Gp is pleased as punch a short story of his, “The Darklight Gizmo Matter” which originally appeared in the Private Dicks and Disco Balls: Private Eyes in the Dyn-O-Mite Seventies anthology was selected for inclusion in the 2025 Best American Mystery and Suspense collection out in October from the Mariner imprint of HarperCollins.
When editor Michael Bracken graciously invited me to do a story for Private Dicks and Disco Balls I figured it should be a homage to Pam Grier. She of those bad ass roles back then like Coffy, Foxy Brown, and pertinent to the theme of the anthology, a PI in Sheba, Baby. Also keeping with the theme of the seventies was being influenced by the paperback reprints of ‘30s pulp adventurer Doc Savage. Usually, I’d have one of those paperbacks (with those slamming James Bama covers) in my back pocket on my way to football practice in high school. Doc went up against quixotic villains who often wielded sci-fi machines that could trigger earthquakes or alter brain waves, driving a victim mad. Melding the two ideals became the genesis of the character Sable Reese and the story.