A crime fiction short story has to accomplish a lot in a compressed space. It has to describe the crime involved in enough detail to make sense to readers, it has to create believable characters whose fates you care about at least enough to arouse your curiosity, if not your admiration, and the narrative has to move along briskly – skirting the law isn’t an occupation for laggards. The 21 crime stories in the new anthology Jacked manage to do all this and then some.

As a whole the collection is falls on the dark end of the spectrum, gritty and uncompromising, with a sense that the characters are teetering on the edge of something and may fly off at any moment. Strap on your seatbelt before reading.

In Andrew Miller’s Samurai ’81, a modern business rivalry between Japanese electronics manufacturers culminates in a murder with an old-fashioned weapon – a samurai sword. Los Angeles Police Department detectives Junichiro Genji and the young detective Akira, our narrator, know who the killer is. It’s a former LAPD detective and they travel to Hawai`i to track him down. Along the way, Akira learns about a brotherhood of Japanese law enforcement professionals and discovers the strengths and limits of tradition. Miller’s weaving of culture and plot makes this story a highly enjoyable read.