Lawrence Block (ed.): Opening Shots (USA 2000)

From the Publisher:
Readers enthralled by the works of great mystery and crime writers will find something new in Opening Shots. This collection offers not only the first published short stories of twenty prominent writers, but also features each author's recollections of the trials and thrills of making that unforgettable first sale. Opening Shots humanizes legendary writers and revisits the cutting-edge work from which raw talents broke through in bold and sometimes experimental fashion.

Joan Hess's "Death of a Romance Writer" offers a nifty and humorous literary twist -- an inside joke -- that Hess describes as "a dollop of revenge for all the abused heroines of romantic fiction." But there's nothing funny about James Sallis's "Jim and Mary G," a disturbing story with a sad conclusion that can be interpreted in more than one way. Says Sallis, "I was just starting to try and write stories that might be read in several ways, or on several levels, simultaneously."

Between its wide variety of stories and styles and its candid personal reflections from the authors themselves, Opening Shots is a compelling anthology that entertains and offers a glimpse beyond the page and into the mind of the writer.

Lawrence Block (ed.): Opening Shots. Great Mystery and Crime Writers Share Their First Published Stories. Cumberland House Publishing, ISBN: 1581821255 (October, 2000), 397 p.,$24.95.