These Guns for Hire [Hardcover]

J.A. Konrath (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2006

They have a combined total of 500 million book sales, and have won every possible award in the mystery, thriller, and dark fiction genres.

Thirty original hitman stories by today's modern masters. Noir. Wise guys. Sex. Freelance assassins. Humor. Violence. Femme fatales. Amateurs. Horror. Surprise twists. Hardboiled.

Get ready for some wet work!

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Niche short story collections--especially those with a specific theme, in this case, hit men--tend to succeed or fail on the strength of their contributors. In baseball terms, this one has a deep bench: David Morrell, Ed Gorman, Lawrence Block, Sean Doolittle, William Kent Krueger, Max Allan Collins, and others. The stories fall into a variety of genres (pulp, noir, supernatural, comic), and some of them feature familiar series characters, such as Block's Keller and Collins' Quarry. Readers who aren't keen on stories about paid assassins probably will pass on this collection, but that's their loss. For everyone else, it's a guaranteed hit. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"...a guaranteed hit." -- Booklist

"Reading a collection like this provides mystery fans with intriguing snippets of various styles and shades of darkness." -- Mystery Scene

"The many pleasures of pulp are here in abundance." -- Library Journal

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 492 pages
• Publisher: Bleak House Books; First Edition edition (October 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932557202
• ISBN-13: 978-1932557206
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,311,550 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I may be biased but..., November 7, 2006

By 

J. A. KONRATH "Thriller Author" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: These Guns for Hire (Hardcover)

...this is an amazing story collection.

The problem with anthologies is that there are usually only two or three awesome stories, and the rest suck.

With THESE GUNS, every story is awesome. I know, because I edited the damn thing, and demanded nothing less than perfection from the many contributing authors.

No clunkers here. No stinkers. No stories that were phoned in by the writer. Just one kickass hitman story after another.

Some are funny (Brian Wiprud, Jeff Strand, PJ Parrish), some are lyrical (Marcus Sakey, John Galligan, William Kent Krueger, Ken Bruen), some are supernatural (Robert W. Walker, Jay Bonansinga), and some feature hit women instead of men (MJ Rose, Libby Fischer Hellmann, Julie Hyzy.) But each one is great.

If you like mafia hits, there's David Ellis, Rob Kantner, and Victor Gischler. If you like hardboiled noir there's Ed Gorman, Jeff Abbott, and Ben Leroy. If you like series characters, there are appearances by the series heroes of Lawrence Block, Max Allan Collins, David Morrell, and JA Konrath (I'm the editor---as if I'm not going to stick one of my stories in.)

There are foreign locales, twist endings, martial arts, hot sex, graphic violence, and even some laughs. If you read mysteries or thrillers, you'll love this collection.

I've heard some folks say they don't like short stories. That they prefer novels, because short stories aren't satifsfying.

Trust me--this is the genre version of an all you can eat buffet. You can try 31 different things, and each one is satisfying.

Buy this book. You won't regret it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hit-men ROCK!, January 7, 2007

By 

J. L. Comeau (Fairfax, VA, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: These Guns for Hire (Hardcover)

Horror comes in many flavors: supernatural, psychological, science fictional, etc. The edges of genres often blur and bleed into one another, and genre authors can be found in genres for which they are not generally known. Case in point: THESE GUNS FOR HIRE, containing stories about hitmen, which is ostensibly a mystery genre anthology, but wait! You'll find authors included herein whose works I've reviewed previously down here in the Tomb, those works having been firmly rooted in the horror genre. So what gives? Fiction is fluid, my friends, and if you're looking for the dark stuff in the horror aisles exclusively, you're missing some spine-curdling scares. Take the short story "Everybody Wins" by Lisa Mannetti--it's a sardonically horrifying, suspenseful and terrifically funny tale about a suicidal middle-aged woman who is bamboozled into performing a major contract hit when she seeks help from a suicide hot line. Horror writer Ed Gorman turns in a very frightening story about a down-and-out jailbird who is approached by a former beauty queen to insure that her daughter wins a major pageant--requesting not murder, but the permanent disfigurement of her daughter's competition. I was delighted to find one of my favorite writers of totally twisted horror, Jeff Strand, included as well. His bizarre story about one of the most ineffective hitmen ever to pick up a gun is just what I would have expected from this crazy guy. Horror dynamo Jay Bonansinga tells of a seasoned pro who truly enjoys the wetwork, and it's a supernatural tale, as is "Pet Project" by Robert Walker! Horror/mystery writer David Morrell makes a fine showing with his tale of the ultimate "Attitude Adjuster". You'll also find the best mystery writers working today included in this spectacular pulse-pounding volume. This is a high-octane, heart-pumping, knock-yer-socks-off volume of 31 great stories all about hitmen that will satisfy fans of horror, mystery and suspense equally. You'll encounter stories that can be considered pulp, noir, supernatural, humorous or just plain unclassifiable. And there's not a clinker in the bunch! Killer!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars up and down, March 22, 2010

By 

Paul Ehrmann - See all my reviews
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This review is from: These Guns for Hire (Hardcover)

Easy reading - a collection of short stories, some better and more engorssing than others but well worth the time.