EDITED BY STEPH CHA AND DON WINSLOW

“Road to Nowhere” was selected for BAMS 2025. It remains such an honor to be able to write these stories and share these pages with incredible writers.

EDITED BY COLIN CONWAY

A record store clerk and a down-and-out party clown see dollar signs at the chance to steal a rare blues album; what they never expect are the complications that ensue.

EDITED BY JANET HUTCHINGS

“Twenty Centuries” is also available in the November/December 2024 EQMM. Yes, my name is on the cover, and it’s as weird for me as it is for you.

Listen to Rabia Chaudry read “Twenty Centuries” for free by clicking here.

EDITED BY TOD GOLDBERG

2025 ANTHONY AWARD NOMINEE, BEST SHORT STORY

A mutilated man is found frozen to death. The investigation leads Sheriff “Crash” Landing to secrets hiding in plain sight, and even more painful truths.

Read “Twenty Centuries” for free by clicking here.

EDITED BY JOSH PACHTER

Beau's a bartender with a past. Leigh's a woman with secrets. Phil's hired muscle for a crime boss. Their paths cross at a bar known as Shakedown Street.

EDITED BY HECTOR ACOSTA AND BEAU JOHNSON

A series of murders puts a small-town sheriff on the trail of a mysterious vigilante. A trip in the world of Beau Johnson’s Bishop Rider.

EDITED BY MICHEL LEE GARRETT & T. FOX DUNHAM

Paul sees music as his chance to get away from both his dying hometown and the hold of his corrupt lawman father. But when Paul fears the opportunity is vanishing, how far is he willing to go—and can he ever truly escape?

EDITED BY ERYK PRUITT AND KATY MUNGER

Ex-coal exec Carl Decker was one of the most powerful men in West Virginia—until a tragedy took the lives of 29 men. Now he's visiting a small town to tell his version of the truth, but are they buying what he's selling?

EDITED BY ROCK AND A HARD PLACE PRESS

The firearms industry brings in $9 billion a year even as gun violence kills 40,000 people in America. What’s the value of each life? And what happens when one man goes to the source to ask the question?

EDITED BY JANET HUTCHINGS

Dan Dolson thinks his past is behind him when he leaves Kentucky and heads for the West Coast. Fourteen years later, his brother’s at his front door, and Dan realizes family’s never really that far away.

EDITED BY TODD ROBINS

The past comes knocking for a barber when a stranger arrives in town. My first swing at writing a Western, with questions of redemption and what is the true meaning of justice.

EDITED BY RON EARL PHILLIPS

Sometimes a convenience store holdup is more than that. This one’s a tale of pure revenge told from a female point of view. Short, fast, and angry as fuck.

EDITED BY LAWRENCE BLOCK

2024 ANTHONY AWARD NOMINEE, BEST SHORT STORY

I was invited by crime fiction legend Lawrence Block to contribute to a short story anthology based around … well, playing games. ”Knock” is about two men and gin rummy and how the cards they hide and the ones they play are also like the secrets they keep.

EDITED BY JESS WALTER AND STEPH CHA

Yep, “No Man’s Land” pulls double duty because it was selected for the annual collection of the year’s best short crime fiction. Nothing else I can really say about that; just amazed at the company the story keeps.

EDITED BY S.A. COSBY

The theme of this anthology was police oppression. I wanted to write about the problem of domestic violence within police families, but also about the lasting friendship between two women. When you meet Tess and Steph, I hope you love 'em as much as I loved writing about them.

EDITED BY MARK WESTMORELAND

When you’re writing for an anthology based around southern rock and pick a title like “Temptation is a Gun,” half the work’s done for you. The heart of this story lies divided between concrete wall beer joints and my grandparents’ tobacco fields.

EDITOR, JOSH PACHTER

As a lifelong Billy Joel fan, I never imagined getting to write a story based on one of his songs. Set in 1992, “No Man’s Land” is about everything that makes America great: real estate, drugs, the Mob, and murder.

Originally written around 2008 or so, and then consigned to the electronic dustbin of Dropbox until I dug it out 12 year later, rewrote the hell out of it, and finally found a home for it. A bleak piece of noir, all about the themes I love the most: failure, desperation, and the struggle for redemption.