Book Review: Festive Mayhem 4
Summary: Five stand out tales of mystery and suspense in a group of thirteen offerings from a selection of different voices.
Review: It’s always a little tricky to review anthologies. Do you review each story presented in a detailed fashion that may or may not be warranted, bearing in mind the theme and intent of the anthology? Do you just review the anthology as a whole giving an overall impression of the collection and discussing how well it met its stated goals? Or do you attempt to do both in one review?
Instead of all that, let’s take a look at the purpose of the anthology and which stories within best represent it and make it most worth reading.
Born from the pandemic, the original Festive Mayhem brought together writer’s looking for a creative outlet. Such fun was had that the anthology came back for three more installments, this being the fourth. Each installment after the first has featured a mix of new and returning authors and each features original works by those authors which have not been published anywhere else prior to appearing in these collections. I’ve not read the previous installments, so this fourth volume will be judged solely on its own merits.
This most recent collection is unique among the four for having been first supported via Kickstarter with the intention of producing physical copies for the first time, previous editions being available as e-books only. Rapidly and successfully funded, the collection is as you see it now.
As with any anthology collection, the writers all come from diverse backgrounds and experiences although these authors in particular all come under the heading of writers of color. The thirteen included stories cover a gamut of tales and fall under both the mystery and thriller genres and feature a variety of settings and time periods. If you are expecting pure mysteries throughout, though, you are in for some disappointment, especially since several of the stories fall more into the crime/suspense/thriller genres rather than the more traditional whodunits you might expect.
And, while there are some decent inclusions in that combination genre, they do tend to be the weaker offerings in the book. The mystery stories don’t get off scot-free however and a few of those also miss the mark. All in all, of the thirteen stories, the following are the one’s that stood out as best representing the value and mission of the book, that of presenting diverse view points and experiences with an eye toward a winter holiday setting.
In Valentine’s Vengeance: A Cozy Cat Caper Mystery by Paige Sleuth, a young man talks his friend into going on a double date with him and his new love interest. She is initially reluctant to do so, but once she gives in she swiftly finds herself involved in the murder, right before their eyes, of the man she has been paired with. The observational nature of the solution to the crime is well done and the obvious solution to the dateless situation of the protagonists is neatly side-stepped to keep this from being a more stereotypical, and therefore predictable, offering. It’s a well-built mystery that avoids cliché.
Appalachia Kidnappings by Lavelle Andrew Miller sees a pair of mystery enthusiasts exploring the snow covered wilderness where numerous unsolved murders occurred several years before. With a snowstorm on the way and a park ranger urging them to seek shelter and get to safety ahead of the storm, things soon take a turn for the worse when the ranger’s pickup crashes into a snowbank as they head down the mountain. Probably the best suspense tale in the book, the expected and obvious ending seems inevitable right up until the double and triple twist ending, which makes it all worth it.
The Case of the Missing Body: A Lara’s Detective Agency Mystery by Stella Oni is set in Nigeria and is among the first in the book to take the reader to a genuinely foreign (if you assume America is your “normal”) place, with distinctly foreign manners, patterns of thought, and modes of speech. It accomplishes all this extremely well. The mystery in question isn’t a murder but, as the title suggests, the disappearance of a body from a morgue. Not just any body of course, but that of a tribal chief. It is delightfully well put together and a pleasure to read. The various interpersonal dynamics involved are what makes it all work and draws the reader in.
The trick of Sweeten: A Naomi Sinclair Short Story by Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier lays in the mirroring of each of the main characters’ lives in the central mystery of the story. It’s not deep and revelatory, but rather quiet and personal showing each character the cost of their choices in their personal lives if they keep going as they are. Of particular enjoyment in this story is the patois on display in the language and speech of the St. Thomas islanders. Frequently, dialect speech rendered “as-is” in prose is… well, not in the best taste, let’s say. Here though, it adds a richness and flavor to the story that would be conspicuous in its absence rather than a distraction by its presence. Bernier should be congratulated for making the setting come alive just by having the characters talk the way they talk. A well done fair-play mystery with deeper ramifications for each of the participants.
Carolyn Marie Wilkins’ Delilah and the Dangerous Diva sets itself squarely at the very end of the 19th century in Boston. Delilah is her lawyer uncle’s almost but not quite secretary, given the job out of pity for her prospects. That she and her uncle, Philip, are both black at a time when, even in Boston, these things are prominent problems, plays a central role in the eventual solution to the murder mystery at hand. One of the country’s only black opera singers is in town to give a cultured performance at a local venue but soon finds herself in trouble and drags Uncle Philip and Delilah into it. Fortunately Delilah turns out to be a lot smarter than everyone gives her credit for, especially the man running the minstrel show who has brought blackface and prejudice with him from the south. Only through Delilah’s keen observation and sense of story is she able to extricate herself from difficulties and put the finger on the killer. Navigating the attitudes and prejudices of those around her feels authentic and telling and adds depth to a well constructed mystery.
Overall, Festive Mayhem 4 presents five tales well worth reading out of 13 included. Not that the remainder are bad, just that the majority of them fail to rise to the level of those mentioned above. If you are looking for some quick-to-read mysteries to fill a gap in your day and want to hear different points of views and experiences themed around holidays in one form or another while doing it, this is not a bad way to go.