For mystery lovers, crime reading pays

Just try to pick a favorite story from "Once Upon A Crime." Impossible.

This collection of short stories (Nodin Press, 256 pages, $16.95) is named for Minneapolis' independent mystery bookstore. Edited by Gary R. Bush and Chris Everheart, it includes works by many well-known mystery and suspense writers.

The stories are all very different: hilarious, haunting, horrifying. If you don't care for one, just skip it. There are plenty more.

As I read, I wished that the information on each contributor, grouped in alphabetical order at the end of the book, had been placed with each story. Many of the authors are familiar, but I wanted to know about the others, what they had written and where they were from.

Here's a glimpse at some of the stories:

• "Live Bait" by Sujata Massey, author of the Rei Shimura series, tells the story of a marriage filled with jealously and assumptions. The downward spiral of this suburban family sucks the reader toward an inevitable ending.

• In "Santa's Little Helper" by Anne Frasier, Santa is found lying in a pool of blood on Christmas Eve. Who could have done such a thing? The conversation of the investigating detectives reveals a tantalizing little subplot. And the ending is like a good joke: It takes a minute to get it. A lot is packed into these three short pages.

• Best opening goes to Lori L. Lake's "Den of Iniquity." "After she recognized Gordon Chasney, Ava Tanner spent weeks trying to figure out a way to kill him and get away with it. Shooting? Poisoning? Mow him down with her car? Her favorite method involved crushing him. She imagined him in a giant vise, screaming as bones cracked and blood spurted. ... But murder would be too quick." Indeed, Ava finds a diabolical and brilliant way to punish this man. Lake is a Minneapolis writer and teacher at the Loft Literary Center.

• Do you hate Hummers? So does the central character in "Rage Against the Machines" by Terri Persons, a former reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The surprising ending of this tale of revenge is heavy with irony.

There also are stories by well known local writers William Kent Kruger, Mary Logue, David Housewright and Pete Hautman.

According to the book's Website, proceeds will be donated to the Memorial Blood Center, appropriate for tales of murder and mayhem.

Judy Romanowich Smith is a news designer at the Star Tribune.