Death Do Us Part
by Mystery Writers of America, Harlan Corben, Editor
Published by Little, Brown and Company, Inc. (release August 28, 2006)
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Reviewed by Elysabeth Eldering
What happens when you bring eighteen mystery writers together with a topic of "Death Do Us Part?" You get an anthology of love, lust and murder.
Some of the stories actually do pertain to a marriage vow and others seem not to have anything to do with love and lust. All the stories do have a murder or a mystery for the basis. Some leave you wondering if the murder was actually committed.
In Charles Ardai's "The Home Front," the theme that comes to mind here is what goes around, comes around. The ending brought everything together. This story is based during wartime when rationing of everything was a big deal. The government workers found ways to work the system for themselves, and in so, doing some murderous twists occur.
I really enjoyed Tim Maleeny's "Till Death Do Us Part" because it seemed so true as to what married couples go through after long periods of being with the same person. This is about a botanist and chemist, both trying to outdo the other in coming up with ways to kill the other on their anniversary. In the end, one or both come out as the winner or loser, as the case may be.
The least liked story was Tom Savage's "Cyberdate.com." This story really could happen in this day and age but it was too quick for the events to occur. Most cyber relationships take months or years to develop before turning into actual meeting times. I was a bit disappointed that this happened over a period of less than a week. The format was supposed to be communication via instant message and it really didn't flow like a story. The whole story was wrapped up in about four paragraphs. If you like cyber-ese, you will enjoy this story.
Armchair Interviews says: Wide variety of good mystery short stories on the same theme.