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Murder in the Rough

by Otto Penzler

Otto Penzler continues to publish excellent murder-mystery collections – this time another sports-related series of short stories all containing murder on or associated with the golf links, titled Murder in the Rough. As usual, the collection includes material by some very famous authors, and even if you've never heard or read some of the others, be assured their work is equally good – even sometimes better!

Lawrence Block writes about the ultimate put-down of a golf fanatic in Welcome to the Real World, Simon Brett writes about a man claiming to be playing golf when he wasn't - almost discovered, then killed instead in The Man Who Didn't Play Golf. Ken Bruin tells a tale (Spittin Iron) about a criminal who takes golf-related revenge, and Christopher Coake tells us the story of Rachel, Her minister husband Allen, and the man she really loved but didn't marry in His Mission.

Water Hazard by Stephen Collins depicts a female champion taught primarily by her father – a man she thinks murdered her husband; and in Tom Franklin's Those Good Days a man finds himself loving a prostitute who lives on the edge of a golf course left to grow wild. Death by Golf (Jonathan Gash) gives us another look at his delightful antiques divvy, Lovejoy – this time involved in golfiana. Then there's Steve Hamilton's Room for a Fourth with its gritty saga of murder and blackmail, followed by H. R. F. Keating's historical story called Miss Unwin Plays by the Rules – a splendid tale of murder caught out.

Another extra-marital affair involving a much-too-eager female with her final come-uppance is the meat of Laura Lippman's A Good****Spoiled. Bradford Morrow writes about a migrant's son who falls in love with his brother's girlfriend in The Hoarder, and Ian Rankin gives us insight into the problems of two young people who are the daughter and son of rival gangsters in his Graduation Day. Then John Sandford steps in to tell us about framing innocent people in Lucy Had a List. Unplayable Lies, by William G. Tapply, provides insight into a caddy's helpful (if illegal) assistance.

Finally, the last story in the collection is Jon Westermann's The Secret, where the pro and assistant pro at a golf club continually hire themselves out at different places for the summer and winter months sequentially, first in the north then the south. The time is just before this northern club is closing for the winter – and the pro has already left for Florida when the assistant discovers where the pro has hidden the body he murdered.

Otto Penzler is certainly a dyed-in-the-wool murder-mystery fan – he not only runs a mystery bookstore in New York, but publishes these collections as well. Most of his collections so far have a single element in common, such as golf in Murder in the Rough, but regardless of your interest in the game or element, every collection will hold your interest. Every story proves that Mr. Penzler knows variety and good writing, as well as all the other things that make a good murder-mystery tick.

Alan Paul Curtis

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