The Omnibus Of Modern Crime Stories - The 80’s

The Jackal and the Tiger - Michael Gilbert (1988)
In order to avenge the death of one of his friends (who had been blackmailed), Ronnie Kavanagh buys a small detective agency. A Mr Huffin works for it, and R.K. knows that the man is involved in his friend’s demise. With the help of his nephew, he sets out to find out how the crook operates and who his accomplice is.
7/10


The Fix - Robert Twothy (1980)
Stremberg is plagued with a serious addiction to horse racing. A constant run of bad luck leaves him with just 23 cents in his pocket. This forces him to take back his job as a taxi driver, but he plans to return to the race as soon as he has a nice stake.
8/10

One Moment of Madness - Edward D. Hoch (1982)
A corrupted detective goes berserk when the woman he loves enters his police station. He doesn’t realise that she has actually been arrested. For fear of being betrayed by her, he shoots at everyone in an attempt to kill her.
5/10

Loopy - Ruth Rendell (1982)
While playing in small pantomime productions, a 42 year old man develops an obsession for wearing an animal outfit (a wolf). This plays havoc with his plans to marry an office colleague, and takes a turn for the worst when he discover that his mother is affected by the same compulsion.
4/10

The Plateau - Clark Howard (1984)
The local government has decided to run an uncommon lottery: one where the winner will be allowed to hunt the last buffalo in the state. It was supposed to be a 9 year old animal called Bruno, but it dies before the hunt. The authority then decides to replace it with its mother Hannah, a 30 year old cow. In order to allow Hanna to have the dignified death she deserves, Tank Sherman, its owner, takes her away to an Indian sacred ground.
10/10

The Butchers - Pete Lovesey (1982)
One morning, the owner of a butcher’s shop is found dead in the cold store. An apprentice butcher tries to make it look like it’s another worker who killed their boss.
5/10

Burning Bridge - James Powell (1989)
As years pass by, Barber becomes convinced that he owes his good fortune to the personalities of his dead friends. One day, he is so afraid to lose his wife to another man that he tries to kill one of his friends, renowned for his success with women.
6/10

A Good Turn - Robert Barnard (1989)
After a severe dispute with his mother, Steven ventures into another town to meet with his father, who abandoned him when he was just two. The man turns out to be so nasty and mean that Steve almost kills him.
8/10

Clap Hands, there goes Charlie - George Baxt (1982)
Alice is married to Charlie, a successful publisher who repeatedly cheats on her. She has learned to live with it. However, his attitude with women will prove to be fatal to him when he has an affair with Monica Duval, a medium and would-be writer.
7/10

Big Boy, Little Boy - Simon Brett (1980)
Larry Renshaw has killed his wealthy wife because she had discovered that he was stealing from him. He flies to France where Peter Mostyn lives. P.M. has always been infatuated with him and offers to do anything that could help Larry out. Renshaw, in his usual over-confident way completely misjudges the situation and ends up in jail for the murder of two persons.
6/10

The Omnibus Of Modern Crime Stories - The 70’s

Reasons Unknown - Stanley Elin (1978)
Larry Morrison, who works for a big company, has a chance encounter with a former colleague, now a taxi driver. When his ‘friend’ explains to him that big corporations only use re-organizations within their department as a screen to fire people, Larry becomes very worried about the safety of his own job.
When one day his boss calls him to his office, Larry loses his mind. He turns up to work with a gun ; kills his boss plus several employees.
8/10

Three Ways to Rob a Bank - Harold R. Daniels (1972)
A former bank employee devises 3 ways to rob a bank. The first two are stated in the form of two stories, which he sends for publication. The bank industry does all it can to prevent these stories from being published and waits eagerly to see the third method. However the 3rd way is actually this story scheme that he has created to alert them on the weaknesses of the bank system.
8/10

The Perfect Servant - Helen Nielsen (1971)
Maria Morales is a poor widow, once married to a gambler. Her way to make a living is to pretend that she has found 100 dollars in the street and bring the money to the police. She uses this scheme to find employment as a cleaner for rich people, who are sure to be impressed by her absolute honesty.
9/10

The Marked Man - David Ely (1979)
A Major is confronted to an unusual mission: to live on his own for a certain amount of time in a park. To be sure that he won’t be tempted to talk to anyone, his head has been painted green. As doubts arise about the real purpose of this strange assignment, the Major slowly loses his mind.
7/10

