Lawyers, Guns, and Money: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Warren Zevon

by Libby Cudmore

From classics like “Werewolves of London,” “Excitable Boy,” and “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner” to lesser-known gems across a career spanning nearly four decades, the songs of Warren Zevon are rich with crime and intrigue and suspense—guns and gunners, assassins and drug dealers, a supernatural serial killer, and a heap of hapless losers along the way too. And Zevon himself was a fan of crime fiction, especially the work of iconic mystery writer Ross Macdonald, to whom Zevon dedicated his 1980 album Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School .

In Lawyers, Guns, and Money , fifteen fantastic writers—avid fans of Zevon’s genius—offer fresh spins on his discography with tales that span the mystery caper, espionage, noir, paranormal, private eye, and more.

Contributors include Gray Basnight, William Boyle, Dana Cameron, Libby Cudmore, Hilary Davidson, Steve Liskow, Nick Mamatas, Paul D. Marks, Matthew Quinn Martin, Josh Pachter, Charles Salzberg, Laura Ellen Scott, Alex Segura, Kevin Burton Smith, and Brian Thornton.

241 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2022

About the author

Libby Cudmore worked at temp agencies and record stores before settling down in Upstate New York to write full time. Her forthcoming debut novel, THE BIG REWIND (William Morrow, February 2016) is being hailed as "smart, poignant, and addicting," (Kristi Belcamino, BLESSED ARE THE DEAD). Her short stories have been published in PANK, THE BIG CLICK, THE STONESLIDE CORRECTIVE and BIG LUCKS. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing and makes all her own notebooks.

Reviews

[Ross Cumming · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of short crime stories which does exactly what is says on the cover. The stories either share titles with Zevon’s songs or include his lyrics or characters within the stories. There’s a wide scope of subject matter here including a too real ‘method’ actor, a junkie turned detective, a writer who loses his dog and his mother on the same day and a son that goes looking for his estranged father. The writing is mostly quite noirish with not too many happy endings and if truth be told that’s a bit like Zevon’s songs. But also like his songs there’s also quite a large dose of dark humour. The contributors to this collection are quite special too with a story from one of my favourite authors, William Boyle and others from Hilary Davidson, Alex Segura and Libby Cudmore to name but a few.
An excellent collection which would obviously appeal to fans of Warren Zevon’s but also to anyone who enjoys a good varied collection of original crime stories.

[Vincent O'Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a lifelong fan of Warren Zevon, I couldn't wait to read this--and I wasn't disappointed. The tales of murder, fraud, betrayal, and karma (both good and bad) all have some reference to Zevon's work, and they're all entertaining.

I especially enjoyed co-editor Libby Cudmore's "Charlie's Medicine" and "Crawling Distance" by Laura Ellen Scott.

As Zevon wrote in the titular song for this anthology, take a little risk--and pick up a copy.

[EVAN · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fitting tribute to Warren Zevon

A brilliant collection of darkly humorous stories about people in over their heads. They're not exactly related to the song titles but that's not the point. Tonally, they match Zevon's worldview.

[Lord Booktopus von Cephaloid]

DNF'ed this thing a year ago, when I bailed three stories in due to too much weak writing. Always figured I'd go back a cherry-pick a couple more but obviously I haven't.

[Ken French · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like any collection by various authors, there are some good ones here and some bad ones. The best are Run Straight Down, Looking for the Next Best Thing, and Charlie's Medicine. The worst were Werewolves of London (too silly) and My Shit's Fucked Up (did he have to cram so many Zevon quotes into the dialogue?). Very hit or miss altogether.