Carolina Crimes: 19 Tales of Lust, Love, and Longing--Released!

 When Derringer winning author, Karen Pullen, announced the SinC Triangle, N.C. Chapter’s first anthology, I contacted her about submitting a short story. I wasn’t a member of the chapter, but I lived part-time on Hatteras Island. Karen informed me that the chapter had decided to accept stories from writers of both Carolinas and welcomed me to submit. I’m happy to report that in blind judging, nineteen stories were chosen, including mine.

The anthology’s theme of lust, love, and longing allowed writers to test the theme envelope. Some stories are shocking, some are risqué, others push the limits of morality, playing with readers’ sensibilities. The authors continue on that quest here by presenting “teasers” about their crime stories. Please welcome the authors of Carolina Crimes: 19 Tales of Lust, Love, and Longing.                          E. B. Davis 

 

“Happy Pills” is a light-hearted romp about Rose, a youthful senior in an independent living facility who uses her sexual conquests as a way to steal her lovers’ prescriptions to help fund her retirement.                                          Linda Johnson

"The Fourth Girl"  

Reenie loses her teaching job only to learn hours later she's inherited her aunt's cash, car, and house. Oh, and a profitable little lunch-time business that horrifies her good-girl Methodist side but intrigues her pragmatic side, the part of her that shudders every time she sees a yellow school bus.                                                                                                                        Karen Pullen

“Forever Mine”

How does a powerful Hollywood director react when he learns his beautiful Oscar-winning wife is having an affair...with his son from his first marriage?                                  Polly Iyer

“Heart Surgery”

When Sara decides to check out of her philandering lover’s life for good, taking his favorite sex manual and vial of Viagra with her, she's determined to bid adieu to two wasted years—until an unexpected visitor suddenly ups the ante on broken hearts.                                                Toni Goodyear

“Witch Hunt” is a story about what happens after a store selling risqué merchandise in a small, southern downtown burns to the ground. (Hint: It's more than edible lingerie that goes up in flames.)                                                                                                                     Tamara Ward

“Ice Cream Allure”

Downsized from her career as The Charlotte Dispatch’s Food Critic, frustrated by her circumstances, and depleted by the sultry summer, Carlotta breaks into the city’s premier creamery. But is Carlotta’s obsession tasting the ice cream or its maker?                                                    E. B. Davis

"Mama's Boy" 

Mama made it crystal clear that she didn't like only son Herbie's wife, but she couldn't possibly spoil his honeymoon in faraway Niagara Falls, could she?                                    Ruth M. Moose

“Big Girls Now”

When Inge finds a brunette hair in the zipper of her husband's riding breeches, she knows he’s cheating again. In a normal crazy day with students, boarders, horses and ponies, she compares the hair to every brunette in the barn. What she learns shocks her.                                           Judith Stanton

“To Watch Lightning Strike”

In the mountains of North Carolina, a troubled young woman seeks refuge with a violent stranger.                                                                                                                                Joanie Conwell

“A One-Cat Woman”

Cori Stanton, cat groomer extraordinaire, has to stop a serial killer before he poisons another feral cat colony. Can Cori count on her new acquaintance Hollis or is she a flake? Will Hollis, promiscuous cat lover, ever settle down with just one cat? Only the cat knows.

                                                                                                                              Antoinette Brown

“The Game”

Lines between fantasy and reality blur when a video game programmer finds himself a player in a game of murder. He may just find that in the virtual world of violence and sex, the future’s wide open.                                                                                                                   Marjorie Ann Mitchell

“Catch You Next Time”

In Carolina country someone awful is lurking in the kudzu shadows where clay roads meet blacktop. Someone has been making women and little girls disappear. That "someone" could be anyone, even somebody you think you know.                                                                      Donna Campbell

“Boomerang” by definition means something that does inadvertent harm to its initiator. Harry Wellington is wealthy, old, married, and has fallen foolishly head-over-heals for a conniving stripper named Lacy. A dangerous liaison for Harry; a tempting opportunity for Lacy. Throw a reckless young man with too much testosterone into the mix and BAM—the cocktail of lust, greed, and risky business explodes!                                                                                            Bonnie Wisler

“Accident Prone”

"Anthony Sturgess likes things to go just so. When the young woman whose car he bumped in a minor parking lot mishap is found murdered and Anthony becomes a suspect, his world quickly unravels as he waits impatiently for the chance to restore order."          RF Wilson

“Riley and the Sand Demon”

 With Hurricane Janus and her undercover identity blowing up at the same time, Riley will prove to the memory of her slain handler that she’s not the screw-up girl on the force, or die trying.

                                                                                                                  Jamie Catcher

"The Place Where Love Begins" 

A private investigator must break the news to his friend that his wife is cheating. Or is she? Maybe it's a wake-up call.                                                                                             Calvin Hall
 
"Bad Hair Day" 

A spectral detective talks to dead people, who often know who dunnit to them. But this particular victim cares more about her hair than the fact that she's been murdered.
                                                                                                                             Meg Leader
 
"Pound of Flesh"

During WW II, rationing forces a grocer's neighbors into the black market, where they pay, and pay some more, until someone decides the price is too high.                        Sarah Shaber
 
"The Bad Son"
When the woman Parks was hired to follow turns up dead, Parks realizes that their shared Korean heritage is a vital clue to her killer.                                                               Britni Patterson

If you are attending the Malice Domestic Conference, go to the Wildside Press booth in the dealers' room to pick up your copy. Some of the authors will be available to sign your copy! It is also available through your favorite bookseller or at the online retailer sites.