Safe enough And other stories

Jack Reacher fans still reeling from the news that Child is giving up writing the popular series can take solace in two things: one, there will still be Reacher novels (written by his brother, Andrew), and two, there is still this sparkling collection of short fiction. All of these stories were previously published and none of them are Reacher tales, but still: more Lee Child to devour. Stories about cops, hired killers, FBI agents, good people, and very bad people, written in Child's usual unadorned, minimalist prose style and as-few-words-as-possible dialogue. We sense that in some of the stories he's experimenting, and the results are mostly successful, but here's the real point: even not-quite-perfect Child is pretty damned good. And it's nice to see what he does outside the world of Reacher. Child's many fans won't think twice before picking this one up, but the book might also serve to introduce, to people who prefer short fiction, this deservedly popular novelist.

Child (the Jack Reacher series) compiles 20 previously published short stories in this brooding collection. Featuring mobsters, con men, assassins, and corrupt cops, Child's self-described "very, very, very short novels" mostly focus on the worst of humanity. In "The .50 Solution," a hit man is hired to kill a racehorse; in "My First Drug Trial," an addict gets high before their moment of judgment; in "Me and Mr. Rafferty," a serial killer leaves behind grisly clues in hopes of forging a connection with a detective. Throughout, Child gleefully toys with readers' expectations, mirroring his duplicitous characters as he performs a series of satisfying bait-and-switches, most memorably in "Ten Keys," which initially appears to center on two men in a bar waiting for an assassin. His dialogue, too, has the grit and punch of top-shelf crime fiction, though it's easy to spot that many of Child's characters sound alike when reading the stories back-to-back. These stories prove that Child has more to offer than the head-splitting exploits of his most popular action hero. Agent: Rebekah Finch, Darley Anderson Agency. (Sept.)

A collection of short stories featuring the seedier side of life by one of the country's best crime writers. "Fabergé eggs they ain't," Child admits in the foreword, and he's right. These are unfancy little eggs--to stretch the metaphor--that don't overshadow his novels, and yet they satisfy our innate craving to read about other people's failings and misadventures. Some of them end in twists that harken back to O. Henry, such as "Ten Keys," where a drug-running escapade ends in a surprising way. It also has the book's best line: "He was a white guy…the product of too many generations of inbred hardscrabble hill people, his DNA baked down to nothing more than the essential components, arms, legs, eyes, mouth." "My First Drug Trial" is also like that, with a last line that pops off the page. In "The Bodyguard," a guy is hired to protect a young woman who is the high-value target of a rich and prominent couple. A nice twist at the end makes the bodyguard doubt himself, and the reader might smile. And then, in "The Greatest Trick of All," there's a professional killer who can nail you from a thousand yards and thinks he can't be stopped. Said "greatest trick" is getting paid twice for a hit, but in this case, he might be mistaken. Most of the stories won't keep you on the edge of your seat, but they're easy, brief explorations of the darker nooks and crannies of humanity. But one story takes a sad turn into the past: In "New Blank Document," a freelancer is assigned to write a sidebar about the brother of a modestly accomplished Black American artist living in Paris. The crucial, heart-rending story has to do with the fate of a second brother not everyone knows about; think Jim Crow. Finally, the title tale features a narrator you'd never want to meet in real life. Twenty tasty morsels, served over easy. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.