Inherit the Dead
This serial novel is a follow up to “No Rest For the Dead” except that I stepped up to the plate to edit. I started by creating a nourish tale with more than a few winks and nods to Chandler, Hammett and several other noir greats. Then I divided up the chapters and asked 19 writers to actually write them. It’s an amazing cast: Mark Billingham,
Lawrence Block, CJ Box, Ken Bruen, Alafair Burke, Stephen L. Carter, Mary Higgins Clark, Marcia Clark, Max Allan Collins, John Connolly, James Grady, Bryan Gruley, Heather Graham, Charlaine Harris, Val McDermid, SJ Rozan, Dana Stabenow, Lisa Unger, and Sarah Weinman. Plus, I got Lee Child to write the Introduction and Linda Fairstein to write an open letter to the reader, which details the fact that the royalties for this book go to Safe Horizon, a victims of abuse organization—if ever there was a worthy cause for crime writers to support, this is it. I think the book turned out very well with everyone writing in top form and in their own voice yet contributing to a plot that has no reason to hang together so well, but does. I had a lot of fun bossing around all these great writers and there wasn’t a diva among them.
