by Lee Child
I had no insurance, obviously, working in that particular industry, so my house was sold to finance my stay in the hospital, which continues to this day, and from my bed I heard that the buyer of my house had also gotten hold of my neighbor’s place and was planning to raze them both and then build a mansion. Which got the hotshot son all excited, naturally, because finally the wrecking ball would do the work of the warrants no one had been able to get. The guy visited me often. Every time he would ask me, how was I feeling? Then he would ask me, wall or floor? Which showed his limitations, to be honest. Obviously the coat and the knife had exited the scene in the dope dealer’s stolen car. I had put them in the secret compartment in the fender and left the key in the ignition when I parked the car on the curb. They were long gone. I was fireproof.
Which brought me no satisfaction at all, because of the terrible pain I was in. I had heard of guys in my situation floating comfortably on IV drips full of morphine and Valium and ketamine, but I wasn’t getting that stuff. I asked for it, obviously, but the damn doctor bobbed and weaved and said it wasn’t appropriate in my case. And then the hotshot son would come in and ask how I was feeling, with a little grin on his face, and I’m ashamed to say it took me some time to catch on. Everyone was for sale. Everyone had a price. The city government, the cops, regular folks, all of them. Including doctors. I have no idea what the son was giving the guy, favors or money or both, but I know what the guy wasn’t giving me in return. The Hollywood I remember was a cold, hard, desperate place, and it still is.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Alafair Burke is the author of seven novels, including the best-selling thriller Long Gone and two mystery series, one featuring NYPD detective Ellie Hatcher and one featuring Portland deputy district attorney Samantha Kincaid. A former prosecutor, she now teaches criminal law and procedure at Hofstra Law School and lives in New York City. She welcomes e-mails from readers at [email protected].
Lee Child was born in 1954 in Coventry, England, but spent his formative years in the nearby city of Birmingham. He went to law school in Sheffield, England, and after part-time work in the theater, he joined Granada Television in Manchester for what turned out to be an eighteen-year career as a presentation director during British TV’s “golden age.” But after being let go in 1995 as a result of corporate restructuring, he decided to see an opportunity where others might see a crisis, so he bought six dollars’ worth of paper and pencils and sat down to write a book, Killing Floor, the first in the Jack Reacher series. It was an immediate success and launched the series, which has grown in sales and impact with every new installment. Lee spends his spare time reading, listening to music, and watching the Yankees and Aston Villa and Marseille soccer. He is married with a grown-up daughter. He is tall and slim, despite an appalling diet and a refusal to exercise.
Michael Connelly’s latest novels are The Fifth Witness, featuring Mickey Haller, and The Drop, with LAPD detective Harry Bosch. His books have been translated into thirty-five languages and have won the Edgar Award, Anthony Award, Macavity Award, Los Angeles Times Best Mystery/Thriller Award, Shamus Award, Dilys Award, Nero Award, Barry Award, Audie Award, Ridley Award, Maltese Falcon Award (Japan), .38-Caliber Award (France), Grand Prix Award (France), Premio Bancarella Award (Italy), and the Pepe Carvalho Award (Spain). Michael was the president of the Mystery Writers of America organization in 2003 and 2004 and edited both the MWA anthology The Blue Religion and the Edgar Allan Poe anthology In the Shadow of the Master. He lives with his family in Florida.
Mike Cooper is the pen name of a former financial executive. Under a different name, his short stories have received wide recognition, including a Shamus Award and inclusion in The Best American Mystery Stories. His new novel, Clawback, has just been published by Viking. Mike lives outside Boston with his family. Visit his website at www.mikecooperbooks.com.
Brendan DuBois of New Hampshire is the award-winning author of twelve novels and more than a hundred short stories. His latest novel, Deadly Cove, was published in July 2011 by St. Martin’s Press. His short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Playboy, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century, edited by Tony Hillerman and Otto Penzler. His short stories have twice won him the Shamus Award from the Private Eye Writers of America and have also earned him three Edgar Allan Poe Award nominations from the Mystery Writers of America. Visit his website at www.BrendanDuBois.com.
Jim Fusilli is the author of six novels; his latest, Narrows Gate, is a gangster epic set in the first half of the twentieth century in the Italian-American community of a gritty waterfront city in the shadow of Manhattan. A resident of New York City, Jim is also the rock and pop critic of the Wall Street Journal. His book Pet Sounds, described as “an experiment in music journalism,” is his tribute to Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys’ classic album.
