A review by otterno11
Deadly Treats: Halloween Tales of Mystery, Magic, and Mayhem by Theresa Weir, Kelly Parra, Stephen Blackmoore, Daniel Hatadi, Anne Frasier, Shirley Damsgaard, Mark Hull, Jason Evans, Leandra Logan, Paul D. Brazill, Lance Zarimba, Paula L. Fleming, L.K. Rigel, Michael Allan Mallory, David Housewright, Pat Dennis, Patricia Abbott, Julia Buckley, Marilyn Victor, Heather Dearly, Bill Cameron
2.0
It's always fun to read some spooky Halloween themed tales in the weeks leading up to Halloween, as the wind picks up and begins to blow the brightly colored autumnal foliage onto the city streets. I happened to have this one from some library book sale and thought it looked like a promising little collection of thematic literary candy to tide me over until the 31st. However, not unlike another anthology. I read some years ago, Deadly Treats was a mostly slight, inconsequential collection of short, unmemorable stories that was mostly candy corn and Bazooka Bubblegum, with only a few candy bars to be found.
Written mostly from a crime or cozy mystery perspective, the collected tales were well edited and crisply written, but really offered little of interest, mostly being a bit too pat or uneventful to maintain much atmosphere or flavor. A mix of mundane mysteries and some with a supernatural twist, many were obviously intended to be tongue in cheek. One was written, I am sure, entirely around the merits of a single bad pun, which was repeated twice and included a character laughing at it, just to make sure that we knew it was funny. However, even the ones that weren’t taking an overly silly vibe were often just too shallow to be compelling. Worst of all, Halloween seemed entirely incidental to a majority of the tales, though it may be a hard balance to maintain a sense of atmosphere while also playing tribute to a theme like this. In the end, while none of the stories seemed awful, none were really interesting enough to recommend.
Written mostly from a crime or cozy mystery perspective, the collected tales were well edited and crisply written, but really offered little of interest, mostly being a bit too pat or uneventful to maintain much atmosphere or flavor. A mix of mundane mysteries and some with a supernatural twist, many were obviously intended to be tongue in cheek. One was written, I am sure, entirely around the merits of a single bad pun, which was repeated twice and included a character laughing at it, just to make sure that we knew it was funny. However, even the ones that weren’t taking an overly silly vibe were often just too shallow to be compelling. Worst of all, Halloween seemed entirely incidental to a majority of the tales, though it may be a hard balance to maintain a sense of atmosphere while also playing tribute to a theme like this. In the end, while none of the stories seemed awful, none were really interesting enough to recommend.