Mickey Finn: 21st Century Noir is a crime-fiction cocktail that will knock readers into a literary stupor. Contributors push hard against the boundaries of crime fiction, driving their work into places short crime fiction doesn’t often go, into a world where the mean streets seem gentrified by comparison and happy endings are the exception rather than the rule. And they do all this in contemporary settings, bringing noir into the 21st century. Like any good cocktail, Mickey Finn is a heady mix of ingredients that packs a punch, and when you’ve finished reading every story, you’ll know that you’ve been “slipped a Mickey.” The twenty contributors, some of today’s most respected short-story writers and new writers making their mark on the genre, include J.L. Abramo, Ann Aptaker, Trey R. Barker, Michael Bracken, Barb Goffman, David Hagerty, James A. Hearn, David H. Hendrickson, Jarrett Kaufman, Mark R. Kehl, Hugh Lessig, Steve Liskow, Alan Orloff, Josh Pachter, Steve Rasnic Tem, Mikal Trimm, Bev Vincent, Joseph S. Walker, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, and Stacy Woodson.
Author
Although he is the author of several books—including the private eye novel All White Girls—Michael Bracken is better known as the author of more than 1,300 short stories published in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Espionage, Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, The Best American Mystery Stories and many other publications. Bracken is editor of six crime fiction anthologies, including The Eyes of Texas and the three-volume Fedora series, and is co-editor (with Trey R. Barker) of the serial novella anthology series Guns + Tacos. Bracken served one term as vice president of the Private Eye Writers of America and three terms as vice president of the Mystery Writers of America’s Southwest chapter.