Michelle Gagnon is the author of The Tunnels, Boneyard, The Gatekeeper, and Kidnap & Ransom. Her bestselling thrillers have been published in North America, France, Spain, Argentina, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Australia. In 2012, she will release two young-adult novels: Don’t Turn Around, under the HarperCollins Teen imprint, and Strangelets, with Soho Crime. She lives in San Francisco, California.
Darrell James is a fiction writer with residences in both Pasadena and Tucson. His short stories have appeared in numerous mystery magazines and book anthologies and have garnered a number of awards and honors, including finalist for the 2009 Derringer Awards. His first novel, Nazareth Child, was published in September 2011 by Midnight Ink/Llewellyn Worldwide Publishing. His personal odyssey to publication appears in the Writer’s Digest book How I Got Published, along with essays by J. A. Jance, David Morrell, Clive Cussler, and many other notable authors.
Janice Law is a novelist who frequently commits short mystery stories. Her first novel, “The Big Payoff,” was nominated for an Edgar, and her stories have been reprinted in The Best American Mystery Stories, The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories, Alfred Hitchcock’s Fifty Years of Crime and Suspense, Riptide, Still Waters, and the fabulist anthology ParaSpheres.
C. E. Lawrence is the byline of a New York-based suspense writer, performer, composer, poet, and prize-winning playwright whose previous books have been praised as “lively” (Publishers Weekly); “constantly absorbing” (starred Kirkus Review); and “superbly crafted prose”(Boston Herald). Silent Screams, Silent Victim, and Silent Kill are the first three books in her Lee Campbell thriller series. Her other work is published under the name of Carole Bugge. Her first Sherlock Holmes novel, The Star of India, has recently been released in England by Titan Publishing. Visit her website at celawrence.com.
Dennis Lehane grew up in the Dorchester section of Boston. Since his first novel, A Drink Before the War, won the Shamus Award, he has published, with William Morrow, eight more novels that have been translated into more than thirty languages and become international bestsellers: Darkness, Take My Hand; Sacred; Gone Baby Gone; Prayers for Rain; Mystic River; Shutter Island; The Given Day; and Moonlight Mile. Mystic River, Shutter Island, and Gone Baby Gone have been made into award-winning films. Dennis Lehane and his wife divide their time between St. Petersburg, Florida, and Boston. Visit his website at www.dennislehanebooks.com.
Steve Liskow is a member of both Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime and serves on panels for both groups. His stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and several anthologies, and his novels include Who Wrote the Book of Death?, The Whammer Jammers, and the newly released Cherry Bomb. A former English teacher, he often conducts writing workshops throughout central Connecticut, where he lives with his wife, Barbara, and two rescued cats. Visit his website at www.steveliskow.com.
Rick McMahan is a special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The year 2012 marks his twentieth in law enforc
ement. Rick’s work takes him to counties across central and southeastern Kentucky, including Bell County, the area featured in “Moonshiner’s Lament.” His mystery stories have appeared in various publications, including the Mystery Writers of America anthology Death Do Us Part. He also has a story in the International Association of Crime Writers’ forthcoming collection of crime fiction from around the world.
Adam Meyer is the author of the suspense novel The Last Domino. His short fiction has appeared in The Year’s Best Horror Stories, 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, and other anthologies. He also wrote and directed the independent feature film Two Fireflies and has written television series for Fox, the Discovery Channel, and the History Channel. A native New Yorker, he now lives in Washington, DC. Visit his website at www.adsasylum.com.
Dreda Say Mitchell is a novelist, broadcaster, journalist, and freelance education consultant who describes herself as a “complete busybody.” She is the author of five novels. Her debut novel, Running Hot, was awarded Britain’s 2005 CWA’s John Creasey Dagger for best first crime novel. She has appeared on BBC television’s Newsnight and The Review Show and has presented BBC Radio 4’s Open Book. She was the 2011 chair of the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival. Her commitment and passion for raising the life chances of working-class children through education has been called inspirational and life-changing. Visit her website at www.dredasaymitchell.com.
Michael Niemann has traveled widely through Europe and southern Africa. He has published the short story “Kosi Bay” in Mysterical-E and a number of nonfiction items on global and African affairs. A native German, he now lives in southern Oregon and is busy finishing up a novel featuring Valentin Vermeulen. Visit www.michael-niemann.com.
