Prisoners & Other Stories

Prisoners & Other Stories
by Ed Gorman
afterword by Dean R. Koontz

About the Book:
In a recent interview, Ed Gorman said that his work is essentially about "outsiders trying to strike some sort of weary bargain with a hostile world."

The prize-winning stories collected here certainly reflect that theme.

From the young man visiting his father in prison — to the teenage girl trying to escape the grip of her mother's boyfriend — to the father searching for his daughter's murderer... these are people we see every day, yet we did not know intimately until now.

As Reflections noted, "Ed Gorman is a serious writer with a voice and vision all his own..." And, in the words of The San Francisco Chronicle, "Ed Gorman has a wonderful style of writing that allows him to say things of substance in an entertaining way."

Prisoners offers the reader a variety of moods and styles — from the mournful beauty of "The Wind From Midnight" to the hard-boiled sorrow of "Failed Prayers" to the bitter power of the Shamus-winning "Turn Away."

Here you'll find crime, horror and mainstream stories by the writer whose first novel, Rough Cut, Library Journal called "an auspicious debut" and whose most recent novel, The Night Remembered, The San Diego Chronicle said made Gorman "one of today's best crime writers."

Prisoners also contains a warm and witty afterword by best-selling author Dean R. Koontz.

Ed Gorman has been an astonishingly prolific writer since he turned full-time in 1984 after 20 years in advertising. Since then he has produced two to three books a year, several pseudonymously, written over a hundred short stories, edited many anthologies, and co-founded and edited the news magazine of the Mystery field, Mystery Scene.

He has written in practically every genre imaginable, from suspense and mysteries to science fiction and horror. If that weren't enough, he is also a frequent editor, often collaborating with his long-time friend, award-winning anthologist Martin H. Greenberg.

He has been dubbed the “Poet of Dark Suspense” and much of his work haunts that ill-defined land between horror and mystery where the emphasis is as much on fear and shock as it is on crime and detection. Even his western fiction trespasses into this darkly psychological territory.

Gorman has also been called "one of suspense fiction's best storytellers" by Ellery Queen, and "one of the most original voices in today's crime fiction" by the San Diego Union.

His work has appeared in magazines as various as Redbook, Ellery Queen, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Poetry Today. He is also the founder, along with Robert J. Randisi, of Mystery Scene magazine.

Published in two states:
• Trade Hardcover Edition ($20.95)
• Slipcased Limited Edition of 250 signed and numbered copies

Editions

Excerpt

Artwork