AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR
Craig Faustus Buck
A FEW OF THE SHORT STORIES
Feel free to download and share these with your friends if they are available for free. If they're not free, it's because I don't own the rights. Due to laziness, the stories are generally in reverse chronological order, with the newer pieces at the bottom.
Dead End
This Anthony Award-nominated short story is the prequel to my novella Psycho Logic.
Download a free PDF of Dead End.
Johno Beltran is a former homicide detective who fell from grace when a stupid mistake allowed a rich, sadistic sex killer to go free. When the notorious murderer drives into the restaurant parking lot where Johno now works as a valet, their reunion leads Johno down a dark, twisty road toward a deadly collision between paranoia and reality. A short story.
Heavy Debt
Derringer Award nominee
From Akashic Books' Mondays are Murder series comes this short slice of Micronesian noir.
The Western Pacific island of Yap is hardly the place you'd expect cold-blooded murder, but when ancient coins are made of stone and can weigh hundreds of pounds, debt can easily tip the scales of reason and morality.
A New Orleans detective helps a Creole belle cope with her addled emotions after she shoots her husband dead.
Mediocre competitive snowboarder and general loser Pongo Smith finds a gift that keeps on giving, but he gets a lot more than he bargained for.
Honeymoon Sweet
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Macavity Award Winner
and Anthony Award Nominee
Bouchercon is the world's largest mystery convention. In 2014, its prestigious anthology was edited by Dana Cameron and featured stories by authors both famous and new.
Newlyweds break into a Malibu beach house for a honeymoon that strains their love in ways they never dreamed of.
Beyond the Veil
Dead Guns Press brings you Dames and Sin, the third anthology in their Hardboiled series.
An accidental murder leads a would-be bride on a noir, funhouse-mirror journey where even death ain't what it's cracked up to be.
You never know what might come up in therapy, but if this woman's past is any indication, the future looks noir.
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Mississippi politics, family politics, talk radio and pracitcal jokes cause a murder coverup to spin out of control.
Head Over Heels
A process server falls head over heals for a client when she serves a restraining order to the client's ex-lover. Little does she know that her life is about to be turned head over heels
This noir romantic suspense was first published in Passport to Murder, the 2017 Bouchercon anthology (Down and Out Books).
This noir romantic suspense was first published in Murder-A-Go-Go's: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of The Go-Go's (Down and Out Books, 2019).