I enjoyed reading all the Edgar Short Story winners in The New Edgar Winners but three stories stood out for me. I love Frederick Forsyth’s “There Are No Snakes in Ireland” which gives a new twist on a revenge theme. Also exceptional was “By the Dawn’s Early Light,” a Matt Scudder story first published in Playboy. “Soft Monkey” by Harlan Ellison is basically a chase story about a homeless woman who witnesses a murder and the thugs that hunt her down to silence her. Also intriguing is Donald E. Westlake’s fine “Introduction” that illuminates the short story writing process. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction by Donald E. Westlake — 9
(1979) Armed and dangerous / Geoffrey Norman — 15
(1980) Horn man / Clark Howard — 43
(1981) The absence of Emily / Jack Ritchie — 59
(1982) There are no snakes in Ireland / Frederick Forsyth — 73
(1983) The new girl friend / Ruth Rendell — 103
(1984) By the dawn’s early light / Lawrence Block — 117
(1985) Ride the lightning / John Lutz — 139
(1986) Rain in Pinton County / Robert Sampson — 165
(1987) Soft monkey / Harlan Ellison — 189
(1988) Flicks / Bill Crenshaw — 207
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS — 237
EDGAR AWARDS: WINNERS AND NOMINEES, FICTION (1945-1988) — 239
Still waiting for yesterday’s comment to be moderated, and by the time it is no one will be seeing it! Censor! Censor!
Bob, you don’t have any comments pending. All of your comments have been APPROVED by WORDPRESS.
Not as of last night. Maybe they got religion after my complaint.
Don’t know this collection, but I have definitely read a number of the stories. The ones I remember best offhand are the Block and the Clark Howard.
Jeff, I found this collection at THE BOOK CORNER, the only surviving bookstore in Niagara Falls. I had read some of the stories, but I highly recommend the whole anthology.
I wish you would put the publishing data in your FFB reviews. When was this published?
Rick, THE NEW EDGAR WINNERS was published by Wynwood Press; 1st edition (May 1, 1990). I just assume commentators will GOOGLE the book and get the publishing data if they’re interested. AMAZON also provides that information.
I think Wynwood was Greenberg’s own imprint…
Todd, maybe it was Steve Winwood’s imprint (ha, ha!). Here’s a link with more information: https://openlibrary.org/publishers/Wynwood_Press
That Steve Winwood? 🙂
My favourite Rock musician – I’ve been to many of his concerts over the years, in Germany and London (one with Eric Clapton not too long ago). And I took a trip through Texas once to follow him (I was a widower – before I found my new wife).
Back to the topic:
I assume this is named after Edgar A Poe – not Edgar Wallace?
Not really my type of story …
Wolf, I have a friend who has seen Eric Clapton in concert 9 times! Yes, The Edgar is in honor of Edgar Allan Poe and that statue on the cover of the book is a rough facsimile of the Award.