Short Stories

Five Uneasy Pieces

Short story collection
Amazon.com
Kindle download, $.99

The short stories in this novella-length collection share the theme of having an odd twist or edginess that makes them gritty, slightly off-balance or unusual. They represent a range of genres from hardboiled mystery to noir to parody. Altogether, this collection has something for everyone who enjoys dark or edgy crime fiction.

Includes the first three chapters of Least Wanted, the sequel to Identity Crisis.

Chesapeake Crimes I

"Deadly Detour"
Chesapeake Crimes
Lulu.com
January 2007
ISBN-10: 1430305258
ISBN-13: 978-1430305255
Quiet Storm Publishing
ISBN 0974408484
February 2004

This anthology of mystery short stories was written and edited by members of the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime. "Deadly Detour" features a world-weary female intelligence agent who gets diverted from a meeting with a contact by a young woman with a dangerous agenda.

Chesapeake Crimes IV

"A Woman Who Thinks"
Chesapeake Crimes: They Had It Comin'
Wildside Press
February 2010
ISBN-10: 1434403998
ISBN-13: 978-1434403995

This fourth book in the Chesapeake Crimes anthology series of mystery short stories was written and edited by members of the Chesapeake Chapter of Sisters in Crime.

What They're Saying

"In her introductory note to Five Uneasy Pieces, Debbi Mack claims she finds writing short stories 'difficult.' Well, you wouldn't know it from the 'pieces' themselves. Each rings true as a tuning fork, whether for dialogue, setting, or depth. A lean collection of gems."

--Jeremiah Healy,
Author of Off-Season and The Concise Cuddy

"Five Uneasy Pieces packs a nasty punch that will keep mystery fans enthralled."

--Simon Wood,
Author of Terminated

"In her first collection of short works, Five Uneasy Pieces, 2010 Derringer Award nominee Debbi Mack creates modern-day noir worlds where voyeurism and sleuthing are as natural to its inhabitants as breathing. Never content to leave well enough alone, Mack's fascinating cavalcade of off-kilter protagonists spy and insinuate themselves into other people's lives - to mostly tragic effect.

"While descriptive, observational humor was a hallmark of Mack's excellent hardboiled crime novel Identity Crisis, here she uses it sparingly, and instead infuses a handful of riveting mini-mysteries with a real sense of dread, fear, and unease that lingers long after the lights are out. Recommended."

--J.T. Cummins,
Author of Cobblestones

"Mack really packs twists and surprises into these five shorts."

--C.J. West,
Author of The End of Marking Time

"Mack navigates the darkness of the American soul as well as anyone you'd care to name in the mystery field."

--W.D. Gagliani,
Author of Savage Nights and Wolf's Bluff