International bestselling editor and writer with over 35 million books in print, Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in many genres, from science fiction to mystery, from western to romance. She has written under a pile of pen names, but most of her work appears as Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov's Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award.

Publications from The Chicago Tribune to Booklist have included her Kris Nelscott mystery novels in their top-ten-best mystery novels of the year. The Nelscott books have received nominations for almost every award in the mystery field, including the best novel Edgar Award, and the Shamus Award.

She also edits. Beginning with work at the innovative publishing company, Pulphouse, followed by her award-winning tenure at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, she took fifteen years off before returning to editing with the original anthology series Fiction River, published by WMG Publishing. She acts as series editor with her husband, writer Dean Wesley Smith, and edits at least two anthologies in the series per year on her own.

To keep up with everything she does, go to kriswrites.com and sign up for her newsletter. To track her many pen names and series, see their individual websites (krisnelscott.com, kristinegrayson.com, krisdelake.com, retrievalartist.com, divingintothewreck.com).

Secrets & Lies by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

The ten stories in this collection revolve around secrets, lies—and crime. Kristine Kathryn Rusch, called one of the best short story writers of her generation, has compiled ten of her best mystery stories into one volume. Here you'll find cats who watch corpses decompose, a woman juror who has secrets of her own, a futuristic detective who lies for a living, and half a dozen others whose lives get touched by a mystery.

Included are four stories considered among the best in their year of publication, "Patriotic Gestures," "G-Men," "The Perfect Man," and "Jury Duty"; Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice winners, "Details," and "The Secret Lives of Cats"; Shamus nominee "Discovery"; Hugo nominee, "The Retrieval Artist"; and Edgar nominees "Cowboy Grace" and "Spinning."

CURATOR'S NOTE

My contribution, surprisingly titled Secrets and Lies, contains ten of my award-winning or award-nominated crime stories. Like everything in this bundle, the stories in Secrets and Lies feature a secret, a lie, or both. Enjoy! – Kristine Kathryn Rusch

 

REVIEWS

  • "Kristine Kathryn Rusch's crime stories are exceptional, both in plot and in style."

    – Mystery Scene Magazine

  • "Rusch is a great storyteller."

    – Romantic Times

  • "[Rusch's] short fiction is golden."

    – The Kansas City Star
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

INTRODUCTION

I LOVE SHORT STORIES. I read a lot of them. I have also edited short fiction at times throughout my career, first for Pulphouse Publishing, then for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and now for Fiction River. They are my very favorite fictional form.

Because I read a lot of short fiction, I write a lot of short fiction. I write in all the genres that I read, which is to say, in all genres. I have eclectic tastes, which shows up in my own fiction.

Even though I published my first mystery story in 1989, I never thought of myself as a mystery writer. I thought mysteries too hard to write. Still, I dabbled. Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine published some of my dabbles, but mostly my fiction appeared in anthologies.

People noticed. To my surprise, I got nominated for mystery awards. My stories were selected for best-of-the-year anthologies. Still, I felt like a dabbler. It wasn't until I published my Smokey Dalton mystery series (which I write under the name Kris Nelscott) that I felt like a real mystery writer.

And it wasn't until I published my first mystery collection, Little Miracles and Other Tales of Murder (Five Star, 2001), that I realized just how much acclaim my mystery short stories had received. People notice my mystery stories, much to my surprise. And people like those stories, which pleases me to no end.

So I decided to put together another collection, this one of the mystery stories that have received the most acclaim. Short fiction doesn't have sales records like novels do. The only way to know if readers like your short stories is if those readers nominate the stories for awards or pick them for recommended reading lists. The stories in this volume have made it into six best-of-the-year collections and have been nominated for or have won eight awards.

Even though these stories bear the label "mystery," they're very diverse. You'll find hardboiled stories, cozies, and more than a few private detectives. Two stories—"G-Men" and "Details"—have historical settings. One—"The Retrieval Artist"—is set in the future. The rest are set here and now, mostly in the American West. Many have female protagonists, and many originated from incidents in my own life.

At the end of this book, I discuss what inspired the story. Please don't skip ahead and read that section until you've read the stories. I put some spoilers in there because I can't talk about the stories without revealing too much.

I write a lot of mystery short stories. These ten are just the crème de la crème, as chosen by the readers. I hope you agree with them.

Enjoy!

—Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Lincoln City, Oregon
November 4, 2013