Publisher's Weekly
A few gems sparkle in this mostly mediocre omnibus. Bill Crenshaw's Edgar-winning ''Flicks'' brilliantly dissects a burnt-out cop on the trail of a serial killer who slashes his victims as they watch horror movies, and probes the psyche of an audience whose thirst for gore is unquenchable. Clark Howard's first-rate ''The Dakar Run'' makes a tense car rally the occasion for a strained father-daughter reconciliation, and an atheist meditates on the existence of an afterlife in Dean Koontz's lovely ''Twilight of the Dawn.'' But readers will solve Sara Paretsky's crime long before her PI V.I. (Victoria) Warshawski, and Simon Brett spins a trendy, dull yarn on AIDS. F Paul Wilson offensively portrays a mentally retarded woman as a monster; the connection between his detective and a criminal who literally eats pretty faces is contrived and soppy. Gorman and Randisi are publisher and editor-in-chief of Mystery Scene magazine, where some of these stories first appeared.