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    Crooked Paths
    Crooked Paths
    Crooked Paths
    Ebook62 pages54 minutes

    Crooked Paths

    By Dale T. Phillips

    ()

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    About this ebook

    This set of tales tends toward the noir school of crime and mystery, highlighting the dark spot on the human psyche that haunts people with the siren call of revenge, destruction, or ill-gotten gain. Here are featured a variety of characters and crimes, with different outcomes. Everything from cool, calculating killers to tortured souls caught in a net of circumstance beyond their control. Plotted heists, schemes, and cons, along with acts of passion committed in the heat of the moment.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDale T. Phillips
    Release dateDec 12, 2011
    ISBN9781465863577
    Crooked Paths
    Author

    Dale T. Phillips

    A lifelong student of mysteries, Maine, and the martial arts, Dale T. Phillips has combined all of these into the Zack Taylor series. His travels and background allow him to paint a compelling picture of a man with a mission, but one at odds with himself and his new environment. A longtime follower of mystery fiction, the author has crafted a hero in the mold of Travis McGee, Doc Ford, and John Cain, a moral man at heart who finds himself faced with difficult choices in a dangerous world. But Maine is different from the mean, big-city streets of New York, Boston, or L.A., and Zack must learn quickly if he is to survive. Dale studied writing with Stephen King, and has published over 70 short stories, non-fiction, and more. He has appeared on stage, television (including Jeopardy), and in an independent feature film. He co-wrote and acted in a short political satire film. He has traveled to all 50 states, Mexico, Canada, and through Europe. He can be found at www.daletphillips.com

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      Book preview

      Crooked Paths - Dale T. Phillips

      Crooked Paths

      A Five Story Collection

      Dale T. Phillips

      ***

      Crooked Paths

      Copyright 2011 Dale T. Phillips

      Cover Design copyright 2011 Melinda Phillips: http://www.snapichic.com

      The Mousetrap was first published in Over My Dead Body, Aug-Sept. 2011

      The Easiest Man to Kill was first published in Crime and Suspense, Dec, 2008

      Nighthawks was first published in Big Pulp, Nov, 2008

      Bootleggers was first published in Short-Story.Me!, June, 2010, and in their Best Genre Stories Anthology #2, Nov 2010

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      All rights reserved. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, no portion of these stories may be reproduced without written permission from the author. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author and thank you for purchasing this short story.

      ---

      Other works by Dale T. Phillips

      Zack Taylor Mystery Novels

      A Memory of Grief

      A Fall From Grace

      Story Collections

      Fables and Fantasies (Fantasy)

      Strange Tales (Weird, Magic Realism, Paranormal)

      Halls of Horror #1 and #2 (Horror)

      Jumble Sale (Mixed Genres)

      Apocalypse Tango

      For more information about the author and his works, go to: http://www.daletphillips.com

      ***

      Table of Contents

      Foreword

      The Easiest Man to Kill

      Bootleggers

      Rooms For Tourists

      Nighthawks

      The Mousetrap

      About the Author

      ***

      Foreword

      Mystery and crime stories have an attraction that draws me to study the darkness in human behavior. Not being a criminal, or knowing too many, I’m interested in those that are, how they form their decisions about life and their actions. They choose to walk a crooked path, and so very often pay a terrible price for what they do.

      I grew up cutting my reading teeth on Dashiel Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Jim Thompson and others of the mystery/crime Old School. There was a style, a feeling of noir that gave such great atmosphere to a story. Sometimes you would know from the start that the protagonist was doomed, even if he or she didn’t. Many of those tales (and most of these) are written in the first person, giving immediacy, an urgent need to tell what happened, that adds punch and power to a story.

      So here are stories which hearken back and pay tribute to that long line of writers before me. A few were inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper, whose noirish, iconic depictions of American life showed a darkness, an undercurrent of feeling that can be downright terrifying at times. Some of his works are the quintessence of night, both figuratively and literally.

      The Easiest Man to Kill came from a suggestion from my editors in the Tyngsboro Writer’s Group, where one person proposed the title and suggested we write a story to fit. How can you resist with a title like that?

      If you like the writing or tone of these stories and would like to tackle something longer, I’ve written the Zack Taylor mystery series, starting with A Memory of Grief and continuing on to A Fall From Grace. Information about these and other titles are available on my website: http://www.daletphillips.com

      ***

      The Easiest Man to Kill

      He was the easiest man to kill, I’ll tell you that. Nothin’ simpler in the world. And no one ever suspected. I got clean away with it. To think the whole planet was once watching him, and I took him out without a lick of trouble. Nobody easier to get rid of than a has-been who starts drinking when the cameras aren’t on him anymore.

      I killed me a few men in the Big War and went back and killed a couple more in Korea, but none of that was easy. I almost didn’t make it out myself. I’d thought I was all done with killing. After I got out, I came back to my family, and went to work in one of those new labs that sprang up after the war. Back then they’d hire you even if you didn’t have all the schooling in the world. All you needed was to read directions and be real careful about what you put into where, and not come to work after

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