THESE GUNS FOR HIRE (2006)
With "Bat Head Speed" by Reed Farrel Coleman
Edited by Joe Konrath
Publisher: Bleak House Books
Among the taut thrillers, cold-blooded crimes, supernatural horror, and hilarious hijinks in this collection, you'll find:
• A desperate woman who calls a suicide hotline and is bamboozled into performing a major contract hit
• An American killer in Japan who makes the mistake of bringing a gun to a sword fight
• A down-and-out jailbird who is paid to help a woman win a major beauty pageant—by permanently disfiguring the competition
•The funniest FBI wire transcript about murderous mobsters—and pet lemurs—you'll ever read
• A bounty hunter who gets some shockingly unexpected help in tracking down his prey—from a nun
Booklist says: "Niche short story collections - especially those with a specific theme, in this case, hit men - tend to succeed or fail on the strength of their contributors. In baseball terms, this one has a deep bench: David Morrell, Ed Gorman, Lawrence Block, Sean Doolittle, William Kent Krueger, Max Allan Collins, and others. The stories fall into a variety of genres (pulp, noir, supernatural, comic), and some of them feature familiar series characters, such as Block's Keller and Collins' Quarry. Readers who aren't keen on stories about paid assassins probably will pass on this collection, but that's their loss. For everyone else, it's a guaranteed hit."
REVIEWS
Sometimes it's good clean fun to commit murder...and if that's not possible, then pick up a copy of THESE GUNS FOR HIRE, thirty stories of hitmen and assassins. From taut thrillers to atmospheric suspense, each story is a tour through the back alley of morality, proving the best stories are like a dagger to the heart. So sharpen that knife and jump on in! —James Rollins
Riveting and taut, These Guns For Hire will keep you up at night, not just because many of the stories' hitmen are horrifying, but because some of them are surprisingly sympathetic. Not to be missed. —Tasha Alexander
These Guns for Hire contains an amazing variety of stories on a single subject: the hitman. You'll find hilarity and cold unflinching horror and every shade between. A Who's-Who list of writers in a must-read collection for fans of crime, suspense, and noir. —F. Paul Wilson
WHERE TO BUY
Bleak House Books, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and fine bookstores.