Life Is Short and Then You Die: Mystery Writers of America Presents First Encounters with Murder

Edited by Canadian author Kelly Armstrong (The Masked Truth, The Age of Legends Trilogy. Life Is Short and Then You Die consists of 18 short stories that, as the subtitle indicates, deal with adolescents’ first encounter with murder. Ranging in length from 11 to 34 pages, most of the stories are about 20 pages in length, with two-thirds being told from a male perspective. The stories are set in the present, with two exceptions. “In Plain Sight”, by Y.S. Lee (The Agency Trilogy), the only other Canadian author in the collection, is located in Kingston (ON) Penitentiary in January, 1884, where 16-year-old Sarah Jane Pierce is completing the sixth year of a seven year sentence for the crime of stealing food. Caleb Roehrig’s “Enemy Lines”, the collection’s longest story, finds 15-year-old Fernand, a member of the French Resistance in 1942, determined to kill Col. Gerhard Volz who had cold-bloodedly shot Fernand’s father.

The stories offer great variety in how the teens actively or passively encounter the act of murder. In Armstrong’s opening story, “Floater”, the female narrator is the victim whereas in Melissa Marr’s “Daddy’s Girl”, the narrator is a teen girl who is doing the killing. In R. L. Stine’s “The Day I Killed Coach Duffy”, Doug was actually trying to prevent a homicide when he ended up becoming a killer. In Joseph S. Walker’s “Gnat”, Grant, aka Gnat, now in his junior year in high school, has been bullied since elementary school. When he accidentally records a murder and can identify the killers, he blackmails them, not for money, but a handgun. A school active shooter drill in “Concealment”, by Eileen Rendahl, triggers long repressed memories in Lucy. Given the amount of time adolescents spend in school, it is not surprising that teachers play a role in some murders as is seen in Julie Tollefson’s “A Killer Story” and Stephen Ross’ “The Things We Don’t Talk About”. Because technology plays such a central role in the lives of today’s teens, it is only logical that it be used to solve a murder as is found in Jeff Soloway’s “Murder IRL”. And the titles of some stories, such as Barry Lyga’s “Six Ways to Kill Your Grandmother”, just demand that the stories be read.

“About the Authors”, a seven-page section, concludes the book and provides brief biographical information about the collection’s authors.

Life Is Short and Then You Die is a most engaging read. For those who have not yet encountered the genre of crime literature, this collection would be an excellent introduction.