Phillip Gardner's collection of stories Somebody Wants Somebody Dead pretty much corners the market when it comes to people living on the wrong side of the law—which is usually the right side of the law in these locales —and taking matters into their own hands. Throw in a garbage collecting voyeur, an obese drowning victim, a Bicycle Man, and a whole knot of ne'er-do-wells and these fantastic stories will make you think, "My life's bad, but it ain't this bad, " which is to say that Gardner's hit the mark in the tragi-comedy venue.



George Singleton —author of The Half-Mammals of Dixie