Flowers that blooms in the Spring - Julian Symons (1971)
Bertie is an inquisitive retired man who is convinced that his neighbours have not only murdered someone, but also that they belong to a gang of small bank robbers. His doubts are reinforced when he meets them one summer in Italy, and they pretend they owe all their money to the publication of a book.
7/10

A Nice Place to Stay - Nedra Tyre (1970)
A woman who has cared all her live for other people and lives in abject poverty is sent to jail. She is accused of having stolen a silver box - actually given to her by one of her employers. However, she finds that her life in prison is much more comfortable than anything she has experienced outside…
9/10

Paul Broderick’s Man - Thomas Walsh (1979)
Captain Anthony Vincent Flanagan was once a reputed police officer. But after years of taking bribes from crooked businessman Paul Broderick, he realises that he may have made a lot of money, it has cost him his pride and the respect of his daughter.
7/10

When Nothing Matters - Florence V. Mayberry (1979)
Solange discovers that after a year being married with Thorwald, he intends to leave her for another woman. She cannot cope with the situation and kills him.
[The first part of the story is built to make the reader believe she is a window who isn’t involved in the death of her husband.]
7/10

This is Death - Donald E. Westlake (1978)
Couldn’t make myself to read it. The story of a man who takes his own life.
0/10

Woodrow Wilson’s Necktie - Patricia Highsmith (1972)
Clive Wilkes is an 18 year old with an obsession for a local waxwork museum. His fascination for it leads him to kill the museum’s employees and place them among the various murder tableaux. Later, he goes to the police to confess his crimes, but no one believes him. Frustrated, Clive begins to plan a much bigger crime, one that would grant him a place in a waxwork museum.
8/10

Les Arcanes du Chaos - Maxime Chattam (2005)

Le multi-millionnaire suisse Bonnevieil décide d'utiliser une jeune femme, Yael, pour tuer un de ses ennemis, le puissant Goatherd. Pour se faire, il lance Yael sur une piste parsemée d'énigmes et de symboles occultes. Elle est aidée par un journaliste (Thomas, en fait a la solde de Bonnevieil.)

Apres un parcours ou fleurissent les allusions a JFK, Lincoln, le Titanic et les illuminatis, Yael se retouve face a face avec le fameux Goatherd.

[Lecture agréable, encore que les dialogues sont, a mon sens, un peu bateau. Ils ne possedent pas l'étincelle qui aurait pu les rendre vifs et intelligents.
L'auteur met tout en place pour valider sa théorie du "Nouvel Ordre du Monde": depuis 1776, les personnes les plus riches de la planete, non seulement gouvernent le monde ; ils nous utilisent également comme des pions pour satisfaire leurs ambitions personnelles. Ce mode de pensée veut nous faire crore que l'assassinat de JFK a été orchéstrée de la sorte pour avoir certains points communs avec le meurtre du président Lincoln.

Il suffit de taper le noms de ces deux americains dans un moteur de recherche pour trouver tout de suite des paralleles. Les gens friands de complots mettent toujours en avant les points soit-disant communs - pliant la vérité au besoin, et oublient les détails qui ne cadrent pas.
Nostradamus aurait d'ailleurs eu sa place dans ce roman. De toute évidence l'auteur n'a pas osé. Pourtant ces quatrains contiennent quelques perles ;-p. ]

The Twilight Zone - Christina Faust (2005)

Burned
A slumlord hires an arsonist to burn down his less successful building. Two kids die in the fire. As ghosts, they take their revenge on the people involved in their death.
[OTT characters who are either dirt poor or filthy rich. There is also the annoying fact that several characters developed early in the story aren’t heard of again as the plot moves on.
Would have been better off as a much shorter story, say 100 pages max.]
3/10


One Night at Mercy
Another story with OTT characters and all the clichés you can expect to find in an emergency hospital. This time, we are treated to what happens when ‘Death’ (personified by a woman), doesn’t take anyone anymore. Suddenly people and animals who were scheduled to die, remain alive and suffering like hell because of their disease or injuries.
[Built in the exact same way as the previous story, with a gallery of characters all connected by the same disturbing fate.]
2/10