"Collected Novellas, volume 1" by Josh Lanyon

I love Josh Lanyon, and I'm happy to say that this collection of short stories (novellas) is pretty darn good. There's an intro to each story, so the reader gets an idea of what the author was thinking about when he wrote the story. I love that, a little insight into a writer's mind....

"Cards on the Table" gives us the story of Tim North, a writer who is investigating an old unsolved murder mystery. His neighbor, Jack Brady, happens to be a cop, and he finds himself helping Tim when it appears that someone doesn't want this mystery solved.

"Dangerous Ground" gives us two law enforcement men out on a camping trip that turns into a fact-finding mission regarding a casino robbery. Taylor MacAllister and Will Brandt have been partners for years, and one of them would like that to be off-duty as well as on-duty. The danger reveals itself as they make their way back to civilization after finding the remains of a plane crash, the plane that was used to whisk away the thieves. Turns out not all of them died on impact...

"In Sunshine or In Shadow" is a very short story about Keiran Quinn and Rick Monaghan, homicide detectives and partners. Keiran makes a huge decision about his life and runs as far as he can to put space between him and Rick.

Finally, there's "Snowball in Hell", a period piece set during WWII. Homicide detective Matt Spain meets reporter Nathan Doyle during the investigation into the death of a very wealthy and famous young man. The sparks fly, but this isn't the world we're used to; their attraction is dangerous and could bring them both a lot of trouble, including the loss of their careers.

I liked all the entries here, although I thought "In Sunshine or In Shadow" wasn't fully realized, perhaps due to the length of the story. The one thing that I have noticed now that I've read quite a bit of Lanyon's work is that he definitely has a thing for cops! Makes me wonder about his significant other, if perhaps he's in law enforcement himself. And while I enjoyed these shorter works, I still believe Lanyon's novels are better. The good news is that "Snowball in Hell" is supposed to be the start to a new series. I really enjoyed the subtle relationship between Matt and Nathan, and I would definitely be interested in reading a series of novels about these two.