(Excerpt from Goodreads) Famed detective and mystery writer Lawrence Block (A Walk Among the Tombstones, 8 Million Ways to Die) takes the helm as guest editor for DARK CITY LIGHTS, the fourth edition of the Have a NYC series. Twenty-three thrilling, hilarious and poignant short stories—all based in New York City—written by new and acclaimed fiction masters, including Robert Silverberg (Hugo and Nebula Award multiple winner; grand master of SFWA); Ed Park (author, Personal Days; senior editor, Amazon’s literary imprint, Little A); Jim Fusilli (rock and pop music critic, Wall Street Journal; author, Closing Time and A Well-Known Secret); Parnell Hall (author, Last Puzzle & Testament); SJ Rozan (Edgar, Shamus, Anthony, Nero and Macavity award-wining author); Brian Koppelman (co-writer, Ocean’s 13 and Rounders); Elaine Kagan (author, No Good-Byes; actress, GoodFellas), and more. A brilliant book that redefines the New York of today—and tomorrow.
Dark City Lights is a compilation of 23 short stories based on New York City with lots of diversity between the authors. The stories range from every day events that you might find in New York to the strange and bizarre like alien invasions and goddesses. There is a little bit of everything that will appeal to everyone.
I like reading anthologies because you get introduced to many different authors and you get a variety of styles. I also like the short stories to pass time between appointments and errands without the risk of reading until all hours of the night and not accomplishing anything. Some of the stories range from a couple pages to upwards of 20.
I admit that I’m bias and liked Lawrence Block’s story Keller the Dogkiller the best. But I really like Lawrence’s stories and this was just as good. I loved how his assassin gets himself out of a strange situation. Plus Lawrence does a great job selecting all of these stories for this collection.
I admit some of the stories were better than others, but that is what you get with an anthology. The best part is I got to learn of new authors that I’m going to check out more of there work. Over all this is a great compilation. If you like stories based on New York this would be a great book for you.
For more information or to purchase this book be sure to check out Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Goodreads.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
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