Anthologies
The mean streets of north Florida may be desolate rural highways or backwoods dirt roads, but they are no less capable of cruel indifference to criminal acts than their urban analogues. The ubiquitous slash pines remain just as silent as their concrete and steel counterparts in the asphalt jungle when witnessing the wicked and inhumane ways of humanity. North Florida Noir, the first in a series that explores the dark side of the sunshine state, is a collection of short stories that are noir in ways that only north Florida can be. From classic noir through contemporary neo-noir to future sci-fi-noir, this anthology traverses a diverse terrain telling disparate stories of desperate people committing dangerous acts and deadly deeds. Step back into the Panama City of the 1940¿and meet wounded, woman-haunted PI, Jimmy "Soldier" Riley, in Michael Lister¿s In a Spider¿s Web. Soldier is the main character in a new noir PI series that begins with the novel, The Big Goodbye. Pensacola is PI, Connor Samson¿s beat, and in Florida¿s westward-most town, he¿s about to see how sweet, alluring, and ultimately deadly A Kiss Like Money can be. Written by Victor Gischler of Gun Monkey¿s fame. Guilt, shame, lies, what¿s a little deceit among friends? Explore the true nature of betrayal in Diane Vogt¿s Death¿s Deceit. Visit a Panama City Beach yet to exist in Lon Prater¿s bleak vision of the future in the sci-fi noir story, Legwork. Judge Terry Lewis, author of Conflict of Interest, turns the gavel on a retired judge and gives new meaning to the words Pea Bargain. These and many other dark crime stories await you in North Florida Noir.
A dollar donation for every book sold will be given to the Rock River Foundation, a charity dedicated to helping the arts and literacy in the Delta. Contributing to the volume are Ace Atkins, Lynne Barrett, James Lee Burke, Suzann Ellingsworth, Beth Ann Fennelly, Bill Fitzhugh, Tom Franklin, John Grisham, Carolyn Haines, Charlaine Harris, Suzanne Hudson, Alice Jackson, Dean James, Toni L.P. Kelner, Michael Lister, Daniel Martine, Mary Saums, David Sheffield, Nathan Singer, and Les Standiford. From the introduction by Morgan Freeman: This collection of short fiction captures both the art of the tale and the power of the blues, and is a nod at the human condition that often inspires musicians to write and sing the blues. These stories tell about bad men and bad women who sometimes do good?or sometimes follow their true nature. Some of these characters know all about the dangers of making a bargain with the devil. And some know the power of redemption. These are characters who would not be out of place in a Honeyboy Edwards tune, and would be right at home alongside the desolate wail of Clarksdale, Mississippi, native Son House.
Florida?like hell, only hotter. Florida Heat Wave, edited by Michael Lister, is a collection of crime stories set in the gun-shaped state by Floridas foremost crime writers. Oppressive. Stifling. Crazy-making. The suffocating heat makes you do things?it seeps in through your pores and sucks the life out of you. Like the bloody smear of a swatted mosquito on sweat-soaked skin, violence erupts suddenly, but the damage it does lingers long after. From the pine-tree lined rural highways of North Florida through the tourist traps of Central Florida to the tropical, international environs of SOBE, come stories of sun-faded noir, orange pulp served up freshly squeezed by the Sunshine States very best practitioners. Stories from: James O. Born, James W. Hall, Lisa Unger, Alice Jackson, Jonathon King, Jim Pascoe, Carolyn Haines, Tom Corcoran, Raven McMillian, Mark Raymond Falk, Christine Kling, John Lutz, Carolina Garcia-Aguilera, Michael Lister, John Dufresne, Bob Morris, John Bond, and Mary Anna Evans.