This week for Friday’s Forgotten Books hosted by Patti Abbott it seemed to me that it
was a good time to run again my 2006 review of this collection. With all the
hype regarding anthologies these days, this book was around ling before the current
craze. Published by Wolfmont Publishing nearly a decade ago, Seven
by Seven: Seven Deadly Tales Of The Seven Deadly Sins From Seven Deadly Authors
edited by Tony Burton. Not only is the anthology a good one, it features earlier
work from a number of authors who should be very well known now in and outside the
mystery community.
Other than cleaning up a typo here and there and blowing the dust off, the review below is as it was published back in 2006. For your reading pleasure.....
When this anthology was first
proposed, I withdrew from submitting to it because I believed it was a topic
done to death. As a reviewer, a month does not go by without an author querying
me about reviewing his or her new book involving the seven deadly sins. Of
course, there are the movies with too many to name here. There was also the
Prime Time Live Special last fall on the subject and I believe Dateline did one
as well early last spring. Still, I was interested in the general idea and
interested to see how it would be executed.
After an interesting forward by G.
Miki Hayden and an introduction by editor Charles A. “Tony” Burton that
amazingly manages to never once mention Dante or for that matter Shakespeare,
(both considered well known writers on the subject to put it mildly) the reader
gets to the short stories and numerous black and white illustrations. The first
sin to be considered is “Lust.”
The highlight of the section is the
story titled "True Colors” by John M. Floyd. The backdrop of a workplace
shooting is complicated when the investigating officers can’t understand the
witness clearly. But, at least they do have a witness.
“Gluttony” follows next and is
showcased by “Refrigerator Raid” penned by Kimberly Brown. Hunger can drive one
to do stupid things as Bennie and Clive soon learn.
Most of the stories in this
anthology aren’t funny and aren’t meant to be. This is not true in “Catnapping”
written by John Floyd. It is the highlight of the “Sloth” section and provides
an answer about how to solve the annoying problem of the wife’s cat. It might
just be the solution for other things as well.
Seeking personal solutions is also a
component of the highlight story of the “Greed” section. Written by Deborah
Elliott-Upton, “Money For Nothing” immediately reminds one of the song. In this
case, the chicks aren’t free and will cost big time.
Taking a different track on the same
background idea is B. J. Bourg in his story “Shot of Anger” located in the
middle of the “Wrath” section. Bourg’s story takes dead aim at unfaithfulness
and manages to twist reader expectations right at the end.
Frank Zafiro in his story “Wish”
details the hopes and dreams of one man. The highlight of the “Envy” section
considers what all of us have contemplated more than once.
The final sin covered is “Pride” and
the highlight story for this reader is “Montgomery’s Marvelous Time Machine”
written by Kimberly Brown. As she does in each section, Kimberly Brown weaves a
tale much different than expected in an anthology of this type and yet her tale
always fits the theme very well. This particular story revolves around a device
mentioned in the title and the consequences of using said device.
In addition to the authors mentioned
above, authors Sunny Frazier, (who soon will have her own novel out from this
publisher) and Gary Hoffman have stories in each section as well. Author Frank
Zafiro also has a novel currently out from this publisher titled Under
a Raging Moon which will be reviewed here and elsewhere in the near
future.
The 49 tales in this book along with
the numerous illustrations provide a quick fun read. The highlighted stories
were my personal favorites and your results may vary.
Seven by Seven: Seven Deadly Tales
Of The Seven Deadly Sins From Seven Deadly Authors
Editor/Publisher Charles A. “Tony”
Burton
Wolfmont Publishing
April 2006
ISBN# 0-9778-4020-4
Large Trade Paperback
212 Pages
$10.95
The material was provided by the
editor in exchange for my objective review.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2006, 2010, 2015
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1 comment:
Great packaging concept.
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