Twin Cities Noir полностью

Curtis sneers at me. “You’re such a blowhard, Davy. I’ve been sitting in that bar listening to your bullshit for so long I can’t wait to hit the off button. But you’re gonna talk right up to the end, aren’t you?”

“You can make this personal if you want, Curtis. But I ain’t gonna tell you the combination to the box. It’ll take you a year to get it open, and when Benno finds out he’s gonna skin you motherfuckers alive.”

“I already have the combination,” he says with a velvety satisfaction in his voice. “And what makes you think Benno doesn’t already know what we’re up to?”

“Shit,” I whisper.

“That’s right,” Curtis says. “Benno didn’t give you no lunch break.” He steps away and tells Heavy, “Pop this jerk so I can get to work. I got deliveries to make.”

It’s all clear to me now. “Go ahead and take the fucking job, Curtis. I’m sick of it anyway. And by the way, the fringe benefits suck.”

Heavy pushes the gun against the back of my head and squeezes the trigger. Ah, what the hell, it was worth it—that’s one hell of a chili dog.

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS:

GARY BUSH recently finished a novel featuring private detective Max Coppersmith. He is currently working on a second Coppersmith novel and researching a historical mystery. His short fiction has appeared in Flesh and Blood Volume 3, Fedora 2, Small Crimes, and MXB Magazine. Bush lives in Minneapolis with his wife Stacey.

K.J. ERICKSON writes the Marshall Bahr mystery series, set in the Twin Cities. The fourth title in the series, Alone at Night, won a 2005 Minnesota Book Award.

CHRIS EVERHEART , a Minnesota native, is a fiction and screen writer. He has worked in film and advertising in Minneapolis, where he lives with his wife and stepson.

JUDITH GUEST has lived since 1976 in Edina, Minnesota, where she has been gathering lots of material, which could take another thirty years to be disseminated. She is the author of five books, including Killing Time in St. Cloud and The Tarnished Eye. She has one husband, three sons, and three daughters-in-law, plus seven of the best grandchildren known to man (or woman).

PETE HAUTMAN has written novels for both adults and teens. His poker-themed crime novels Drawing Dead and The Mortal Nuts were selected as New York Times Book Review Notable Books. His latest novel, Invisible, is about model railroads, pyromania, friendship, and window-peeping. Hautman lives with novelist and poet Mary Logue in Golden Valley, Minnesota, and Stockholm, Wisconsin.

ELLEN HART , five-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Mystery and two-time winner of the Minnesota Book Award for Best Crime Fiction, has written twenty-one mystery novels in two long-running series, all set in the Twin Cities. She teaches crime writing at the Loft Literary Center, the largest independent writing community in the nation, and lives in Minneapolis with her partner of twenty-eight years.

STEVEN HORWITZ has worked in publishing for twenty-five years. He lives with his wife and two dogs in St. Paul, Minnesota.

DAVID HOUSEWRIGHT is a former newspaper reporter and advertising copywriter, who was born, raised, educated, played hockey, discovered girls, and currently lives in St. Paul. He is the author of several Twin Cities–based novels, including Dearly Departed, A Hard Ticket Home, Pretty Girl Gone, Dead Boyfriends, Penance, which won an Edgar Award for Best First Novel, and Practice to Deceive, which earned the Minnesota Book Award.

WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER writes the award-winning Cork O’Connor mystery series set in Minnesota’s great Northwoods. With his wife and family, he lives in St. Paul, a wonderfully noir city that he dearly loves.

MARY LOGUE was born and bred in the Twin Cities. A poet and writer, she has strayed occasionally, but always manages to find her way back home. A new book of poetry, Meticulous Attachment, and a new Claire Watkins mystery, Poison Heart, were published in 2005. She lives with Pete Hautman on both sides of the Mississippi.

LARRY MILLETT is a Minneapolis native who spent much of his career as a writer, reporter, and editor for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He is the author of four works of nonfiction, including Lost Twin Cities and Twin Cities Then and Now, as well as five mystery novels in which Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson travel to turn-of-the-century Minnesota to solve cases at the behest of railroad tycoon James J. Hill. He currently lives with his wife and two children in St. Paul.