Dark Duets-Christopher Golden (editor)

Dark Duets Christopher Golden (editor) Harper Voyager, Jan 7 2014, $25.99 ISBN 9780062240279 This seventeen story collection focuses on “tales of horror and dark fantasy” with the caveat that each contribution must be coauthored by a collaboration of at least two writers who previously never teamed up. The compilation is very well written as expected by the highly regarded participants, but the entries often miss the dark adjective requirement and ergo are rarely horrifying. “Violence is as American as Cherry Pie” (H. Raps Brown) for the deceased as much as the living in “Wielded” by Tom Piccirilli and T.M. Wright. In “Dark Witness” (Charlaine Harris and Rachel Caine) the female struggles to cope with rape. Erin persuades her BFF Jana to come to the party where the latter learns the hard way about the cost of “Blind Love” (father-daughter team Lansdale). The troll’s feeding tastes would lock him away for life or execute him in human society for two distinct reasons in “Trip Trap” by Sherrilyn Kenyon and Kevin J. Anderson. This is a fun anthology but many of the tales use humor that lightens the intended darkness. Harriet Klausner