Julie Smith: Mean Rooms (USA 2000)

From the Publisher:
Edgar award-winning author Julie Smith's books are variously dark, antic, deductive, wry, sensual, funny and genuinely frightening-all of which aptly describe her short stories. In "Grief Counselor" a do-gooder hones his skills the hard way, just as the poet in "Silk Strands" finally learns the real meaning of poetic justice. "Blood Types" and "Cul-de-Sac" feature favorite heroine attorney Rebecca Schwartz, while in "Always Othello," Edgar award-winning detective Skip Langdon investigates the mysterious death of a psychic who didn't foresee it.

In "Too Mean to Die," mother and daughters don't see eye-to-eye, and "Montezuma's Other Revenge" is as funny as its title. "Crime Wave in Pinhole" is a little gem of humor, and in "Strangers on a Plane," a selfish act shows the positive side of human nature. A divorced woman in search of her ideal man meets him in "Where the Boys Are." From the high art of revenge in "Fresh Paint" to the depths of the Antarctic in "The End of the Earth," this collection proves that Julie Smith is indeed one of those writers who never writes the same story twice.

"Make no mistake about it, Julie Smith can write." -- San Francisco Chronicle

Contents:
Introduction -- Silk Strands. -- Grief Counselor -- Where the Boys Are -- Fresh Paint. -- Blood Types -- Always Othello. -- Too Mean to Die. -- Montezuma's Other Revenge -- Project Mushroom -- Cul-de-Sac. -- Crime Wave in Pinhole -- Strangers on a Plane -- The End of the Earth

Julie Smith: Mean Rooms. A Short Story Collection. Five Star, ISBN: 0786223642 (March, 2000), 196 p., $22.95.