Crowded Lives: And Other Stories of Desperation and Danger (Five Star Mystery Ser.)

By: Clark Howard

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Synopsis: Gritty, suspenseful short fiction about criminals and other characters on the edge from an Edgar Award–winning author. &“Not all Howard&’s heroes are ex-cons, but they might as well be. They&’ve all been around the block, made more than their share of mistakes, and taken their lumps, usually without complaint. A hit man who refuses a commission goes into hiding, afraid that everybody who looks twice at him may be carrying a bullet with his name on it. A Vietnam veteran plots revenge on the commanding officer who sent his troops into a cloud of Agent Orange; a ward of hospitalized WWII soldiers schemes to find the whereabouts of the lost love of one of their mates before he dies. A has-been boxer trains for a big bout without realizing he&’s been set up; a New Orleans clarinet player skips around town one step ahead of a creditor&’s enforcers long enough to audition for the Jazz Hall of Fame. . . . In every case, there&’s no mystery about who&’s guilty . . . but only about whether Howard&’s protagonists will succeed in their fatal plots, get rescued from their own worst nature, or, in the trickiest of these nine stories, succeed but fail anyway.&” —Kirkus Reviews