Whether their cover bands play Willie Dixon or Willie Nelson, juke joints and honky-tonks appeal to hard-working men and women looking for a good time. Offering hot music, cheap food, and generous amounts of liquor, jukes and tonks are often a community's unofficial gathering spot, where Saturday nights are spent committing the sins church leaders rail against the following morning.
The stories in Jukes & Tonks introduce you to many sinners and few saints, love begun and love gone wrong, and all manner of unsavory criminal endeavors. What the stories have in common is that they plop you down in worlds where the music pulsating from the compact stage-if there's a stage at all-provides the backbeat for tales that are unsparing, heartbreaking, twisty, and a few are as dark as the night, and the blinking sign offering live music is an invitation to the unexpected.
Among these stories are two chosen for The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022 and a couple named to the Honor Roll in The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2022.
