20 short stories to celebrate 20 years of Hard Case Crime publishing! Quite a milestone!

“The Case” was awesome with all of its twists and turns! In fact, twists and turns are what really appealed to me in the 17 or so stories that I enjoyed in this collection! LOTS of twists, especially at the endings! The 3 I didn't enjoy, well, overall that's one heck of a batting average - 17 for 20! Bravo!

“You don’t, I have learned, have to love something to miss it.”

“When they reached the jail, he walked into his cell a free man.” ( )

Happy 20th anniversary to Hard Case Crime – and to me – because founder and author Charles Ardai has released a collection of 20 stories to celebrate Hard Case Crime’s first 20 years. And best of all: he’s written each and every one of them. Not sure what the proper noir word would be, but I’m just going to go with great, terrific, fantastic, amazing.

Not everyone likes short stories. As Ardai notes in the introduction, when people move from reading short stories to novels they usually don’t go back. But they should; as readers we forget that a short story isn’t just a skimmed down novel; it has all the elements of a novel, and if done right has power and laser focus. In a novel the author has time to ramble on, let the words lose a little of their impact and then circle back and pick it up again, but with a short story every word counts, you need to get to the point, to stick to the point, to make the point.

This is a collection of stories you’ll want to read right through, they are so compelling. Slow down, though. Don’t rush. Take your time and think about how these words have been put together, how they make a sentence, and how the sentences make these very compelling stories. Appreciate the crisp writing, crackling dialogue (to use one of the author’s words) and almost-can’t-believe-that-happened in every story; it’s apparent every word has been carefully chosen. These stories are edgy and will leave you a little unsettled. The endings are not always explicitly spelled out, there’s no, “And then he died. The end.” You know what happened. Well, you think you know, but maybe . . . maybe. You’re not quite sure. It’s perfect.

According to author Ardai, his stories are inspired by classic noir authors, and he has earned his place among them. Subjects, times, people, places vary but the common thread is complete satisfaction when done reading. The heroes (not sure there are actually any heroes) and villains are sometimes hard to identify. People get what’s coming to them. People try to do good deeds and it backfires. Horribly. Irrevocably.

And if you need a little chuckle in the midst of all your hard-boiled reading, think carefully about the title of the book: maybe natural death comes too late – and might need a little push?? Trust me, you have to read this book. The Hard Case Crime website is a regular stop of mine and I always have something on pre-order. Thanks to the author for providing an advance copy of Death Comes Too Late. My pre-order should also be arriving any minute now. Just one peek at the first story in the book and I had to have it. Plus, I love the way these books look on my shelves, and rereading is as much fun as the first time through. I voluntarily leave this review; all opinions are my own. ( )