Ed Gorman: The Collected Ed Gorman Volume 1 – Out There in The Darkness
Ed Gorman is a name which is familiar to most readers of mystery, crime or suspense stories. His short stories are widely published in Ellery Queen and other magazines, he has several novels (including the Sam McCain books) and he has edited many collections of notable works. (See, for example, Between the Dark and the Daylight
The collection consists of nineteen stories: Moonchasers (actually a novella); The Reason Why; The Old Ways; The Ugly File; A Girl Like You; Angie; Mom and Dad at Home; Dancers; Mother Darkness; En Famille; Friends; Different Kinds of Dead; Our Kind of Guy; Layover; Turn Away; Deathman; Beauty; Brothers; and Out There in the Darkness. Some of these have been published in other anthologies (as well as in magazines) so it wouldn’t be surprising if mystery/crime/suspense fans have read at least one of them in another venue.
The primary attribute of this collection is the variety of the stories. Some authors have a method of presentation or development or structure which runs through all their works and which produces a recognizable and familiar style. Sometimes it is formulaic and enjoyable; at other times (in the worst cases) it leads to a “read one, read them all” mentality. Ed Gorman is not this type of author. There are some common aspects to his stories but there is no repetition.
His stories involve a variety of actors: children, mothers, fathers, professional hitman, vigilante killers, even an executioner. Some kill because they are paid to do so, some commit crimes of passion, some seek revenge, and some are accidental killers. He also uses a variety of settings: cities, small towns, a ghetto, the suburbs and the old west. Some of the stories create suspense and darkness without a crime, for example, “The Ugly File”, whose villain is nature, and “A Girl Like You” which is speculative fiction and not a crime story. “En Famille” and “Different Kinds of Dead” include murders but the murder is secondary to the plot of the story (and it supports the plot extremely well). “Turn Away” centers on euthanasia which may or may not be a crime depending upon where one lives.
There is one method which Ed Gorman uses in most of his stories. He gives back story which brings us to understand why the person is acting the way s/he is. There are no confusing crimes in his stories. We may not (and shouldn’t) agree with the action but we understand how the person came to this point. Mr. Gorman gives an understanding of why it happened — he makes sense of the the crime — without excusing the crime. In some cases we see that if a person had made different choices earlier in life then the person wouldn’t have come to the moment of the crime. This is the case in “Brothers”. In other stories it seems that the person was doomed from the start — the environment and uncontrollable forces seem to push the person through situations and actions (see “En Famille”).
Two stories in the collection focus on the fact that people make choices and can (at least most of the time) decide how they will act. In “Layover”, a man set on for revenge makes a new friend and gains perspective on his life. “Out There in the Darkness”, the last story in the collection, takes us through the decisions and actions of four friends. We see how bad decisions lead to additional desperate circumstances which in turn are opportunities for more bad decisions. This tale alone is probably worth the price of the book. It is an incredibly well-written story which progresses through layers of suspense. The plot is a classic and the ending is as logical as it is surprising.
Ed Gorman is skilled and masterful. This collection has a breadth of varieties of mystery, crime and suspense writing. I gave this book five stars. I don’t think anyone interested in the genre will be disappointed with it.
copyright 2012 by the author
Kentucky Serendipity 
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