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Like a Charm is the round-robin collaborative novel-in-stories edited by Karin Slaughter, with each chapter written by a different crime writer and the chain centered on a malicious gold charm that brings disaster to whoever owns it next. The roster (Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Peter Robinson, John Connolly, Mark Billingham, Denise Mina, others) is one of the strongest the collaborative-novel form has assembled.
What lifts the book above other writers-write-together exercises is the structural commitment. Each chapter has to be both its own short story and a continuation of the chain, and the writers honor both requirements. Lee Child's chapter is a Reacher set piece that uses the form for a particular kind of comic timing. Michael Connelly's chapter is the most procedural. Denise Mina's is the bleakest.
Four stars. A pleasant overview of contemporary crime-fiction voices. Recommended to readers who want a sampler of the form.
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