A Stanford graduate and former (vengeful) plaintiff’s trial lawyer, Twist Phelan writes the critically acclaimed legal-themed Pinnacle Peak mystery series published by Poisoned Pen Press. Her short stories appear in anthologies and mystery magazines and have won or been nominated for the Thriller, Ellis, and Derringer awards. Twist’s current project is a suspense novel set in Santa Fe featuring a corporate spy. Visit her website at www.twistphelan.com.
Zoë Sharp opted out of mainstream education at the age of twelve. She created her highly acclaimed ex–Special Forces–turned–bodyguard series heroine Charlie Fox after receiving death-threat letters in the course of her work as a freelance photojournalist. Sharp lives on the edge of the English Lake District, where she and her husband, a nonfiction writer, built their own house. She blogs regularly on her website, www.zoesharp.com, and on the award-nominated www.murderati.com.
Karin Slaughter has written eleven books that have sold twenty-five million copies in thirty languages. A New York Times bestselling author, Karin’s books have debuted at number one in the United Kingdom, Germany, and the Netherlands. She lives in Atlanta, where she is working on her next novel.
Orest Stelmach is the author of the thriller The Boy from Reactor 4, the first in the Tesla trilogy, and the historical mystery Lady in the Dunes, the first in a series set in 1950 Provincetown featuring Father Sean Kale. A Connecticut native, he went to kindergarten speaking only Ukrainian. He still tries to use as few words as possible. Orest and his wife divide their time between Connecticut and Cape Cod. Visit him at www.oreststelmach.com.
Anne Swardson is an editor-at-large with Bloomberg News in Paris and a former European economic correspondent for the Washington Post. “River Secret” is her first published work of fiction. She is also the author of a mystery novel. Like “River Secret,” it is set in Paris, where Anne has lived with her husband and two children for fifteen years.
ABOUT THE MYSTERY WRITERS OF AMERICA
The Mystery Writers of America, the premier organization for established and aspiring mystery writers, is dedicated to promoting higher regard for crime writing and recognition and respect for those who write within the genre.
COPYRIGHTS
“The Fourteenth Juror,” © 2012 by Alpha Blonde, LLC
“The Mother,” © 2012 by Alafair Burke
“The Hollywood I Remember,” © 2012 by Lee Child
“A Fine Mist of Blood,” © 2012 by Michael Connelly
“Leverage,” © 2012 by Mike Cooper
“The Final Ballot,” © 2012 by Brendan DuBois
“Blind Justice,” © 2012 by Jim Fusilli
“It Ain’t Right,” © 2012 by Michelle Gagnon
“Even a Blind Man,” © 2012 by Darrell James
“The General,” © 2012 by Janice Law
“Silent Justice” © 2012 by C. E. Lawrence
“The Consumers,” © 2012 by Dennis Lehane
“Hot Sugar Blues,” © 2012 by Steve Liskow
“Moonshiner’s Lament,” © 2012 by Rick McMahan
“Blood and Sunshine,” © 2012 by Adam Meyer
“The Hotline,” © 2012 by Dreda Say Mitchell
“Africa Always Needs Guns,” © 2012 by Michael Niemann
“Lost and Found,” © 2012 by Zoë Sharp
“The Unremarkable Heart,” © 2010 by Karin Slaughter
First published in Holland as an e-book original in 2010 as “Ongezien.”
Also published in the United Kingdom as an e-book in 2011.
Reprinted by permission of the author.
“In Persona Christi,” © 2012 by Orest Stelmach
“River Secret,” © 2012 by Anne Swardson
_____________________
First published in the United States by Mulholland Books, an imprint of
Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Published in hardback in Great Britain in 2012 by Corvus, an imprint of
Atlantic Books Ltd.
Compilation Copyright © Mystery Writers of America, Inc., 2012
Introduction Copyright © Lee Child, 2012
Copyright notices for individual stories appear on page 387
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities, is entirely coincidental.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Hardback ISBN: 978 0 85789 901 9
Trade paperback ISBN: 978 0 85789 902 6
E-book ISBN: 978 0 85789 903 3
Printed in Great Britain.
Corvus
An imprint of
Atlantic Books Ltd
Ormond House
26–27 Boswell Street
London
WC1N 3JZ
www.corvus-books.co.uk
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Lee Child, Vengeance: Mystery Writers of America Presents
