EXPLETIVE DELETED edited by Jen Jordan

I've written for short story anthologies before, and they tend to have a central theme that ties all the stories together in some way, so that no matter how eclectic the writers, subject matter or style of the individual tales, it all hangs together. Common themes include relationships, a specific geography, or a particular slice of crime fiction like legal thrillers, PI stories, and so on.

Well, fuck all that.

Jen Jordan of Crimespree Magazine and the smart folks at Bleak House Books have published an anthology that taps into the power of the one word that gives us all a common language, everyone's favorite expletive, that four-letter cuss word starting with "F" and ending in "K".

Now, you might be asking yourself, "What the fuck?" And that's exactly the point of these stories, to get you to question the boundaries we impose on ourselves as we move through so-called civilized society. These are tales of sex, violence, betrayal and redemption in a collection that doesn't take itself too seriously but still manages to make a serious point or two along the way.

The story contributors are a who's-who of today's most innovative crime writers, including Laura Lippman, Ken Bruen, Anthony Neil Smith, Jason Starr and Reed Farrel Coleman, to name a few. So if you want to sample several great voices in one sitting, read this. It's fuckin' great.