Reviews for The Year's best mystery & suspense stories, 1982

The average rating for The Year's best mystery & suspense stories, 1982 based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-10-02 00:00:00 Michelle Pratt And so another classic Asimov is read - this time a series of mysteries. These are the classic tales retold format where one of the characters recounts a tale, a suitable mystery that the other characters comment and question on. Then the story stops and the question is posed in such a way that not only do the rest of the characters get to comment but the reader (in this case me) gets to rack my brain to try and figure it all out. Doing a little research it turns out that these stories were originally written for a monthly magazine publication. The word count and format were fixed so that to make them work they had to fit each month. This does give the stories an episodic feel to them which it obvious considering their heritage however if you are looking for something to dip in and out of this format is perfect. Now having read some of the black widower books this could be mistaken as a bit of a copy and a imitation, not so as here the original printing brief keeps them sharp and to the point. What is more Asimov himself makes a huge point about short stories and how they are a much misunderstood format which he made great efforts to prove was just as effective at carrying a story as a multi-volume epic. I guess he knew what he was talking about.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-09-27 00:00:00 Jeremy House All said and done, Asimov is not a mystery writer. I read it during my early twenties, when my adulation of Asimov was at its peak. I guess I would rate this only two stars if I review it now.