“Sometimes revenge is the only option for what’s gotten under the skin.”
Los Angeles is the City of Angels. But these natives of Los Angeles don’t wear halos. From the beaches of Palos Verdes to the San Gabriel Valley, from Beverly Hills to Pasadena, this anthology sprawls across Los Angeles County with stories of vengeance, retribution and justice served cold. Avenging Angelenos, from newborns to neighbors, physicians to funeral directors, athletes, artists, students and teachers, have scores to settle and a nefarious itch under their skin that’s got to be scratched.
AVENGING ANGELENOS, a Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles anthology, is edited by Sarah M. Chen, Wrona Gall, and Pamela Samuels Young, with an introduction by Frankie Y. Bailey. It includes these original stories:
The Inkwell by Kathy Norris The Queen of Mean by Paula Bernstein The Magic Hour by Peggy Rothschild Gunning for Justice by Laurel Wetzork Best Served Cold by Gay Totl Kinman Manny’s Angel by Jenny Carless Avenging Superheros by Meredith Taylor The Baby by Avril Adams The Unkindest Cut by L.H. Dillman Funeral Games by Hal Bodner Christine Thirteen by Melinda Loomis
EPILOGUE with Norman August, moderator, and Sarah M. Chen, Wrona Gall and Pamela Samuels Young, editors.
Considering featuring AVENGING ANGELENOS, for your book club? Find some suggested Discussion Questions below.
1) What do you feel the title AVENGING ANGELENOS, means?
2) What do you feel the theme of each story is, and does it tie back to the title?
3) Which stories do you think are “who-dunit” stories? Which feel more like they are a “how-dunit” story? Do any feel like they are “why-dunit” stories?
4) Which short story was your favorite and why?
Librarians in Los Angeles County – if you have a Book Club at your library and want to find out how to bring some of FATALLY HAUNTED’s authors to your library, check our Speakers Bureau page for more information.
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Haunted. This word lurks within our deepest emotions. It’s a fear we can’t let go of, or that won’t let go of us. It’s a place we dream of going, or a place we can never leave. An LAPD detective is haunted by the case she never solved. A Century City financial advisor is haunted by the greed he cannot escape. A bridge is haunted by ghosts of despair.
In a city of 10 million people, the haunted could be the man waiting to cross the street, or the memory that keeps you awake at night.
Fatally Haunted, a Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles anthology, includes original stories by Julie G. Beers, Julia Bricklin, Roger Cannon, Tony Chiarchiaro, Lisa Ciarfella, Cyndra Gernet, B. J. Graf, Mark Hague, A. P. Jamison, Micheal Kelly, Alison McMahan, Peter Sexton, Gobind Tanaka, and Jennifer Younger.
Considering featuring FATALLY HAUNTED for your book club? Find some suggested Discussion Questions below.
1) What do you feel the title FATALLY HAUNTED means?
2) What do you feel the theme of each story is, and does it tie back to the title?
3) Which stories do you think are “who-dunit” stories? Which feel more like they are a “how-dunit” story? Do any feel like they are “why-dunit” stories?
4) Which short story was your favorite and why?
Librarians in Los Angeles County – if you have a Book Club at your library and want to find out how to bring some of FATALLY HAUNTED’s authors to your library, check our Speakers Bureau page for more information.*
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Los Angeles, the sun-kissed city of high hopes and second chances, where everyone seems to be from somewhere else. A siren call to dreamers, misfits, mystics and freaks, lost souls and purveyors of sin. They roll in on their last tank of gas, their suitcases bulging with secrets of pasts better forgotten. They stay for a few days, a month, a year, a lifetime. The determined and the desperate, careening and colliding toward trouble…and their last resort.
Edited by renowned authors Matt Coyle, Mary Marks, and Patricia Smiley, with an introduction by Michael Connelly, LAst Resort is comprised of sixteen mysteries about the misdeeds and downfalls of characters drawn to the cultural panoply that is Los Angeles.
Reviews:
“A stunningly extraordinary collection of fiction shorts, the book overall, combines elements that make for a deliciously wicked elixir of potently intriguing portrayals of lives at their last resort, near drowning, immersed in the murky waters of the underbelly of morality that thrives in Los Angeles. Stocked with sixteen stories from varied and well known mystery authors, each tantalizes the imagination with a population of perfectly flawed characters that come from all walks of life;” ∼ Bestsellersworld.com
“What really makes this book a success is that the shorts are written by expert storytellers who share a well-honed knack for exposing lives during their most unfortunate or fortunate times. No two narratives are remotely similar in circumstance or characterization, with each story, bringing focus to something different to the tale that twists, turns and maneuvers within the dark side of the human psyche.” ∼ MysteriesGalore.com
With stories by:
Independence Day by Avril Adams On Call for Murder by Paula Bernstein Mimo by Lynne Bronstein Seth’s Big Move by Stephen Buehler Nut Job by Sarah M. Chen The Best LAid Plans by Anne David Highland and Park Hit by Gay Degani Lead Us Not Into Temptation by Lori Dillman Thump Bump and Dump by Wrona Gall Hired Lives by Cyndra Gernet Little Egypt by Georgia Jeffries Crime Drama/Do Not Cross by Melinda Loomis Method Actor by GB Pool The Ride of Your Live by Laurie Stevens Eggs Over Dead by Wendall Thomas Today’s the Day by Mae Woods
Consider getting this anthology for your book club, and using these discussion questions as developed by Georgia Jeffries, one of the anthology authors:
LAst Resort , a collection of 16 noir stories by both veteran and first-time SinC authors, offers a wonderful opportunity for Book Club members to share their favorite take on the glamorous Los Angeles underbelly of illusion, a place where true redemption hovers somewhere in the dark beyond the Hollywood sign.
1) Which was your favorite story and protagonist? Why? 2) Have you — or has anyone you know— ever been tempted by the Los Angeles dream of fame and fortune? 3) What do all the story protagonists have in common? 4) Which story (or stories) do you think could be expanded into a full novel? What would you like to see happen to the characters? 5) Which story (or stories) have sufficient drama to be adapted into a movie or TV series? (These are L.A. tales so that might be the next step!) Who would you cast?
You can order LAst RESORTat retailers such as Amazon or Barnes and Noble, or check with your favorite bookstore.
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LADIES’ NIGHT, the Sisters in Crime Los Angeles 2015 Anthology. Including stories by:
Gigi Pandian, “Tempest in a Teapot” L.H. Dillman, “Thicker Than Water” Bengte Evenson, “Philis Barlow, P.I.” Julie Brayton, “Murder at the Castle Theater” Arthur Coburn, “Backswing” Julie G. Beers, “Ida & Aggie” Jude McGee, “The Artist Must Die” Cyndra Gernet, “Good Grief” Sarah M. Chen, “Canyon Ladies” E. Wendall Thomas, “Loser Friend” Michael Kelly, “Flight Risk” Susan Kosar-Beery, “Toxic: In the Year Twenty-One Twelve” Andrew Jetarski, “One Decent Shot”
About LADIES’ NIGHT:
From Valley Girls to Valley of the Dolls, the L.A. Woman has captured our imagination and redefined the fairer sex. CJ Parker is our lifeguard, Lucy Arnaz, our studio executive, Angelyne, our reality star, and the Black Dahlia, our murder victim. L.A. neighborhoods have spawned the Beverly Hills housewife, the Hollywood starlet, the Van Nuys dominatrix, the Santa Monica Surf Betty and the Manson girls, to name a few.
LADIES NIGHT
Publisher: Down & Out Books Pub Date: June 1, 2015 Trade Paperback Price: $14.95 Trade Paperback ISBN:978-1937495923
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LAST EXIT TO MURDER Publisher: Down & Out Books Pub Date: June 17, 2013 Trade Paperback Price: $16.95 e-Book Price: $6.99 Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-937495-56-5 eBook ISBN: 978-1-937495-55-8 To purchase on Amazon, clickhere.
Edited by: Darrell James, Linda O. Johnston and Tammy Kaehler with an introduction by Gary Phillips
Contributing Authors: L.H. Dillman “Cam the Man”; Donna May “Rocket 88”; Laura Brennan “Driving Dead Daisy”; Lynn Allyson “Identity Crisis”; Andrew Jetarski “Dance Man”; Miko Johnston “By Anonymous”; Beverly Graf “Shakata Ga Nai”; Sally Carpenter “Dark Nights at the Deluxe Drive-in”; Laurie Stevens “Kill Joy”; Stephen Buehler “Not My Day”; Nena Kelty “Road to Revenge”; Julie Beers “The Last Joy Ride”; Eric Stone “Traffic Control”; Avril Adams “The Lowriders”; Bonnie Cardone “The Last of the Recycled Cycads”; Paul D. Marks “Dead Man’s Curve”
Theme: From the Low Riders that nightly cruise the Sunset Strip, to the infamous Dead Man’s Curve immortalized in song, Southern Californian’s fascination with their cars has long been the fodder of legend and has defined a culture known for its fast-paced and sometimes reckless lifestyle. Now, sixteen tantalizing stories from L.A. authors takes us on a Joyride through the darker streets of Los Angeles. At the signpost, just ahead, your… LAST EXIT TO MURDER.
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Publisher: Top (1st edition, May 2010) ISBN-10: 192997664X ISBN-13: 978-1929976645 ASIN: B0046ZRL6G (October 11, 2010) Trade paperback To purchase on Amazon, click here.
Edited by: Naomi Hirahara, Eric Stone and Juliet Blackwell with an introduction by Michael Mallory. Anthology committee members include Darrell James, Lori Wolf and Ashley Ream.
Contributing authors: Paul Marks, Jack Maeby, Pam Ripling, Jane DiLucchio, Gabriela Vazquez, Michael Mallory, Teri Nolan, Jude McGee, Patricia Morin, Kathy Kingston, Kathleen Piché.
The anthology features stories that reflect a Los Angeles experience rarely depicted by Hollywood, much less witnessed by the casual visitor. Los Angeles, the City of Angels, is home to Hollywood and Beverly Hills. It’s where everyone is auditioning for a part, and where lies and deceit come veiled as glitz and glamour. Join us, if you dare: view a vampire movie in our Forever Hollywood Cemetery, or take a walk along the concrete banks of the L.A. River. But watch your step. Murder brews within the micro-cosmic homeless communes that call it home and sometimes riffs on melodic waves from the jazz street musicians just down the block. Twelve stories of mystery, murder, and mayhem, from the authors of Sisters In Crime/Los Angeles will send you scrambling for a bus ticket home. But watch your back. As they say… “Nobody leaves L.A.”
Editor Juliet Blackwell said of Murder in La-La-Land: “The most difficult task, by far, was choosing amongst all the fabulous entries.” Says editor Eric Stone: “All too often anthologies of stories about Los Angeles play up the clichés about the place: Hollywood, the beach, palm trees, 1940s-style noir. So I thought it was important to try to get a mix of stories that dealt with other parts and aspects of the city, to help give a broader picture of this place. That’s one of the thematic things that I first looked for in helping pick the stories. Jack Maeby’s story, ‘Beethoven’s Last Chorus,’ is a good example of that. It’s contemporary, but set in South Central L.A. in the remnants of the once great music scene there. It is firmly rooted in Los Angeles and its history, but may come as a surprise even to people who live here. That sort of thing was my primary interest in terms of theme.
“Then, of course, like any good short story,” Eric notes, “the stories had to grab me as quickly as possible; ideally from the first sentence on, but certainly within the first three or so paragraphs. A short story that doesn’t have me hooked in some way by the end of the third paragraph is not going to be a great short story. It is possible that something might happen later that will turn it around and make it a good short story, but it isn’t going to be great.
“Some stories try to do too much; they are really thinly disguised book ideas. Short stories and novels are entirely different forms. So it was important to me that the stories weren’t too big – a slice of life, not the whole pizza. A story can deal with a big theme, but it needs to do it from a smaller point of view. Jack’s story did that, as did the other stories I edited: ‘Continental Tilt’ by Paul Marks, ‘Just Like Jay’ by Pam Ripling, and ‘This I Know’ by Kathy Kingston, as well as all of the stories that made it into the anthology.
“It was particularly pleasing that most of our submissions were from writers who either haven’t yet published a book, or who are just starting out,” Eric continues. “One of the things I’ve always loved about Sisters in Crime as an organization is how supportive it is of aspiring writers, not just established authors. This anthology really helps uphold that. The fact that it was put together from a blind submission process to fill the entire book, without anyone specifically invited by name to submit, is one of its strengths, as it is one of the organization’s.”
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Publisher: Top (October 2, 2006) ISBN-10: 1929976372 ISBN-13: 978-1929976379 Trade Paperback To purchase on Amazon, click here.
Edited by noted mystery authors Harley Jane Kozak, Michael Mallory and Nathan Walpow, conceived by author and television writer/producer Susan Kosar Beery, with a foreword by bestselling mystery author Taylor Smith.
Contributing authors: Gay Ann Degani, G. B. Pool, Darrell James, Dee Ann Palmer, Paul D. Marks, Kate Thornton, Jinx Beers, Pamela Samuels Young, Arthur Coburn, and A.H. Ream.
LAndmarked for Murder is a must read for anyone who enjoys a stroll down L.A. mean streets. There is far more to the city of Los Angeles than can be discovered through the ordinary guidebooks, much of it dark, dangerous, even deadly. To find those hidden, shadowy corners of the L.A., where the less-than-angelic denizens of the City of Angels reside, read LAndmarked for Murder, a fictional travelogue through some of LA’s most notable natural and manmade landmarks, each of which serves as the setting for ten tales of dark passions and murder.
According to reviewer Jackie Houchin of the Valley News, “The stories range from darkly noir to madcap comedy, from the realistic to the bizarre, and from the present day to the summer of 1942 … Whether it’s at the old Biltmore Hotel or the ultra-modern Bonaventure, on the campuses of USC or Caltech, or at the Santa Anita Race Track, there is nowhere you are safe from the criminal mind and the wicked deed… LAndmarked for Murder is the best of the Sisters-in-Crime/LA anthologies so far.”
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Publisher: Top (October 2002) ISBN-10: 1929976194 ISBN-13: 978-1929976195 Trade Paperback To purchase on Amazon, click here.
Edited by: Rochelle Krich, Michael Mallory & Lisa Siedman.
Contributing authors: Gabriella Diamond, Dale Furutani, Linda O. Johnston, Gay Toltl Kinman, Dana Kouba, Paul D. Marks, Gayle McGary, Richard Partlow, Anne Riffenburgh, Kate Thornton, Joan Waites, and Mae Woods.
“Sunset Boulevard, the almost mythical street that runs from downtown L.A. to the Pacific Ocean, is the setting for all of the stories in this anthology by members of the L.A. chapter of Sisters in Crime. Each story is set in a different neighborhood, providing an overview of the city. Beginning with Dana Kouba’s “Closing Time,” set in a downtown, working-class bar, and continuing west through Echo Park, Hollywood, and Beverly Hills to the exclusive Malibu estates, the stories are full of hopeful future stars, arrogant directors, lawyers, and police detectives. There is even a cameo appearance by Philip Marlowe. Paul D. Marks writes “L.A. Late @ Night” as a screenplay, while Gabriella Diamond offers the ultimate in irony and revenge in “Black and Red and Dead All Over.” Short story fans will enjoy this trip down Sunset Boulevard.” –Barbara Bibel, Booklist
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DESSERTICIDE II AKA JUST DESSERTS AND DEADLY ADVICE
Publisher: Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles; 2nd edition (June 2000) ISBN-10: 096790370X ISBN-13: 978-0967903705 Trade Paperback Edited by: Diane Jay Bouchard and Gay Toltl Kinman
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Publisher: Uglytown Productions; 1st edition (May 1, 2000) ISBN-10: 0966347323 ISBN-13: 978-0966347326 Trade Paperback To purchase on Amazon, click here.
Edited by: Susan B. Casmier, Aljean Harmetz and Cynthia Lawrence
Contributing authors: “Sentence Imposed” by Kris Neri, “Wifely Duties” by Cory Newman, “Push Comes to Shove” by Nathan Walpow, “Fatal Tears” by Ekaterine Nikas, “Miss Parker & the Cutter-Sanborn Tables” by Gay Toltl Kinman, “Driven to Kill” by Jamie Wallace, “Touch of a Vanish’d Hand” by Phil Mann, “Ai Witness” by Kate Thornton, “Over My Shoulder” by Lisa Seidman, “The Cats and Jammer” Gayle McGary, “Copycat” by Joan Myers, and “Midnight” by Dorothy Rellas.
Tales of Murder from Los Angeles. Seedy or glamorous … Hollywood or Malibu … cool, enraged, or totally fed up–meet a collection of fascinating culprits plotting deadly deeds in this anthology of gripping crime fiction from a thrill-minded group of Los Angeles writers.
A perfect book for curling up in an overstuffed chair before a crackling fire, iron poker close at hand, just in case… –ForeWord Magazine, August 2000
12 authors from The Los Angeles Chapter of Sisters In Crime have put together a doozy of an anthology. There’s not a weak story in the batch. In “Fatal Tears,” Ekaterine Nikas has crafted a wonderfully intricate tale of two sisters that will keep you guessing until the last page. “Touch of a Vanish’d Hand” by Phil Mann is a perfect locked room mystery reminiscent of the best of Sherlock Holmes. Another favorite was “Midnight” by Dorothy Rellas. This story of cross and double cross features a female PI protagonist I’d love to see again. Each story is a gem that will be remembered long after you close the cover. And speaking of the cover–take a closer look. It alone is worth the price of the book. Way to go, ladies (and gentlemen) of LA SinC. Keep ’em coming. –Amazon reviewer Maureen Morrison
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