What do you get when you take a half dozen dynamic writers and set them free with the task of writing novellas about controlling family members, nosy neighbors, vengeful coworkers, and internet stars? That would be the Busybodies collection of short stories that combine mystery, humor, revenge, karma, and people with too much time on their hands.

In Staged, Elle Cosimano (writer of the popular Finlay Donovan series) tells the story of a real estate agent who is trying to gain some traction at her office by putting in some extra work on her latest house for sale. Lyda enlists the help of her best friend and some local contractors to fix up the Victorian she’s trying to sell, but when her landscaper ends up dead in the bedroom, Lyda will have to do some fast detective work to find the killer and earn her commission.

Jesse Q. Sutanto keeps it all in the family, when Josephine Ying hosts her first Chinese New Year get-together for The Reunion Dinner. She had been wanting to host the dinner for years, so this year is special, especially when her son announces he has a big surprise. Josephine is dreaming of something sparkly for her, as his Wall Street job is just down the street from Tiffany’s, but instead he shows up with a fiancée. And when she turns up dead, Josephine finds out that the family has far more suspects than she thought.

When a very expensive necklace goes missing during a fashion photography shoot, it’s the closet assistant who has to figure out what happened in Emma Rosenblum’s Crime of Fashion. Nellie is an OCD wannabe writer working for Elle in the fashion closet, organizing all the clothes and accessories that designers lean them. But when a $3 million necklace goes missing during a cover shoot, Nellie knows that she will be the one to lose her job if it doesn’t show up. She has to plan out her investigation with the same sort of system she has for keeping the closet in perfect shape, if she wants to save the day and keep her job.

Nita Prose (author of The Maid) goes to Florida in The Nosy Neighbor, where Madge spends her days looking out the window and talking to her husband. Meanwhile, across the street Doris is living her life. She’s trying out tai chi and painting live models. She even insists her husband join her in flamenco lessons. Her husband Bob is less enthusiastic about her hobbies. He’s in his mid-70s also, asthmatic and exhausted. But he takes the dance classes with Doris, and even joins her on a trip to Spain. Doris asks Marge to look after their house while they’re gone, and water the new flowers in the back. But Marge starts to wonder just what is under those flowers, and she goes a little crazy.

In Kellye Garrett’s One Lucky Subscriber, Kidd, a guy with ten million followers online hosts a giant game of hide-and-seek in a mall after hours. There is $50,000 on the line, and most of the ten contestants have been in his games before. They were chosen by his audience through comments on their videos. But then there is Kennedy, the one lucky subscriber, who got chosen at the last minute. She has sole custody of her little brother, so that money would really come in handy. But she has to survive the night, and an attempt on Kidd’s life, to try to win that golden briefcase.

And lastly, in Alicia Thompson’s A Classic Case, a quiet woman spends her Wednesday afternoons in a classic movie rental shop. Audrey has a little bit of a crush on the owner Grant, but she is intrigued by Mr. Hoffman. He is a retired man who comes into the shop every week at the exact same time and rents the same movie every week, She Who Laughs Last, starring Katia Kelly. But when Mr. Hoffman doesn’t show up one Wednesday, Audrey gets concerned. Grant shrugs it off, but he has also has a suspicious bandage on his hand. Audrey finds Mr. Hoffman’s address and heads to his house to see if he’s okay, but what she finds there only brings up more questions.

These six stories are all about similar themes, but they couldn’t be more different. They are smart and intriguing, and they all have twists you can’t see coming. I enjoyed reading them all, and I loved getting a small glimpse into all these authors’ minds. If you’re not interested in all of them, you can buy only the stories that you are drawn to, but for me, I’m glad I read the whole collection. I wanted to read some because I am a big fan of Cosimano, Sutanto, and Prose. And now that I’ve read the stories by Garrett, Thompson, and Rosenblum also, I’m a fan of theirs too. These are tasty appetizers, and now I want to read more.

Egalleys for The Busybodies Collection were provided by Amazon Original Stories through NetGalley, with many thanks.