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Delta Blues
A dollar donation for every book sold will be given to the Rock River Foundation, a charity dedicated to helping the arts and literacy in the Delta.
Contributing to the volume are Ace Atkins, Lynne Barrett, James Lee Burke, Suzann Ellingsworth, Beth Ann Fennelly, Bill Fitzhugh, Tom Franklin, John Grisham, Carolyn Haines, Charlaine Harris, Suzanne Hudson, Alice Jackson, Dean James, Toni L.P. Kelner, Michael Lister, Daniel Martine, Mary Saums, David Sheffield, Nathan Singer, and Les Standiford.
From the introduction by Morgan Freeman:
"This collection of short fiction captures both the art of the tale and the power of the blues, and is a nod at the human condition that often inspires musicians to write and sing the blues. These stories tell about bad men and bad women who sometimes do good--or sometimes follow their true nature. Some of these characters know all about the dangers of making a bargain with the devil. And some know the power of redemption. These are characters who would not be out of place in a Honeyboy Edwards tune, and would be right at home alongside the desolate wail of Clarksdale, Mississippi, native Son House."
All the way to Memphis / Suzanne Hudson --
Love in vain / David Sheffield --
Nine below zero / Ace Atkins --
Cuttin' heads / Alice Jackson --
Blind, crippled and crazy / Bill Fitzhugh --
Big midnight special --
James Lee Burke --
My own little room in hell / Dean James --
Dog thunder blues --
Nathan Singer --
Songbyrd dead at 23 / Suzann Ellingsworth --
Death at the crossroads / Michael Lister --
Blues for Veneece / Lynne Barrett --
Crossroads bargain / Charlaine Harris --
A man feeling bad / Toni L.P. Kelner --
Kidd Diamond / Daniel Martine --
Run don't run / Mary Saums --
The sugar cure / Carolyn Haines --
Life and casualty / Les Standiford --
Fetching Raymond / John Grisham --
What his hands had been waiting for / Tom Franklin & Beth Ann Fennelly
Contributing to the volume are Ace Atkins, Lynne Barrett, James Lee Burke, Suzann Ellingsworth, Beth Ann Fennelly, Bill Fitzhugh, Tom Franklin, John Grisham, Carolyn Haines, Charlaine Harris, Suzanne Hudson, Alice Jackson, Dean James, Toni L.P. Kelner, Michael Lister, Daniel Martine, Mary Saums, David Sheffield, Nathan Singer, and Les Standiford.
From the introduction by Morgan Freeman:
"This collection of short fiction captures both the art of the tale and the power of the blues, and is a nod at the human condition that often inspires musicians to write and sing the blues. These stories tell about bad men and bad women who sometimes do good--or sometimes follow their true nature. Some of these characters know all about the dangers of making a bargain with the devil. And some know the power of redemption. These are characters who would not be out of place in a Honeyboy Edwards tune, and would be right at home alongside the desolate wail of Clarksdale, Mississippi, native Son House."
All the way to Memphis / Suzanne Hudson --
Love in vain / David Sheffield --
Nine below zero / Ace Atkins --
Cuttin' heads / Alice Jackson --
Blind, crippled and crazy / Bill Fitzhugh --
Big midnight special --
James Lee Burke --
My own little room in hell / Dean James --
Dog thunder blues --
Nathan Singer --
Songbyrd dead at 23 / Suzann Ellingsworth --
Death at the crossroads / Michael Lister --
Blues for Veneece / Lynne Barrett --
Crossroads bargain / Charlaine Harris --
A man feeling bad / Toni L.P. Kelner --
Kidd Diamond / Daniel Martine --
Run don't run / Mary Saums --
The sugar cure / Carolyn Haines --
Life and casualty / Les Standiford --
Fetching Raymond / John Grisham --
What his hands had been waiting for / Tom Franklin & Beth Ann Fennelly
400 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2009
10 people are currently reading
1412 people want to read
About the author
James Lee Burke
120 books4,160 followersJames Lee Burke is an American author best known for his mysteries, particularly the Dave Robicheaux series. He has twice received the Edgar Award for Best Novel, for
Black Cherry Blues
in 1990 and
Cimarron Rose
in 1998.
Burke was born in Houston, Texas, but grew up on the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast. He attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the University of Missouri, receiving a BA and MA from the latter. He has worked at a wide variety of jobs over the years, including working in the oil industry, as a reporter, and as a social worker. He was Writer in Residence at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, succeeding his good friend and posthumous Pulitzer Prize winner John Kennedy Toole, and preceding Ernest Gaines in the position. Shortly before his move to Montana, he taught for several years in the Creative Writing program at Wichita State University in the 1980s.
Burke and his wife, Pearl, split their time between Lolo, Montana, and New Iberia, Louisiana. Their daughter, Alafair Burke, is also a mystery novelist.
The book that has influenced his life the most is the 1929 family tragedy "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner.
