Crime through time Book

This book was just the logical extension of my whole historical mystery craze. It's a collection of short stories by various established authors that deal with murder in different time periods. Several of the stories were quite good. The notable standout was Walter Satterthwait's Murder One, which humorously described civilization's first homicide. I was also impressed with the story by Sharon Newman and by the last entry, Dorothy Past and Present. Unfortunately, the quality of the stories varies. In particular, a large middle chunk seemed rather unfulfilling. And the short story sometimes just doesn't provide enough room for the adequate exploration of a situation. If the author designs the piece correctly, this isn't a problem. But that's assuming the author designs it correctly.