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I found this collection to be a bit of a disappointment.

The first story, The Warrior, was very good and I couldn't put it down. It is set fairly late in the Dresden series, and has some serious spoilers for new readers.
The second story was my first trip to the Nightside. Green's protagonist was too understated and powerful. I had to force myself to come back and finish it. It has a lot of action, but not a lot of tension (he'll be fine). I was disappointed by Mr. Green's Deathwalker series, and this story reminded me why.
The third was about a Greywalker. It was a lot slower and more cerebral than the other tales, probably indicative of that series (not sure, I've not read any of those books). Again, another story I could put down. If you're familiar with (or uninterested in) Day of the Dead mythology then it will be pretty boring. That said, I enjoyed it. I may have to pick up a volume or two of the actual series.
The last story was about Remy Chandler, angel and detective. It feels like it is fairly far along in the series. Again, I had mixed feelings about this one. It had a mystery, but I saw the solution immediately (and was correct). It had combat, but the question was if the protagonist would pull out his "big guns" not if he'd win. It was enjoyable, but not enough for me to rush out and buy the books. The protagonist simply feels too powerful and unstoppable from what I've read.

This was a collection of stories that involve characters that are in the private investigation business in a preternatural setting to varying degrees.

"The Warrior" by Jim Butcher

I am a fangirl of the Dresden Files series. I like it for it's snarky humor, characters that seem like people (and likeable people at that), intelligent villains that do their homework on their foes (and seem to have read the list of things evil overlords should not do), storylines that are ok about their loose ends... but I digress.

The story involves Michael Carpenter, a close friend of the wizard Harry Dresden (the narrator), a pair of holy swords and an antagonist concerned with the disposition of the aforementioned blades.

I really enjoyed the last conversation of the story, I found it extremely funny if a bit heavy handed with the info dumping. The overall pacing was good, and I enjoyed watching Harry interact with all of the people he talked to over the course of his investigation. There was a part in one of the scuffles where my credulity did get stretched some (too many times getting hit in the noggin when one already has a concussion and staying awake for it), but it didn't take away from the core of the plot and characters.

"The Difference a Day Makes" by Simon R. Green

This story (also told in first person) involves John Taylor, a PI whose magic talent is finding things and sometime denizen of the space under London known as the Nightside. He runs into a woman who wants to find out what happened to her the day before the narrative starts, since she can't recall it and her husband is missing.

I did not like this story so much. John Taylor reads rather bland to me and throughout the story I had the suspicion that I had read or watched something like it before. It seemed like a cliched hard boiled PI story except the character descriptions were a bit stranger and the setting was more oddball. I was not impressed with Liza, the dame in distress. She seemed to alternate between ninny and steady character without ever settling on a middle ground between the two. Liza also seemed to react an awful lot like the female protagonist in the book Something From the Nightside... enough so that I suspected character recycling.

I did enjoy the bit character of Dead Boy. He was somewhat amusing. Also, I want his car.

"The Third Death of the Clay Dog" by Kat Richardson

I was a little surprised to like this story. I've had consistently bad luck with female authors of urban fantasy in general. Again, it was written in first person (one might think that this is a subgenre norm) from the perspective of one Harper Blaine, an otherwise normal PI who sees dead people. She's asked to place a small clay dog statue on someone's grave in accordance with the last wishes of someone she doesn't know.

I thought that the characters were well written. Harper seemed like a decent normal character for the most part and Miguel (Mickey) reminded me of one of my siblings in some ways. This was a much slower paced story than any of the others, but the slower pace seemed to suit the story and the characters just fine. A good deal of the investigation was mundane leg work, which actually made me feel like I was reading a mystery novella rather than a fantasy novella. I felt it worked well with the characters. I may have to pick up one of Ms. Richardson's books now. :)

"Noah's Orphans" by Thomas E. Sniegoski

Written in third person, this story centers around one melancholy Remy Chandler, aka Remiel, angel and PI as he looks for the killer of Noah (the one who built the ark).

I found my credulity somewhat stretched by this story. I blame... too much divine intervention. A couple of angels running around, pretending to act like humans, I can buy that. Four of them in the same story though? Tsk, tsk. My deus ex machina alarm went off. Perhaps if I were more religious I would like this story more, but as it was, I did not find most of the characters particularly interesting. I kind of got bored of the antagonistic Sariel as well. The plot seemed overly convoluted and was not helped at all by the sudden scene changes. Pacing seemed to randomly speed up and slow down. About the only things I did like were the Chimerians and Marlowe the dog. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of focus on them.

I'm a fan of the Dresden Files, and I figured that this might help introduce me other authors I might like, given that it had a DF short story in it. Prior to reading this, the only one of these authors I'd read was Butcher.
"The Warrior was a good short story. Coherent, entertaining, internally consistent and well written. The world feels real enough, the action makes sense, the character's motivation makes sense. There's cool fight scenes, some good snark and interpersonal conflict. Prior knowledge of the dresen files would probably help but is by no means required to understand what's happening.

The other story I really liked was the last one, "Noah's Orphans." Again, the world and actions of the story made sense. Angels fighting, survivors of the deluge...it's an odd premise but within that premise the writing was clear and clean. Action was tense, and satisfying. The characters again made sense, helping suspension of disbelief be easily obtained. I understood what was going on with no prior exposure to the author or the series that the story is tied to, and will probably check out more works by the author.

"The Third Death of the Little Clay Dog" was so/so. The world made some sense, but characters weren't really all that believable. The secondary character's change of heart didn't make much sense and wasn't explained. By the end he had reasons to change his mind, but *when* he actually changed his mind he did not. The writing also felt a bit awkward and stiff to me. Still an all right read but I probably wouldn't pick up any of the grey walker series based on this.

The big miss was "What a difference a day makes." The world wasn't internally consistent; somehow a mere slip of a woman managed to hang around the most dangerous parts of Nightside (which I kind of picture as a purgatory-ish place, but without redemption) for over a day? And then, the two main characters--Taylor and Dead Boy--were so grossly overpowered that it never seemed they were really in danger. Overall, the characters felt flat, the world felt flimsy...this story was by far the weak point of the anthology.

On the whole, it's a decent collection of stories--the 1st and last ones being the best by far. Worth a read if you like supernatural thrillers or detective stories.