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Bourbon and Lead
The dames were trouble. I knew that the moment I saw them. But they knew exactly the siren song that would get me to follow.
“Dime Detective Stories,” one of them said.
“And you can pitch it to the scribblers any way you want,” the other purred.
Yeah. I was doomed from the start.
And that’s more or less how this anthology happened. It was held special for me to edit, because my love of the hardboiled school of writing is well known to my friends. But since noir has been covered six ways from Sunday in various RacPress anthos, I chose both to open up the concept a bit, and to reference the kinds of crime and adventure writing I especially love, but which are disreputable and disdained by the same academy that acknowledges (long after his death) the value of Raymond Chandler.
The opening up was easy. I tried to make clear that I didn’t need the tarnished knight with a bottle of booze in his desk drawer in the ’40s, necessarily. I asked for more imagination as to setting, and listed westerns and cyberpunk as possible fruitful paths. I didn’t really get either of those, but you’ll find a couple of SF tales, and at least a little fantasy. O.K., bonkers fantasy, but I mean that in the best possible way. And one or two genre-benders that are tougher to classify fully. I ain’t complaining about any of it.
“Dime Detective Stories,” one of them said.
“And you can pitch it to the scribblers any way you want,” the other purred.
Yeah. I was doomed from the start.
And that’s more or less how this anthology happened. It was held special for me to edit, because my love of the hardboiled school of writing is well known to my friends. But since noir has been covered six ways from Sunday in various RacPress anthos, I chose both to open up the concept a bit, and to reference the kinds of crime and adventure writing I especially love, but which are disreputable and disdained by the same academy that acknowledges (long after his death) the value of Raymond Chandler.
The opening up was easy. I tried to make clear that I didn’t need the tarnished knight with a bottle of booze in his desk drawer in the ’40s, necessarily. I asked for more imagination as to setting, and listed westerns and cyberpunk as possible fruitful paths. I didn’t really get either of those, but you’ll find a couple of SF tales, and at least a little fantasy. O.K., bonkers fantasy, but I mean that in the best possible way. And one or two genre-benders that are tougher to classify fully. I ain’t complaining about any of it.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 12, 2025
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About the author
D. Jason Fleming
89 books15 followersD. Jason Fleming is a geek and a wordsmith who presently resides in the People's Glorious Egalitarian Republic of California, mostly because they haven't let him out yet.
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February 6, 2026
Bourbon and Lead [Raconteur Press Anthologies Book 65] is an anthology of stories based on hardboiled pulp writing. I am a fan of many the Raconteur Press Anthologies, especially Moggies in Space, Space Cowboys, Pinup Noir, and Giant Freakin’ Robots. I have discovered a number of new authors through these anthologies. This is a disappointment. Cover art and illustrations between the chapters was by Cedar Sanderson, and her art was excellent as usual. There are 10 stories by Geoff Holder, Kabilova Diyora, David Halquist, D.S. Watson, Urna Semper, Kashmira Majumdar, Rober McDonald, T.A. Leederman, Malory and Lee Alred. I found the quality of the stories to be uneven. I had the sense that the Brass Halo was written, at least in part, by AI. The author is Diyora Kabilova is from Uzbekistan, and the story used imagery that I found a little odd [rain as threads] and used repeatedly through the story. Some of the language seemed to come right out of the youtube AI stories. One or two of the stories were poorly edited. I expect to still check out other anthologies by Raconteur.
Displaying 1 of 1 review