Sex and death are partners in crime in this miscellany from the author of MURDER IN WAIKIKI, COCAINE AND BLUE EYES, TURN LEFT AT PARADISE, and A DEATH IN KEY LARGO. Some of the nicest people in the world are in these pages, alongside some real stinkers. But most are ordinary people beset by fear or greed or even love dealing courageously (and not so courageously) with the daily monsters of their lives. Heroic children and troubled fugitives Romeo and Juliet. Outlaw truckers just trying to make a buck and private investigators backing down the freeways and murderous siblings. Senior citizens scared in their homes and growers and dealers and government agents. Savage machines: runaways and rogues and renegades. Advertising executives and lovesick convicts and longtime married couples and genetically modified children. Grandfathers who just want their kids to leave them alone. Mailmen bringing your daily monsters to your door and robots riding roller coasters. Lovers teaching their nest girl about werewolves in the cornfields at night. Bar fighters and mongrel girls and outfielders and shooting stars. Chumps in prison and car-keying parking valets. Universal blood donors and fallen angels, angelic wives, and, yes, the Devil pops in. Oh my! Mystery and suspense will beckon! Action and adventure are included, too! Thrillers and even a bit of science fiction.This collection includes 84,000 words and all but one are published pieces. More than two dozen stories, poems, flash fictions, and extracts from novels make this the penultimate sampler. There’s even a bloody-red harvest of a novella set in the jungle-green hills of Hawaii. Enjoy!