<div>Brand-new stories by: T. Jefferson Parker Janet Fitch Eric Beetner Kelly Shire Tod Goldberg Michael Craft Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Rob Roberge J.D. Horn Eduardo Santiago Rob Bowman Chris J. Bahnsen Ken Layne and Alex Espinoza.<br><br>From the introduction by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett:</div><div><br>The best noir writers make us feel the heat of the sun the touch of a lover. Setting can be gritty but can also be sublime no longer relegated to urban locales and seedy hotel rooms but also mansions and swimming pools. Hence Palm Springs which may seem like an odd setting for a collection of dark short stories—it’s so sunny and bright here. The quality of light is unlike anywhere else and with an average of three hundred sunny days a year what could go wrong? . . .</div><div><br>The stories in this collection come on like the wicked dust storms common to the area. More than half are by writers who live here full-time; all have homes in Southern California. They know this place in ways visitors and outsiders never will. These are not stories you’ll read in the glossy coffee-table books that feature Palm Springs’s good life. There is indeed a lush life to be found here but for the characters in these stories it’s often just out of reach.</div>