Lone Star Sleuths: An Anthology of Texas Crime Fiction (Southwestern Writers Collection Series)

This sampler of Texas-based mystery fiction features 30 top writers who have set their sights on the Lone Star State. Among them are Nevada Barr, James Crumley, Jim Thompson, Steven Saylor, Jesse Sublett, Ben Rehder, Susan Wittig Albert, Kinky Friedman, David L. Lindsey, D. R. Meredith, Joe R. Lansdale, Walter Mosley, Carolyn Hart, Rick Riordan, Jeff Abbott, and Mary Willis Walker. Texas makes a great setting for crime fiction. In addition to criminal elements and the unpredictable weather Texas sleuths confront a variety of natural hazards: mountain lions, tarantulas, rattlesnakes, fire ants, alligators, mosquitoes, and killer bees. Texas has always staked a large claim on the nation's imagination, and its mystery literature is no exception. Hundreds of crime novels are set within the state, most of which have been published in the last twenty years. From the highest point atop the Guadalupe Mountains in West Texas to the Piney Woods of East Texas, from the High Plains of the Panhandle to the subtropical climate of the lower Rio Grande Valley, mystery writers have covered every aspect of Texas's extraordinarily diverse geography.
The first book to emphasize the wealth of Texas's mystery writers and the images they convey of the state's wide range of regions and cultures, Lone Star Sleuths is a noteworthy introduction not only to the literary genre but also to a sense of Texas as a place in fiction. Celebrating a genre that has expanded to include women and an increasing diversity of cultures, the book features selections from the works of such luminaries as Kinky Friedman and Mary Willis Walker, lesser-known stars in the making, and even some outsiders like Nevada Barr and Carolyn Hart who have succumbed to the allure of the state's weather, geography, and colorful history.
Lone Star Sleuths captures the sense of place that distinguishes much of the great literature set in Texas, and is a must-read for mystery lovers. A collection of thirty short crime stories set in Texas by a variety of writers, including Kinky Friedman, Mary Willis Walker, and Carolyn Hart An engaging collection of crime fiction in which Texas is as much a character as a setting.