Burke was born in Houston, Texas, but grew up on the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast. He attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the University of Missouri, receiving a BA and MA from the latter. He has worked at a wide variety of jobs over the years, including working in the oil industry, as a reporter, and as a social worker. He was Writer in Residence at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, succeeding his good friend and posthumous Pulitzer Prize winner John Kennedy Toole, and preceding Ernest Gaines in the position. Shortly before his move to Montana, he taught for several years in the Creative Writing program at Wichita State University in the 1980s.
Burke and his wife, Pearl, split their time between Lolo, Montana, and New Iberia, Louisiana. Their daughter, Alafair Burke, is also a mystery novelist.
The book that has influenced his life the most is the 1929 family tragedy "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
June 9, 2010
Inspired by the blues (well, DUH!), this collection stretches from comic to nightmarishly dark and most of the stops in between with very few weak spots. Most of them deal with crime in one way or another, and a few give established writers a chance to experiment, usually with satisfying results.
There are nineteen stories in the collection, so let me simply say that many of the stories work well, starting with what looks like familiar ground and making a sudden turn that brought me along with the characters. David Sheffield's "Love In Vain" was such a story. So are Lynne Barrett's "Blues for Veneece" and "The Sugar Cure" by Carolyn Haines, who also edited this collection with a sure hand and surer eye.
Toni L. P. Kelner's first PI story works well, with nice touches of irony, and John Grisham's "Fetching Raymond" uses understated irony and grim humor far better than I expected from reading some of his early novels.
Only one story failed for me, and maybe that's just me. Daniel Martine, who usually writes screenplays, seemed to be trying too hard and came up with a tale that felt too self-conscious and took much too long to accomplish the little that I saw coming before it got there.
While I've read work by roughly half the writers in this collection before, I appreciated the solid biographical notes on each author at the end of the book, with what seem to be fairly complete bibliographies. Great.
I'm definitely going to look for books by some of the authors I've just met for the first time. Thank you to the publisher and to Carolyn Haines for introducing me.
There are nineteen stories in the collection, so let me simply say that many of the stories work well, starting with what looks like familiar ground and making a sudden turn that brought me along with the characters. David Sheffield's "Love In Vain" was such a story. So are Lynne Barrett's "Blues for Veneece" and "The Sugar Cure" by Carolyn Haines, who also edited this collection with a sure hand and surer eye.
Toni L. P. Kelner's first PI story works well, with nice touches of irony, and John Grisham's "Fetching Raymond" uses understated irony and grim humor far better than I expected from reading some of his early novels.
Only one story failed for me, and maybe that's just me. Daniel Martine, who usually writes screenplays, seemed to be trying too hard and came up with a tale that felt too self-conscious and took much too long to accomplish the little that I saw coming before it got there.
While I've read work by roughly half the writers in this collection before, I appreciated the solid biographical notes on each author at the end of the book, with what seem to be fairly complete bibliographies. Great.
I'm definitely going to look for books by some of the authors I've just met for the first time. Thank you to the publisher and to Carolyn Haines for introducing me.
March 23, 2025
A wonderful collection of stories! I loved them all!!
April 14, 2021
What an incredible project! The contributing authors do the Delta proud!
November 20, 2015
Something I really enjoyed about the selection of stories is that I used to live in the Mississippi Delta so I knew all the highways and little towns they wrote about. Of course, sometimes that was problematic. When one story mentioned that Mama listened to the King Biscuit Blues radio show "across the river in Helena, Arkansas," I knew that, yes, it's across the river and about two hours north. The wattage for the King Biscuit show was so low, I'm not even sure it could have been heard two hours away. (You can still hear it, streaming online.) One particular problem was in the story "Cuttin' Heads." The characters would be walking down the road in Greenville and then eating ice cream in Greenwood. The two towns are too far away to casually go to one and then to the other. Maybe I read it wrong but I felt like the author forgot from one page to another whether the character was in Greenville or Greenwood.
I also felt that the stories were whitecentric. Is that a word? I lived there about seven years, most of the Delta is about 75% African American, and yet most of the stories were about white people who were blues singers or white people who knew black people. I'm not familiar with all the writers of this anthology, but of the ones I'm familiar with, they are all white authors. That's okay but I'm sure there are some fine black writers who could have been asked to write stories for an anthology called Delta Blues.
I also felt that the stories were whitecentric. Is that a word? I lived there about seven years, most of the Delta is about 75% African American, and yet most of the stories were about white people who were blues singers or white people who knew black people. I'm not familiar with all the writers of this anthology, but of the ones I'm familiar with, they are all white authors. That's okay but I'm sure there are some fine black writers who could have been asked to write stories for an anthology called Delta Blues.
August 15, 2010
I loved this book. My son was a teacher for TFA in the Delta and lived in Clarksdale for a couple of years. He is now a Vice-Principal in Marks; so we have spent some time in the Delta visiting him. It is truly a unique culture and the blues music is awesome. The more we visit, the more I appreciate the people, their struggles and their history. These short story totally capture the flavor of the area and the authors are all very gifted. I wanted the book to continue on and on.
