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Rating: 
Summary: delicacies from a well-stocked pantry
Review: The late Avram Davidson is well-represented by this collection edited by his former wife, Grania Davis, and Richard Lupoff. I have previously read and thought of Davidson as a science fiction writer, but this book demonstrates that he was a master of the mystery as well. In fact, these stories transcend their genre and desearve to be praised in the broader context of short story literature. The 13 stories were originally published between 1964 and 1992.While the primary locale for the stories is his native New York City, Davidson also uses New England, Memphis, Cyprus, "La Banana" and Mexico. They range back in time as far as the 1840's. More remarkable than their diverse settings, though, is how economically Davidson creates a sense of time, place, and mood -- with a just a handful of descriptive wordstrokes. The heat in a chinese laundry becomes palpable when Davidson describes a washman wiping his hands and bare torso before he folds an ironed shirt so that his persperation won't drip on the garment. Few of the stories' twists are predictable -- even for an old mystery hand. I finished each story smiling at the inventiveness of the plot and enriched by the esoteric pieces of information (like the origins of and differences between sea island and nanking cotton) that dot Davidson's writing like raisins in a scone.
Rating:
Summary: delicacies from a well-stocked pantry
Review: The late Avram Davidson is well-represented by this collection edited by his former wife, Grania Davis, and Richard Lupoff. I have previously read and thought of Davidson as a science fiction writer, but this book demonstrates that he was a master of the mystery as well. In fact, these stories transcend their genre and desearve to be praised in the broader context of short story literature. The 13 stories were originally published between 1964 and 1992. While the primary locale for the stories is his native New York City, Davidson also uses New England, Memphis, Cyprus, "La Banana" and Mexico. They range back in time as far as the 1840's. More remarkable than their diverse settings, though, is how economically Davidson creates a sense of time, place, and mood -- with a just a handful of descriptive wordstrokes. The heat in a chinese laundry becomes palpable when Davidson describes a washman wiping his hands and bare torso before he folds an ironed shirt so that his persperation won't drip on the garment. Few of the stories' twists are predictable -- even for an old mystery hand. I finished each story smiling at the inventiveness of the plot and enriched by the esoteric pieces of information (like the origins of and differences between sea island and nanking cotton) that dot Davidson's writing like raisins in a scone.
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