Now, for the first time, they collect 100 of their mystery short stories into a five-volume series called Crimes Collide. Fifty stories total from each author, with ten stories from Rusch and ten from Smith in every volume.
Volume 1 starts off the series with light or cozy stories. Beginning with Rusch’s “Stomping Mad,” from her Spade/Paladin series, about a “murder” at a science fiction convention and ending with Smith’s “Under the Skin of Death,” from his Cold Poker Gang series, where two retired Las Vegas homicide detectives solve a cold murder case, this volume puts puzzle-solving front and center from page one.