A Hell of a Woman: An Anthology of Female Noir »

Megan Abbott is the Edgar Award-winning author of Die a Little, The Song Is You, and Queenpin. She also edited Busted Flush Press' female noir anthology, A Hell of a Woman. Her Damn Near Dead (Busted Flush Press) short story, "Policy," was the basis for her Edgar-winning novel, Queenpin. She has a Ph.D. in English and American literature.

An award-winning collection of female noir stories by today's top female crime writers (with a few men thrown in).

Michele Leber - Library Journal

Overall, A Hell of a Woman-featuring largely pink-collar workers, housewives, and students-is raw, given its language and level of violence. Most memorable are Rebecca Pawel's "The Kiss of Death," in which women collectively deal with the "fat jerk" at their tango dances, Eddie Muller's "The Grand Inquisitor," with its twist on the Zodiac Killer, and Charlie Huston's "Interrogation B," a laconic account of a female cop at work. Although some of the women are perpetrators, the impression left by this cutting-edge anthology is of women as victims of men.

Because women mystery writers had been largely ignored by the publishing industry, a handful of them met in 1986 to form Sisters in Crime to make their work known-and it worked. Marking the organization's 20th anniversary, Sisters on the Casespotlights 20 stories (only three of them previously published) by its founders and leaders, now established names in the genre. Paretsky describes her popular PI's first case, in which ten-year-old V.I. Warshawski inadvertently solves a mob murder during the 1966 Chicago race riots. Barbara D'Amato, Margaret Maron, and Nancy Pickard provide delicious final twists in their tales about dealing with a wife's lover, dividing a mother's estate, and double-talking about death. Accomplished work.

Foreword   Val McDermid     1
Introduction   Megan Abbott     4
Minxes, Shapeshifters and Hothouse Flowers
It's Too Late, Baby   Annette Meyers     9
High Yellow   Libby Fischer Hellmann     25
The Kiss of Death   Rebecca Pawel     40
Blue Vandas   Lynne Barrett     51
Served Cold   Zoe Sharp     74
Housewives, Madonnas and Girls Next Door
The Chirashi Covenant   Naomi Hirahara     91
The Token Booth Clerk   Sara Gran     104
The Big O   Vicki Hendricks     109
School Girl   Lisa Respers France     126
Gold-Diggers, Hustlers and B Girls
Nora B.   Ken Bruen     139
Bumping Uglies   Donna Moore     147
Call Me, I'm Dying   Allan Guthrie     155
Everybody Loves Somebody   Sandra Scoppettone     171
Working Girls, Tomboys and Girls Friday
Hungry Enough   Cornelia Read     183
Sunny Second Street   Charlotte Carter     192
Interrogation B   Charlie Huston     205
The End of Indian Summer   Stona Fitch     213
Blooming   Sarah Weinman     226
Hellcats, Madwomen and Outlaws
Round Heels   Vin Packer     237
Cherish   Alison Gaylin     251
Cutman   Christa Faust     261
The Grand Inquisitor   Eddie Muller     268
Uncle   Daniel Woodrell     282
Undocumented   SJ Rozan     288
Women in the Dark     303