by Glenn Dallas
City Book Review
April 4, 2012
The spirit of revolution is alive and well within the pages of Send My Love and a Molotov Cocktail!, a collection of crime stories centered around acts of rebellion, protest, and unrest. In less than four hundred pages, you’ll encounter miners on the moon fighting for better safety, black students plotting against a Klan rally, and Jewish craftsmen defending their unionizing efforts with brutal force. There’s a cop scrambling to solve a mystery amidst rampant rioting, elderly women aspiring to civil disobedience, and visions from a near-future Paris that has descended into warring factions.
The stories of Send My Love span the spectrum from noir to historical fiction, and there are some real gems between its covers. Major names from not only the crime beat, but also the sci-fi and fantasy genres, make worthwhile contributions to the set, including names like Cory Doctorow, Sara Paretsky, and Kim Stanley Robinson.
As with any short story collection, there are a few clunkers, but overall, Send My Love offers a great twist on the familiar. Heck, it’s hard to find fault with any collection that kicks off with a story by Paco Ignacio Taibo II.
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