Anthologies

Is there any greater thrill than staring down your opponent across the poker table, waiting for the card that will make or break your hand? Acclaimed YA novelist Pete Hautman would know—he’s been a poker fanatic for thirty years. And with poker now an international TV phenomenon, the time seems right for an anthology about this most exciting game. From a contest that pits a hapless teen against his girlfriend’s redneck family, to a midnight game with the Devil, to an Internet poker scheme gone horribly wrong, the stories here brilliantly reveal how poker can both irrevocably affect and eerily imitate teenage life.

In Once Upon a Crime, some of the best mystery and crime writers in the nation offer up tales of tragedy and revenge, suspicion and intrigue. Among the award-winning contributors are S.J. Rozan, Sujata Massey, C.J. Box, William Kent Krueger, Pete Hautman, David Housewright, Lois Greiman and Mary Logue. The collection includes a Christmas tale that is not full of good cheer and the misadventures of a car thief who has stolen the wrong car. One humorous story involves a Botswana police detective who finds an unusual way to track down a murder suspect; another offers a chilling tale of the Holocaust.