Only the Good Die Young:

Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Billy Joel

edited by Josh Pachter

This is my third "inspired by" anthology, following The Beat of Black Wings: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Joni Mitchell and The Great Filling Station Holdup: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Jimmy Buffett.

As with the Buffett book, I decided to limit the contents to one story per studio album -- and, since Billy only released a dozen studio albums, that meant a dozen stories. For Jimmy, I focused on Florida authors, and for Billy I wanted to focus on New Yorkers, so I got stories from Richie Narvaez, Terrie Farley Moran, and upstater Jenny Milchman, plus one from Barb Goffman (who grew up on Long Island but now lives in Virginia) and a pair from next-door-neighbor New Jersey's Jeff Cohen and David Dean. Add to that old standbys Michael Bracken, John Floyd, and Robert Lopresti and new-to-my-projects Rick Helms and James D.F. Hannah -- plus me, also a former Long Islander -- and that made twelve.

As with my contributions to the Joni and Jimmy books, I took the cover song for myself. "Only the Good Die Young" is a one-off about a down-at-heels PI who's hired to bodyguard a down-at-heels woman he had a crush on back when they were both in high school.

Once again, Kristopher Zgorski did a cover reveal at BOLO Books, and the trade paperback and e-book came out on April 27, 2021.

In 2022, "The Downeaster 'Alexa'" by Michael Bracken was awarded the Best Long Story Derringer by the Short Mystery Fiction Society. And James D.F. Hannah's "No Man's Land" was reprinted in The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2022.

The book is currently out of print, but you might be able to find a copy on Amazon, and a new edition is in the works (and will include a bonus story inspired by Billy's surprise 2023 single, "Turn the Lights Back On").

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