by Lee Child
Patry Francis has published stories and poems in The Ontario Review, Tampa Review, Antioch Review, Colorado Review, The American Poetry Review, Massachusetts Review, and elsewhere. She is a three-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize and has been the recipient of a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council twice. The Liar’s Diary is her first novel.
Born in Minneola, Marc Lecard grew up in Massapequa, Long Island, New York. He gave up a promising career as a circular delivery person when he left the East Coast in 1976 for California. For more years than he cares to think about, he has worked in one form of publishing or another, on everything from computer manuals to environmental magazines. He now lives at an unspecified location in Northern California with his family. Vinnie’s Head is his first novel.
Laura Lippman was a reporter for twenty years, including twelve years at The (Baltimore) Sun. She began writing novels while working full-time and published seven books about “accidental PI” Tess Monaghan before leaving daily journalism in 2001. Her work has earned the Edgar, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Shamus, the Nero Wolfe, Gumshoe, and Barry Awards. She also has been nominated for other prizes in the crime fiction field, including the Hammett and the Macavity. She was the first ever recipient of the Mayor’s Prize for Literary Excellence and the first genre writer recognized as Author of the Year by the Maryland Library Association.
Like his novel’s protagonist, Derek Nikitas was born on Saint Lucy’s Day, December thirteenth. Raised in Manchester, New Hampshire, then Rochester, New York, he earned his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, then sought adventure in the Czech Republic, England, and Costa Rica. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in English from Georgia State University, and has published stories in The Ontario Review, Chelsea, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and The Pedestal Magazine. Joyce Carol Oates nominated him for a Pushcart Award in 2005, after she said his fiction was “subtly written, and quite touching and powerful.” Pyres is his first novel.
New York Times bestselling author Gregg Olsen is the author of eight books, including the Western Writers of America Spur Award finalist, The Deep Dark: Disaster and Redemption in America’s Richest Silver Mine (Crown Publishers). As a journalist and true crime author, Olsen has been a guest on Good Morning America, CBS Early Show, Entertainment Tonight , CNN, Fox News, 48 Hours, and other national and international programs. The Seattle native lives in rural Washington with his wife, twin daughters, five chickens, and obedience-school-dropout cocker spaniel, Milo. A Wicked Snow is his fiction debut, and was selected as a feature alternate for the Book of the Month Club, Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club, and Mystery Guild.
Jason Pinter was born in 1979 in New York City and graduated from Wesleyan University in 2003 with a BA in English. He is a founding member of Killer Year, and maintains his blog, “The Man in Black.” His first Henry Parker novel, The Mark, was released in July 2007 from MIRA books, with the next two Parker books scheduled for 2008. He lives in New York City with his wife, Susan.
M. J. Rose is an internationally bestselling writer, the editor of Buzz, Balls, & Hype, founder of AuthorBuzz.com, and on the board of International Thriller Writers. Please visit her Web site, mjrose.com, for more information.
Ten years in advertising gave Marcus Sakey the perfect background to write about criminals and killers. Sakey’s debut novel, part of a major two-book deal, has drawn comparisons to Dennis Lehane, Elmore Leonard, and James Ellroy. The story of a retired thief turned respectable businessman who discovers that the more he has, the more he has to lose, The Blade Itself appeared in January 2007 from St. Martin’s Minotaur. Foreign rights have sold in seven countries to date.
Duane Swierczynski is the author of The Blonde and the critically acclaimed noir masterpiece The Wheelman, both from St. Martin’s Minotaur, as well as other books about crime and vice and exploding heads. He is also the editor-in-chief of the Philadelphia City Paper.
Dave White is an eighth-grade language arts teacher. His stories have appeared in several magazines and anthologies. His first novel, When One Man Dies, was released in September 2007. He lives in New Jersey. You can visit his Web site at jacksondonne.blogspot.com.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in these stories are either products of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously.
KILLER YEAR. Copyright © 2008 by Lee Child. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.minotaurbooks.com
Design by Kathryn Parise
eISBN 9781429959742
First eBook Edition : July 2011
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Killer year : stories to die for …from the hottest new crime writers / edited by Lee Child.—1st ed. p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-37470-9
ISBN-10: 0-312-37470-4
1. Detective and mystery stories, American. 2. Crime—Fiction.
3. American fiction—21st century. I. Child, Lee.
PS648.D4 K56 2008
813’.087208—dc22
2007046344
First Edition: January 2008