CRACKING CASES IN THE REAGAN ERA: SLEUTHS JUST WANNA' HAVE FUN- PRIVATE EYES IN THE MATERIALISTIC EIGHTIES edited by Michel Bracken

The eighties were an interesting time for fictional private eyes. V.I. Warshawski and Kinsey Millhone broke the glass ceiling. The slicker, lighter P.I.s like Thomas Magnum and Simon & Simon pushed their scruffier seventies brethren off he small screen and few could be found on the large one. Editor Michael Bracken oversees a collection of P.I. yarns reflecting the decade and its style in Sleuths Just Wanna' Have Fun.

Two of the stories center on historic television episodes. Debra H. Goldstein's fledgling Dallas detective gets a chance to prove her worth when she goes undercover at The South Fork Ranch to find out "Who Killed J.R." for a client who wants to know ahead of airing. The description of Patrick Duffy is worth reading alone. Andrew Welsh-Huggins looks at war in peace time in "M*A*S*H*-Up" with a Vietnam vet investigator looking for a missing Korean vet, who is a fan of the sitcom, and is asked to bring him home before the famed final episode. The reveal is wonderful.

Two P.I.s deal with thefts tied to the decade. In "A Sign Of The Times" a member of the Mondale campaign hires Tom Milani's Steve Kahler to figure out who is stealing yard signs. It's a another story with a moving wrap up. Alan Orloff moves gracefully from humorous to touching when his hero tracks down a collectable Cabbage Patch doll in "The Kids From the Patch".

I was excited to see two of my favorite authors in the anthology. William Dylan Powell 's Texas shitkicker sleuth gets caught up in the "Satanic Panic". Powell captures the tone of both the myth and reality of the situation with some laughs that he can always be counted on for. Laura Oles has a maid team up with her wanna'-be detective brother when she is falsely accused of stealing at a Florida hotel owned by infamous business woman Leona Helmsley A.K.A. "The Queen Of Mean". The story shows off her concise and clean style though with a family that's less dysfunctional then her usual norm.

The fourteen tales cover the eighties from beginning to end. Mark Theilman's security specialist gets involved with the U.S. hockey team and a questionable skater during the Lake Placid Olympics. Elizabeth Elwood takes her detective to the Montreal Expo, and John M. Floyd wraps up the collection at the end of 89' as his actor-turned-PI working a case before Mississippi's Big Freeze. Sandra Murphy touches on New Coke, James A. Hearn poignantly incorporates Haley's Comet, and Richard Helms delivers a detective yarn in the style of a Penthouse Forum letter. There is little violence and most of the stories have light and humorous way about them. Stephen J. Cannell could have turned them all into a series.