Mickey Finn

Nineteen of today's sharpest crime writers deliver a bracing new collection of modern noir stories set firmly in the twenty-first century.

From a drug cartel "vacation" in Acapulco that turns into a baptism by fire, to a predator stalked through a Taipei night market by a girl bent on vengeance, to a small-town bar owner convinced his partner is plotting his murder - these are tales of cynicism, moral ambiguity, and the quiet moments when ordinary lives tip irrevocably into darkness.

Each story channels a different shade of noir - the hustler scraping bottom, the cop who's seen too much, the lover with a secret, the schemer whose plan unravels one bad decision at a time.

Editor Michael Bracken has gathered an all-star lineup of contemporary crime talent, including Sam Wiebe, Avram Lavinsky, Robb White, John Billheimer, Tom Milani, Joseph S. Walker, Bev Vincent, James Hadley Griffin, Adam Meyer, Steve Liskow, Travis Richardson, Paul Ryan O'Connor, Andrew Riconda, Michael Wegener, Stephen D. Rogers, Rick Ollerman, Paul J. Garth, Alan Orloff and Nils Gilbertson.

No dusty period pieces here. These are stories of smartphones, cartels, strip-mall empires, and modern desperation, written by authors who understand that noir isn't about fedoras and fog - it's about the choices that damn us. Atmospheric, unflinching, and relentlessly compelling, this sixth volume in the acclaimed Mickey Finn anthology series continues to define what noir fiction looks like in the twenty-first century.