Tiny Crimes, edited by Lincoln Michel and Nadxieli Nieto, is a unique anthology of very short stories written by famous authors from around the world. As a nice touch, the editors include versions of the stories in their original languages as well. The forty stories in the collection all address the expression of humanity’s potential for darkness in a variety of styles and subject matter. Some of the stories are political in tone with a futuristic/dystopic view, others are more deeply psychological. The accessibility of each entry varies, depending on how experimental its form and the amount of cultural references. A few are a bit pretentious and overly wrought, but the majority are straightforward powerful punches. All have artistic merit and take only a few minutes to read, so Tiny Crimes would be good for those looking for something “interruptible” but still entertaining and thought-provoking. ( )

International flash noir, which is a great concept, but I'm thinking flash is just not my thing. I'm of the opinion that it's really, really hard to do well as plain old fiction—and especially challenging given the restrictions of setting up a tight little thriller or crime story in a couple of pages. Some of these hit it, but I feel like a lot are near misses. It also doesn't help that because the physical book got lost in my office, I read an e-galley and the formatting wasn't great—too much electronic page flipping to get through a single story, with these weird graphic devices in between. But the stories were still fun when they worked and short when they didn't, and I have to say I think it's a cool idea even if the execution fell a little short for me. ( )