Bad Cop, No Donut edited by John L. French

NOTE: Bad Cop, No Donut was a free review copy provided to Luke Reviews by Dark Quest Books.


I read some mystery and crime fiction on occasion, but not often, and not nearly as much as I would like. Especially rare are original crime anthologies. So, when I received Bad Cop, No Donut, I dove at the chance to explore some new crime stories from the darker side of the genre.

What I found in Bad Cop, No Donut was a buffet of stories that were even better than expected. Editor John L. French’s “The Last Convention” was exciting from first word to last. C. J. Henderson’s “A Fine Officer” is up to his usual high standards as well.

However, there were two that really took the cake. Patrick Thomas’ “Dysmayed” took the “bad cop” theme straight to Hell, literally, with the return of his series character of Hell’s Detective.

The best of the batch, though, was the volume opener, James Chambers’ “Henkin’s Last Lies.” His characters felt perfectly real, the motivations true, and the plot twists were as believable as they were effective.

Not to say that there was a truly bad story in the bunch. You would be hard-pressed to find a new anthology out there that has as high a level of quality as this one. So if you are a fan of the rough side of crime fiction, of cops gone wrong, and noir fiction, give Bad Cop, No Donut a shot.