The first novella in the collection is "The Survivor" by Chisto Healy. I knew from the first few pages that this was going to be a slog. First off, and this is just a personal opinion, the character names don't fit the characters or their professions. Paulie Paisano and Sal "Guido" Corelli sound like they should be gangsters, so when you find out they're a pair of cops, you're like, "Huh?" Everything about them is un-coplike, and they come across as low-budget Keystone Cops. The author doesn't appear to have any knowledge of police procedures, and the dialogue is laughably juvenile. Likewise, the interactions between Paulie and his wife. The whole thing is awkwardly written, and I mean that in a bad way, as if the author was uncomfortable writing the scene, not that the characters themselves were uncomfortable. Then there's the obvious lack of editing. It's the little things that make me want to grab a red pen and re-edit the piece -- things like allowing the use ground when it's obvious floor is meant. It's things like that that really pull me out of the story. The character is sitting on the ground of the shower; I find that jarring enough because I'm suddenly picturing an outdoor shower.
And, unfortunately, that's as far as I got. It's rare for me to not finish a book that I start, but when you have a collection like this, the publisher would traditionally start off with the strongest work and end with a strong piece, and if "The Survivor" is the strongest story, then I can only imagine what the others are like. So slash this one off your shopping list and keep looking.
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