Today's the Day

Veronica Lake Wearing Corset by Peter Stackpole @ Art.com

My contribution to Orange County Noir began with an email from some guy named Gary Phillips. He said that Barbara DeMarco Barrett had recommended me to write a short mystery set in Santa Ana. After some disappointments and hard lessons, Barbara and Gary's gift was nothing short of angelic.

In his introduction, Gary wrote that the sunny land of beautiful people (aka Orange County) is a place where "nobody is who they seem to be."...