First Thrills

Lee Child joins the International Thriller Writers organization in editing this anthology of twenty-five original stories, none of which has appeared in print before. The contributors include established ITW members and newer voices in the genre, and the crimes on the page range from murder and deception to outright chaos.

The collection opens onto a varied set of premises. A schemer tries to pin his offenses on a young child. A medical trainee in a hospital begins stealing corpses. A priest finds himself face to face with the man who killed his wife, now awaiting execution. A Civil War soldier returns to the woman he loves, but the homecoming is not what either of them expected. Elsewhere, a deep-sea find sets off a discovery that could change how a man sees the world, and a dying man's final request reveals what kind of person he has always been. A covert agent, meanwhile, is drawn into a game of misdirection where it is unclear who holds the upper hand.

The book suits readers who enjoy crime and suspense in short form and want to sample many writers in one volume. It may also lead them to authors they will want to follow beyond these pages.