SHOOTING CREEK AND OTHER STORIES

Dark, gritty, disturbing. Those are the types of characters youll encounter in the award winning stories within this collection. Tough people in a tough world. But also real people, struggling with difficult decisions when faced with unthinkable circumstances. What happens when you discover a dead body but cant go to the police because of your own dark past? Or your fathers dark past? What might a woman resort to when her husband doesnt hold up his end of a bargain? What frightening surprises lie buried beneath the beaches of North Carolina? Or in the desolate hills of Virginias Blue Ridge Mountains? Or in the swamps of the New Jersey Pine Barrens? These are stories that are as dark, gritty, and disturbing as the characters who inhabit them, yet there is a pervasive humanness which forces us to empathize. That asks us to understand why people sometimes do what they do. Perhaps thats the reason these stories have been chosen for the Best American Mystery series, honored by The Atlantic Monthlys Student Writing Contest, not to mention various other awards and honors. Perhaps thats why these stories will stick with you well after the reading has commenced. Always gnawing at you, unrelenting, asking, What would you have done in that situation? Would you have behaved any differently? Praise for SHOOTING CREEK AND OTHER STORIES