REVIEW: A Mouth Full of Bullets - Best of Year One - Anthology of short fiction - Mystery

Title: A Mouth Full of Bullets - Best of Year One
Authors: Various
Publisher: LuLu.com
Publish date: 2008
Length: 69 pages
Format: Paperback
Reviewer: Sassy Brit
Alternative-Read.com

A short story and poem anthology featuring the best offerings from year one of the Mystery Magazine Mouth Full of Bullets (Autumn 2006 - Summer 2007)

Working as a skip tracer, Jack travels to his home town in Baltimore in search of Tommy Roselli, where temptation to play away from his marriage bed is rising in Baltimore Bounty by Earl Staggs. Does he take it?

In The Two of Swords by S.F. Johnston, the protagonist discovers his wife's suicide note; curiously a whacko fortune teller's business card. Should he delve into a past that is probably best left alone? This reader is glad he did.

Knowing her lazy husband is not so lazy with a neighbour's wife, an oppourtunity for an accident for this protagonist is never too far away. Oh, what to do with those Weekend Chores by Sam Douglas. A convenient ending!

This is followed by a seriously sad, but well written poem by Danny Bourg. Death is imminent as Season's Change.

Gail Farrelly writes Even Steven so well, one could imagine her living through such turmoil. If you do the crime should you do the time? That depends on which position you are standing.

In Anita Page's a Blaze of Glory, sisters Mary Louise and Mary Catherine are playing with fire.

Trying to decide where to plant his dead wife's body is a major problem that takes too long for Tom Hanson in Jim Wilsky's Always Had Been.

Jillian Berg contemplates Proof of Love with her flash fiction story that ends with proof.

The death of a wifebeater raises some questions in It's My Job by Vaughn C. Hardacker.

In Danny B. Bourg's poem Too Hard to Handle, the mother of her murdered son contemplates his death.

A light fingered ex-convict gets more than he bargains for in Frank Zafiro's Short Till.

At the Scene of the Crime, author Stephen D. Rogers, ensures protagonist Flynn Wilson's life will never be the same again as Inspector Roth plays the rhyming game.

Author Guy Belleranti's henpecked Maury plans for death again in his comical poem Sincere Regrets.

House Sitter by Gay Toltl Kinman, is a book collector's worse nightmare come true!

Cancelled Vacation Plans; Just when you think you know what is going to happen, author, Gary R. Hoffman, slugs it to you!

In Herschel Cozine's On The House Joe deals with a noisy motel neighbour proving you shouldn't mess with people you don't know!

Reading Fighting Back by Sandra Seamus, the words "never play with knives" springs to mind, especially when in a fit of rage like the protagonist. Or was she?

When a Double Top is scored, a darts match gets nasty and a 21st birthday bash is one to remember. By Barry Baldwin.

In Lucille P. Robinson's Trapped, the abused protagonist just wants her life back. You'll be rooting for Mrs. Johnson and her alligators!

You never know how people are going to turn out when they grow up. And getting insurance is more costly than Flossie, the title character, bargains for in Sara Hoskinson Frommer's Flossie Locks up.

A Widow's Plight and million dollar plan is thwarted by a shyster lawyer in Dorothy Francis' story.

Kimberly Brown's Fugitive is a great story about two people who make decisions that change their lives forever.

Followed by a quirky fun poem, Pay the Piper, by Stephen D. Rogers.

Lastly, The Sixth Victim in a story by John M. Floyd, advertised as bonus original fiction. A group of student nurses take a stroll around a state-operated mental health facility where the protag Ellen Varner gets the ultimate shock of her nearly very short life.

These short stories of mystery and suspense with great characters and enough conflict to keep you turning to the next story until you've absorbed the whole lot. A rare treat for fans of this genre, with a bonus story by John M. Floyd, who also writes the foreword for this murderous edition, of poems, short stories and even shorter flash fiction. Open your mouth wide for a...
mouthful of bullets and swallow this one up in one sitting!

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