SMFS Members Published in Happiness Is a Warm Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of The Beatles

Today is publication day for Happiness Is a Warm Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of The Beatles. Published by Down & Out Books in digital and print formats, the read is available at the publisher, Amazon, and other vendors. The anthology is edited by SMFS list member Josh Pachter. The SMFS list members that reported being in the read are:

 

Michael Bracken with “You Like Me Too Much.”

 

David Dean with “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.”

 

John M. Floyd with “We Can Work It Out.”

 

Robert Lopresti with "I Saw Her Standing There."

 

Editor Josh Pachter with the introduction as well as “I Call Your Name.”

 

Joseph S. Walker with "Baby, You're a Rich Man." 

 

Description: 

Happiness Is a Warm Gunis the sixth of Josh Pachter’s “inspired by” anthologies, following volumes of stories inspired by the songs of Joni Mitchell, Jimmy Buffett, Billy Joel, and Paul Simon…and by the films of the Marx Brothers.

For this collection, the lyrics of the Beatles’ inspired the contributing authors to imagine a world in which murder, kidnapping, blackmail, and theft are as common as meter maids and yellow submarines. Each story was inspired by a song from one of the Fab Four’s studio albums: seventeen albums, seventeen songs, seventeen stories—by a total of eighteen authors (since one was written collaboratively by Dru Ann Love and Kristopher Zgorski, two of crime fiction’s leading bloggers).

Many of the contributors, like the Beatles themselves, come from England—including award winners Martin Edwards, Paul Charles, Vaseem Khan, Christine Poulson, Marilyn Todd, Kate Ellis, and Tom Mead—while the American authors include such popular crime writers as John Copenhaver, Michael Bracken, John M. Floyd, David Dean, Joseph S. Walker, and Robert Lopresti. 

So roll up for the Magical Mystery Tour—step right this way! After all, when it comes to crime, all you need is…motive, means, and opportunity!