The Dragon Done It

This is a collection of 19 short stories and novelettes with the theme of fantasy detection. Many of them are humorous, but not all. Except for the first story by Resnick and the last one by Flint, which were written specifically for this book, they are all reprints, from as far back as 1910 for William Hope Hodgson's "The Whistling Room" (featuring Carnacki the Ghost Finder) and as recently as 2006 for Michael M. Jones's "Claus of Death." The only two I'm sure I'd read before are Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy novelette "A Case of Identity" and David Drake's "The Enchanted Bunny," but I can't say for sure about some others. Some I liked much more than others--Esther Friesner's "Gunsel and Gretel," a parody of The Maltese Falcon featuring the witch from "Hansel and Gretel" as the detective, was marvelous, whereas "Fox Tails," by Richard Parks, and the Hodgson were only so-so, but on the whole they did an excellent job of selecting, and I highly recommend this book.

The Dragon Done It is an utterly engrossing anthology of fantasy short stories with a noir twist! These private eyes live in worlds with not only dames and guns, but also witches, magic, monsters, and even creatures from nursery rhymes. From the return of John Justin Mallory (the hero of Mike Resnick's "Stalking the Unicorn: A Fable of Tonite") in "The Long and Short of It", to a female ex-cop recently turned vampire in Tanya Huff's "This Town Ain't Big Enough", to Little Jack Horner in Neil Gaiman's "The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds", to Santa Claus himself, retired and down on his luck, in Michael M. Jones' "Claus of Death", these sleuths adapt to their magical settings with the same two-fisted grit characteristic of any classic noir hero. Dragons per se may be in short supply, but dastardly culprits, lying clients, and seedy urban alleys abound in this thoroughly addictive treasury of 'whodunnits'. Highly recommended.

What fun read with lots of twists and parodies of old favorite stories, new meanings as well. I recommend it to all that enjoy a pleasant afternoon and warm book.

A little something for everyone. The stories move quickly with no intro from one to the next. Most of the stories have a humorous slant as well.