Marcia Talley (Editor), I'd Kill for That

I'd Kill for That

Marcia Talley (Editor)

St Martin's, May 2004, $23.95, 272 pp.

ISBN 0312290578

Gryphon Gate is an affluent gated community in the rich part of Maryland. This waterfront property of mini-mansions is home to senators, industrialists and pop icons and all of them have secrets they would kill to keep. One night at least four of the residents receive a fax telling them to be on the sixth tee of the golf course. Embedded in the messages is the name of a person that frightens each recipient so they are forced to comply.

When one of the ladies arrives she finds the body of one of the residents, a harmless nerdy sociology professor who was the confidant of many of the residents but also wrote down whenever he was told or observed. Three other murders quickly follow and the police don't have a clue as to who did it because almost every resident had a motive and the opportunity to do the deed. The only fact that the police are sure of is one person did the killings.

I'D KILL FOR THAT is a collaborative serial novel in which one writer pens a chapter and another author crafts the next chapter. This police procedural is written by twelve female mystery and suspense notables that include Rita Mae Brown, Kathy Reichs, Anne Perry and Kay Hooper. The community of Gryphon Gate is a miniature Peyton Place complete with bed-hopping, criminal activity and a man who thinks and behaves like a werewolf at the time of the full moon. Each chapter flows smoothly into the next so that it feels like one author wrote this tale. Marcia Talley and her dozen cohorts deserve kudos for this successful project.

Harriet Klausner