August 19, 2010
I'll admit that I have a short story in this book, which was my first published fiction. However, the other writers are awesome. This is a classic about blues and the Mississippi Delta.
June 30, 2012
Being a blues lover I found this book very much to my liking. All of the stories are well written. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of this uniquely American music genre.
September 24, 2019
WOW! Impressive collection of short stories, generally involving the delta area of North Miss. and the old music of the blues. A caveat, not for everyone, this has bad people doing some bad things, but having interesting outcomes.
As with any collection of shorts by many authors, everyone will rate each as good or not so good. There's one involving an old bluesmaster, R.J., and the aftermath of his death. The character "Honeyboy" Edwards was real and in numerous interviews (Chicago Magazine, 2011 issue is pretty definitive) Edwards tells of playing with R.J. the night he was poisoned. Tho fiction, that story is both chilling to the bone and as true an account of the story as you'll find.
If you have respect for good (if violent and perverse sometimes) plotting and the music of the blues, this is your cuppa homebrew. Four stars.
As with any collection of shorts by many authors, everyone will rate each as good or not so good. There's one involving an old bluesmaster, R.J., and the aftermath of his death. The character "Honeyboy" Edwards was real and in numerous interviews (Chicago Magazine, 2011 issue is pretty definitive) Edwards tells of playing with R.J. the night he was poisoned. Tho fiction, that story is both chilling to the bone and as true an account of the story as you'll find.
If you have respect for good (if violent and perverse sometimes) plotting and the music of the blues, this is your cuppa homebrew. Four stars.
May 12, 2019
Short stories are not usually my favorite and this collection was not an exception. I liked a few stories better than others. I think my favorite was the one that was ultimately about the Kennedy assassination. However most of the stories were depressing. And while I enjoy a good cry as much as the next person, I had a hard time getting into the stories in this book. I made myself a deal - I would read one story a night st bedtime and this came to feel like a chore needing to be checked off my list rather than a pleasant part of my day. So, maybe short stories are your thing. Maybe you need to feel sad. Maybe you will enjoy this book more than I did.
August 24, 2025
An riveting collection of short stories. Only two did not hold my attention. Most left you wondering just how it really concluded. My favorite, "Life and Casualty," by Les Standford is a bit of a ghost story. Not a book I would ordinarily have read, but came in a box from the public library's annual sale. I've discovered several authors and styles I might otherwise have missed in my reading journey.
July 21, 2018
Read the Charlaine Harris story, Crossroads Bargain. Strange story...
Want to read
December 4, 2018As always had an enjoyable romp with this book.
January 22, 2020
I just finished this book and it was not what I expected. It was all short stories. It was all right.
April 5, 2023
Great collection of short stories centered around a lot of places I know in the Delta.
July 18, 2012
I always pick up the anthologies thinking I'll read something by someone new, but I just read the one or two authors I already know. Maybe when I move back to Mississippi, the blues theme will grab me more.
Charlaine Harris's story was about a blues man who sells his soul to the devil (by accident) on a moonlit night in a cornfield. Everything just seemed to happen *to* this poor guy, and I felt the story happened *to* me.
Toni Kelner's story was an interesting mystery about a lady searching for her sister because her mother is dying of cancer. There's a little too much coincidence at the end, but it had a fun revenge ending.
Charlaine Harris's story was about a blues man who sells his soul to the devil (by accident) on a moonlit night in a cornfield. Everything just seemed to happen *to* this poor guy, and I felt the story happened *to* me.
Toni Kelner's story was an interesting mystery about a lady searching for her sister because her mother is dying of cancer. There's a little too much coincidence at the end, but it had a fun revenge ending.
June 13, 2016
This book is a collection of short stories about folks who live or come from around the Mississippi Delta. The stories are all by different authors and edited by Carol Haines. The stories are fascinating and touched with mysticism, and violence and murder and the Blues.
It is impossible to review the 19 or 20 stories individually....so let me just say I loved every one. When some time passes, I will read them again.
It is impossible to review the 19 or 20 stories individually....so let me just say I loved every one. When some time passes, I will read them again.
May 30, 2012
“In this land a unique American form of music was born, a rootstock strong enough to spawn many derivatives. The Mississippi Delta is ground zero of the blues, meaning it was here where it all began.”
---Morgan Freeman
Review to follow later.
---Morgan Freeman
Review to follow later.
October 5, 2011
I really enjoyed these short stories. You certainly don't need to be a blues fan but, for me, it made the stories that much better.
June 17, 2012
Did not like this book and did not even finish reading it ... sorry :(
April 3, 2012
A GREAT collection of stories :)
April 11, 2015
Great stories that get you into that steamy Mississippi Delta mood, cooled off with some legendary Blues history throughout.
July 17, 2016
A mixed bag of literary, noir, and mystery/crime short stories centered around the Mississippi Delta and the music born of that land.
March 17, 2011
I enjoyed these stories but like most short stories - I wanted them to go on!
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews