Last Resort

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

Selected by ALA Book Club Central as a Pick for May 2019

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 RESORT at retailers such as Amazon or Barnes and Noble, or check with your favorite bookstore.

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