Lone Star Sleuths, An Anthology of Texas Crime Fiction [Anthology]

283 Pages·2016·1.54 MB·English

by  Todd Connie

lone star sleuths
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Southwes tern Writers Collect ion Series
Connie Todd, Editor
Th e Southwestern Writers Collection Series originates from the Southwestern
Writers Collection, an archive and literary center established at Texas State
University–San Marcos to celebrate the region’s writers and literary heritage.
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Lone Star Sleu ths
an anthology of texas crime fiction
Edited and with an Introduction by
Bill Cunningham, Steven L. Davis, and
Rollo K. Newsom
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Copyright © 2007 by the University of Texas Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First edition, 2007
Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to:
Permissions
University of Texas Press
P.O. Box 7819
Austin, TX 78713-7819
www.utexas.edu/utpress/about/bpermission.html
∞ Th e paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of
ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R1997) (Permanence of Paper).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lone Star sleuths : an anthology of Texas crime fi ction / edited and with an
introduction by Bill Cunningham, Steven L. Davis, and Rollo K. Newsom. —
1st ed.
p. cm. — (Southwestern Writers Collection series)
ISBN 978-0-292-71737-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Short stories, American—Texas. 2. Texas—Social life and customs—
Fiction. I. Cunningham, Bill, 1949– II. Davis, Steven L. III. Newsom, Rollo K.
(Rollo Kern), 1937–
PS558.T4L667 2007
813'.01089764 —dc22 2007005813
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For Nevin Cunningham and Drew Cunningham;
for Joe Davis and Mary Comparetto;
for Sylvia C. Newsom
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Contents
Introduction ix
Part 1: El Paso and West Texas 1
Nevada Barr, Track of the Cat 2
Jim Sanderson, El Camino del Rio 9
Nancy Herndon, Time Bombs 17
James Crumley, Bordersnakes 22
Allana Martin, Death of a Healing Woman 33
Jim Th ompson, Th e Killer Inside Me 39
Part 2: Austin and the Hill Country 49
Steven Saylor, A Twist at the End 50
Jesse Sublett, Rock Critic Murders 56
Ben Rehder, Buck Fever 67
Susan Wittig Albert, Rosemary Remembered 77
Kinky Friedman, Armadillos and Old Lace 85
Part 3: Houston and the Gulf Coast 95
David L. Lindsey, Heat from Another Sun 96
Neal Barrett, Jr., Interstate Dreams 104
Ken Grissom, Drowned Man’s Key 112
Gaylord Dold, Bay of Sorrows 117
Part 4: Dallas, Fort Worth, and the Panhandle 129
Doug J. Swanson, Umbrella Man 130
A. W. Gray, Prime Suspect 138
D. R. Meredith, Th e Sheriff and the Panhandle Murders 147
vii
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Part 5: East Texas 157
Joe R. Lansdale, Th e Two-Bear Mambo 158
Walter Mosley, Gone Fishin’ 169
Susan Rogers Cooper, Funny as a Dead Relative 176
Part 6: San Antonio and South Texas 183
Carolyn Hart, Death on the River Walk 184
Rick Riordan, Th e Last King of Texas 189
J. S. Borthwick, Th e Case of the Hook-billed Kites 198
Rolando Hinojosa, Partners in Crime 203
Part 7: Small Town Texas 211
Bill Crider, Winning Can Be Murder 212
Paula Boyd, Hot Enough to Kill 219
Jeff Abbott, Do Unto Others 231
Clay Reynolds, Agatite 240
Part 8: End of the Road 249
Mary Willis Walker, Th e Red Scream 250
Permissions Acknowledgments 263
viii Lone Star Sleuths
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Introduction
Once upon a time, literary murders were largely relegated to British draw-
ing rooms and California’s mean streets. Hard-boiled heroes in Dashiell
Hammett’s San Francisco and Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles personi-
fi ed American noir, while British “cozies” circulated around the elaborate
plots woven by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie.
On both sides of the Atlantic, a distinct sense of place has long been
one of the chief pleasures of the genre. Yet only in recent years have mys-
teries expanded to include America’s regional cultures, and now millions
of readers are familiar with Tony Hillerman’s Navajo country, James Lee
Burke’s New Orleans, and Carl Hiaasen’s Florida.
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 with-
in 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.
Th e titles associated with Texas mysteries showcase many native ele-
ments: Armadillos and Old Lace, Mucho Mojo, Bad Chili, Chile Death, Bor-
dersnakes, Diamondback, Hot Enough to Kill, Texas Wind, Th e Mexican
Tree Duck, Th e Sheriff and the Branding Iron Murders, Death on the River
Walk, Houston in the Rearview Mirror, and Deliver Me from Dallas. Even
Texas’s greatest real-life murder mystery—the assassination of John F.
Kennedy—is addressed in several novels, one of which resuscitates Sher-
lock Holmes and brings him to Dallas in order to solve the case.
Th e typical protagonist in a Texas mystery novel was once easy to de-
fi ne—a wisecracking, improbably macho male. Th e wisecracks have re-
mained, but a profound transformation has taken place in recent years.
Texas women, long consigned to stereotypical supporting roles, have come
on strong, infusing the genre with a new energy. Women detectives usu-
ally aren’t as hard-boiled as their male counterparts, but they are plenty
ix
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