Feckless, reckless, freelance artist Wiley Moss returns in a new mystery by the author of Pink Vodka Blues. Wiley is summoned to Galveston when the father he hasn't seen in 19 years turns up dead—and soon finds himself on a roller-coaster ride that starts off with simple armed robbery, escalates to murder and could—if he's not very, very lucky—cost him his life.

Three complete novels in one volume from a master of dark noir and comic mystery... PINK VODKA BLUES Russell Murray is the editor of a literary magazine in Chicago. He drinks way too much. And he's in big trouble when he wakes up in a hotel room with a beautiful woman just before two men come into the room and kill her. They try to kill Murray, too, but he gets away. Things never slow down after that. Wanted for murder, Murray winds up in a detox center in Wisconsin. He escapes along with a beautiful redhead named Sherry Lou Wynn. One of his many problems is that he has no memory of where he's been or what he's done. He and Sherry Lou try to stay alive while being pursued around the country by homicidal goons, including the murderous Wacker twins and a blue-haired, tennis-shoe wearing granny with an Uzi. Bones Pinelli wants his briefcase back, by golly, and he doesn't care who dies as long as he gets it. DEAD DOG BLUES Nothing ever happens in Pharaoh, Texas... Drunks and missing auto parts headline the local crime wave until a barking dead dog shows up in millionaire Max Coomer's backyard. Then Coomer himself is discovered frosty cold and very dead, running for fame and glory forever down the gridiron at Pharaoh High. That's just the beginning of the mayhem that erupts in a sleepy Texas town — and the start of temporary constable Jack Track's nightmarish pursuit of a maniac who doesn't like anyone in Pharaoh, Texas. There are enough bizarre characters in Dead Dog Blues to convince any reader to steer clear of small towns. There's Jack's best friend, Earl Murphy, a black man who made a fortune on Wall Street and sleeps in his white Aston-Martin Lagonda by Jack's creek. There's George, the catfish mogul, and cheery funeral director Eddie Trost —plus an ever-growing cast of the local missing and dead. Jack is content with lovely Cecily Benét, the frozen-yogurt queen, until Max Coomer's widow, Millie Jean, decides to fan the flames of her high-school romance with Jack — an affair that turns into double trouble when Millies jailbait daughter, Smoothy, takes a run at Jack herself. BAD EYE BLUES Dinner with gorgeous aeronautical engineer Claire de Mer holds the promise of heavenly bliss for Wiley Moss — until two manic mobsters toss him on a cross-country bus and shuffle him off to Idaho. Hey, no big deal. All Vinnie "Spuds" DeMarco wants from Wiley, who earns his living making illustrations of insects for the Smithsonian Institution, is "semi-decent pitchas — no smut — "of his eighteen resident cuties, naturally named the Spudettes. Nice work if you can get it, only Wiley can't seem to find the time for romance and art. Someone's knocking off the hoods at the Mount Vincent High Country Lodge and Whitewater Resort — someone with an attitude who wants everybody dead.

A guide to series fiction lists popular series, identifies novels by character, and offers guidance on the order in which to read unnumbered series.

"Reading one of his stories is a trip through different seasons, different doors..." Neal Barrett, Jr. answers (sometimes) to a number of names: Odd, Weird, Gonzo, and, as a former collection points out: Slightly Off Center. Barrett is all of the above, and more. From readers who have followed his career come accolades such as brilliant, unique, sheer genius. Other writers respect his status as a master of words, his ability to weave rhythm and poetry into his tales. Barrett jumps in and out of genres at will, or simply invents one of his own. He likes to bring his favorite characters together, and see what they'll do. Neal Barrett, Jr. has made a special effort to give us a number of dark, funny, and hopefully impossible views of the future. Clearly, Nostrodamus missed the boat. Read and enjoy. Stories included in this collection: Grandfather Pelts Tony Red Dog The Last Cardinal Bird in Tennessee Hit Rhido Wars Slidin' Radio Station St. Jack Tourists Getting Dark The Heart Limo

The Gorgon came from some time line far across the multiple worlds. It moved among men, looking always as though it was one of them. But it was not a man; it was a destroyer! This creature would willingly destroy the universe, in all its alternate world-lines. It could not tolerate other forms of life, could not permit them to exist. The first a world knew of the beast in its midst was when its citizens began dying, horribly, and then it was already too late.

