A collection of The Puzzle Club stories by Ellery Queen and Josh Pachter

The Puzzle Club mysteries by Ellery Queen and Josh Pachter

Happiness Is a Warm Gun is the sixth of Josh Pachter’s “inspired by” anthologies, following volumes of stories inspired by the songs of Joni Mitchell, Jimmy Buffett, Billy Joel, and Paul Simon…and by the films of the Marx Brothers. For this collection, the lyrics of the Beatles’ inspired the contributing authors to imagine a world in which murder, kidnapping, blackmail, and theft are as common as meter maids and yellow submarines. Each story was inspired by a song from one of the Fab Four’s studio albums: seventeen albums, seventeen songs, seventeen stories—by a total of eighteen authors (since one was written collaboratively by Dru Ann Love and Kristopher Zgorski, two of crime fiction’s leading bloggers). Many of the contributors, like the Beatles themselves, come from England—including award winners Martin Edwards, Paul Charles, Vaseem Khan, Christine Poulson, Marilyn Todd, Kate Ellis, and Tom Mead—while the American authors include such popular crime writers as John Copenhaver, Michael Bracken, John M. Floyd, David Dean, Joseph S. Walker, and Robert Lopresti. So roll up for the Magical Mystery Tour—step right this way! After all, when it comes to crime, all you need is…motive, means, and opportunity!

Mickey Finn: 21st Century Noir, Volume 4, the fourth entry of the hard-hitting anthology series, is another crime-fiction cocktail that will again knock readers into a literary stupor. Contributors push hard against the boundaries of crime fiction, driving their work into places short crime fiction doesn’t often go, into a world where the mean streets seem gentrified by comparison and happy endings are the exception rather than the rule. And they do all this in contemporary settings, bringing noir into the 21st century. Like any good cocktail, Mickey Finn is a heady mix of ingredients that packs a punch, and when you’ve finished reading every story, you’ll know that you’ve been “slipped a Mickey.” The nineteen contributors, including some of today’s most respected short-story writers and new writers making their mark on the genre, include: Ann Aptaker, Trey R. Barker, Michael Bracken, John M. Floyd, Nils Gilbertson, David Hagerty, James A. Hearn, Hugh Lessig, Sean McCluskey, Adam Meyer, Gabe Morran, Alan Orloff, Josh Pachter, Stephen D. Rogers, Bev Vincent, Joseph S. Walker, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Sam Wiebe, and Stacy Woodson.

"Put on your puzzling hat and your strongest shoes, because you're off on not one but eight, fantastic, puzzle-filled adventures. From solving puzzles in the jungle to finding your way through dark dungeons, this book takes you all around the world and even into space"--Back cover