This collection features twenty short stories from humorous thriller writer J.A. Konrath. Included are a few hardboiled tales, some noir, some parody and satire, a few straight-out comedy pieces, and a few stories that didn’t fit into Konrath’s other two collections, Horror Stories and Jack Daniels Stories.
The twenty stories include:
The Big Guys – Flash fiction, winner of the Derringer Award.
A Fistful of Cozy – A satire of the mystery cozy genre.
Cleansing – An ancient crime of biblical proportions.
Lying Eyes – Solve it yourself, given the clues.
Perfect Plan – Another solve it yourself. Don’t you remember One Minute Mysteries and Encyclopedia Brown?
Piece of Cake – Another solve it yourself, originally featured in Woman’s World.
Animal Attraction – Solve it yourself.
Urgent Reply Needed – A cautionary tale about dealing with spammers.
Blaine’s Deal – A parody of hardboiled noir.
Light Drizzle – A light-hearted send-up of hitman stories.
An Archaeologist’s Story – How digging up old bones leads to fresh corpses.
Don’t Press That Button! – An essay about the gadgets in the James Bond universe, and which you need to buy.
Piranha Pool – A writer seeking criticism pays the ultimate price.
A Newbie’s Guide to Thrillerfest – Never been to a mystery conference? Here’s the in-depth dirt.
Inspector Oxnard – He’s either brilliant, or too stupid to breathe.
One Night Only – A sports fan ends up in jail, all for the love of the game.
Could Stephanie Plum Car Really Get Car Insurance? – An essay about Janet Evanovich’s famous character.
Cozy or Hardboiled? – Take the test to find out which type of book you’re reading.
Addiction – What’s the worst drug you can get hung up on?
Weigh To Go – A humor column about health clubs.
Specially formatted for Kindle with an interactive table of contents, this ebook also includes excerpts from Whiskey Sour and Disturb by J.A. Konrath.
About the Author
JA Konrath is the author of eight novels in the Jack Daniels thriller series. They do not have to be read in chronological order to be enjoyed, but for those who want to know it is: Whiskey Sour, Bloody Mary, Rusty Nail, Dirty Martini, Fuzzy Navel, Cherry Bomb, Shaken, and Stirred.
Jack also appears in the novels Shot of Tequila, Flee, Spree, Three, Timecaster Supersymmetry, Banana Hammock, and Serial Killers Uncut, as well as the short story collection Jack Daniels Stories, and the novellas Floaters and Burners.
Last Call, the ninth Jack Daniels novel, will be available in spring of 2013.
Other novels include Origin, The List, Disturb, Shot of Tequila, and Serial Killers Uncut.
Konrath writes horror under the name Jack Kilborn, including the bestsellers Afraid, Trapped, and Endurance.
He has sold over a million ebooks.
amazingly bad I love Jack Konrath and was really excited to get a book of his short stories. I wish I had read the reviews before I wasted my money. The first few short stories were ok, not amazing, just ok, but then he got to the all the ones that he couldn’t get published anywhere else. I know why. They were awful.Â
Hit or miss…some good, some not Having read about a dozen of the Konrath/Kilborn catalog, I have learned a few things. One, he has a wild imagination, and has no problems coming up ways to shock the reader. Two, he possesses a sense of humor that is definitely not everybody’s cup of tea. It’s certainly an acquired taste, and it’s anything but mainstream. So it probably reveals more about myself in that I appreciate his humor, and as dark and satirical as it may be, nonetheless I like it. There is plenty of that odd, dark…
WTH. Can’t even proof read a short? Typos in the authors flippin header…? Really…?Â