The genres Cope's chosen cover the map-from noir, mystery, and thriller, to science fiction, humor, romance, and war-and these stories range in size from a few pages to short novellas. Cope also covers a variety of writing styles, comfortable in all, with first-person narratives, third person fifties' pulp fiction, newspaper factual revelations, and extraordinary allegory, metaphors, and profound observations about the human condition abounding. Without a single exception, I find these stories the perfect antidote to the often endless drivel of today's thousand-page novels and a once-again peek into the world where every word counts. Five stars. - Jon Marshall