Matchup is a collection of short thrillers, but with a twist.
Each story pairs a male and female author and takes one of their most famous
characters and matches them up in a brand new story.
Some of the most iconic characters come together to solve
crimes in this anthology, and what makes it remarkable is that the characters
span different decades or even species, yet the authors make it work. Joe Pickett and Lee Coburn start the
collection with gunshots fired in a ranger's park. Footloose brings us a story
of a foot fetish gone wrong. Jack Reacher and Temperance Brennan team up when
one of them is falsely accused of murder. Past Prologue gives us an intriguing
look at what could happen with time travel and artefacts being passed through
the centuries. Liz Sansborough gets help from Rambo in solving a crime in a
unique way. Short Story is certainly not that at all, being the longest in the
collection, but cuts an interesting take on a scam gone wrong. Harper Connelly
uses her mystical ability to speak to the bones of the dead to change sceptic
Ty Hauck's mind. Deserves to be Dead follows a case of mistaken identity and
abuse. Lucan Thorne and Lilliane Williams work together to make sure that
humans are not able to prove the existence of supernatural creatures. Getaway
is anything but a vacation, since secrets lurk in the woods. Bravo Shaw and Ali
Reynolds close the collection and find themselves retrieving a religious relic
while dodging those who would kill to claim it.
I really enjoyed this matchup of stories. Even though all of
the stories are crime thrillers the authors came in from different angles and
looked at crime in different ways. The partnerships among the authors created
almost seamless transitions between the writing styles and nowhere was it
blatantly obvious that it was a collaboration. I truly admire the way they were
able to blend characters together that in some instances would never have been
in the same time period let alone part of the world.
This is a highly recommended collection and many thanks to
NetGalley for the advance copy.
