GREAT WRITERS AND KIDS WRITE MYSTERY STORIES

Sleuths eager for less formulaic company than Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys will enjoy this pulse-quickening second collection of collaborations between writers and children (Great Writers and Kids Write Spooky Stories, 1995, not reviewed). A brief introduction by Morgan and Weinberg defines the elements of a good mystery, as well as its many sub-genres (the cozy, the police procedural, etc.), then the fun begins as bodies start to drop. Sharyn McCrumb and her children choose the unlikely setting of an old-age home for a compelling mystery about the disappearance of a child years ago that continues to haunt one of the elderly patients; readers will love the McCrumbs' wry tone, the crusty but endearing geriatric characters, and the memorable and disturbing ending. A similar sense of the sinister charges Ed and son Joe Gorman's tale of the inexplicable rise to popularity of a high school nerd. Scott Turow and daughter Eve offer more of a fairy tale than a whodunnit—a mystery concerning the human heart. Stuart Kaminsky and daughter Lucy play a varying riff on a family's twisted relations, where a mother's seeming devotion leads to the permanent damage of her son. Whether readers go through these contributions front-to-back or pick and choose among them, the collection provides both an opportunity and a motive for diversion. (Short stories. 8+)