ARCHAIC From the Great Midsee to the two Calfrei's, the year 2906 saw Nordland in upheaval. There were rumors of war as the pseudo-Sioux pushed south from the Indian confederation in a strange alliance with the yellow-skinned wizards of Hunan, far to the North … and for the first time since the Disaster of a thousand years earlier, all of Nordland seemed poised on the bring of annihilation. Into the middle of the war stirrings came Kelwin the Broon, finder—and occasionally manufacturer—of archaics, the tantalizing treasures that were all the remained of the world before Disaster. Aided only by his apprentice, Base, and armed with his wits and his half-knowledge of things better forgotten, it was his task to stop the war before the visitation of another Disaster …

In a magical world where animals have been given human form and chaos can often be the nature of the day, some universal truths remain. Like the futility of war and the foolishness of leaders. And, of course, the lingering prejudice against the Newlies, the humanized animals. But Master Lizard Maker Finn has no quarrel with creatures of any sort. Just returned from a highly traumatic vacation, he wants nothing more than a period of prolonged peace with his fetching Newlie lover, Letitia, and his greatest creation, a sassy mechanical lizard named Julia Jessica Slagg. But the Fates, in the form of the capricious Prince of Fyxedia, have other plans in store for Finn. Fyxedia's leader has commissioned Finn to build a fantastical lizard timepiece for his archrival, the mysterious King of Heldessia-an odd enough request since Fyxedia and Heldessia have been at war for 700 years. Worse, Finn has been ordered to deliver the clock himself: a mission that involves flying over the war zone in a rickety and badly patched balloon. Finn can hardly refuse the commission, but the journey is the least of his problems. For Heldessia is a land as odd as any he's encountered, and he can't help but wonder what foul plot these monarchs have in store for each other. How can one lone lizard maker, his lover, and his mechanical creation foil a plot they don't even understand—and still manage to come out of it alive?

Hooters, Hatters, and menacing evil Even in a mystical world where centuries ago animals were magically changed into humans, the land of Makasar us considered strange. Its two major religions are Hatters and Hooters. During the day, Hatters, wearing hats of course, wander about jabbing pointy sticks into bystanders. The night is ruled by the Hooters, who hoot and set fire to people and things. Hospitality is considered a capital crime. And Newlies, the humanize animals, are treated lower than scum. So when Finn, the Master Lizard Maker, finds himself stranded in Makasar-along with his lover, an attractive Newlies named Letitia, and the grandest, most magical creation of his illustrious career, a talking, thinking, rather cantankerous mechanical lizard named Julia Jessica Slagg-his first thought is a quick exit. But the Nuccis-strongman son, mad father, and ever madder grandfather-have other plans for Finn and his loyal companions. There's an odd machine in their basement that needs fixing, and who better to do it than a Master Lizard Maker? There's more here than meets the eye, however, and Finn soon realizes that the future he faces could be very dark indeed.

The wilderness. It was a brutal force, a powerful magnet drawing Boone away from the woman he loved and the children he fathered … into the savage unknown. Rebecca Boone watched him go and waited for his return … her heart aching and filled with passion … not knowing that another man waited nearby, ready to take her into his arms … and all the while the dream of a promised land turned into a nightmare of personal torment as the lone frontiersman blazed his way along the … WESTWARD TRAIL.

From Cyberspace to outer space, from the Dark Continent to the speed of light, the dozens of stories in this terrific collection represent the year's finest offerings in imaginative fiction. Among the twenty-eight tales assembled here are: The Land of Nod, Mike Resnick's powerful tale of the orbital space colony Kirinyaga and how the old ways conflict with the new. Foreign Devils, Walter Jon Williams's exotic revision of the War of the Worlds Martian Invasion. Red Sonja and Lessingham in Dreamland, Gwyneth Jones's unpredictable venture into the frightening territory of on-line romance. Death Do Us Part, Robert Silverberg's masterful tale of love in the future. In addition, there are two dozen more stories from today's and tomorrow's brightest stars, including, William Barton, Stephen Baxter, Gregory Benford, James P. Blaylock, Damien Broderick, Michael Cassutt, Jim Cowan, Tony Daniel, Gregory Feeley, John Kessel, Nancy Kress, Jonathan Lethem, Ian McDonald, Maureen F. McHugh, Paul Park, Robert Reed, Charles Sheffield, Bud Sparhawk, Bruce Sterling, Michael Swanwick, Steven Utley, Cherry Wilder, Gene Wolfe. Rounding out the volume are a long list of Honorable Mentions and Gardner Dozois's comprehensive survey of the year in science fiction. In all, the stories assembled here will take you as far as technology, imagination, and hope can go. Climb aboard. "Highly recommended."--Library Journal