Baxter is a prolific short story writer whom I had never heard of until he was recommended by Howard Axelrod, and I’m now grateful for the tip.  Baxter writes about offbeat characters caught up in strange, real-world situations who recur unexpectedly in subsequent stories—Elijah, the pediatrician, Susan and Raphael; Benny, Sarah, Julian and Jane; Wes, Corinne, Astrid, Jeremy, Lucy, and Dolores; the addicted Matt Quinn and his savior lover, and others, all caught up in life’s unpredictable and possibly meaningful intersections and random events.  Minneapolis and specifically, the Stone Arch Bridge provide the background for these interlocking but independent stories all told in chapters entitled for the seven virtues and seven vices.  Not everyone’s cup of tea, but quite wonderfully crafted stories about the human condition.