Witnesses for the dead Stories

This fine anthology, edited by acclaimed crime writers Phillips and Haywood, has a unique premise: the protagonists all witness crimes and are driven to take action. The stories, the editors explain, were inspired by Darnella Frazier defying police pressure and recording George Floyd's death. Improvising on that theme, the 14 authors explore the reactions of a disparate group of individuals who overcome their reluctance to get involved. In Phillips' superbly suspenseful "Spiders and Fly," Cresston, "a mid-level bureaucrat in a mid-level anonymous job," finds himself on the run after witnessing a beating, and in Alex Segura's "Post-Game," alcoholic newspaperman Pete Fernandez, a "washed-up loser," rises from a booze-filled stupor to rekindle his reporting chops after he, too, sees something he wasn't meant to see. Pamela Samuels Young, in "Fatal Assumptions"--perhaps the highlight in a collection of uniformly strong stories--goes a different way; Mia, whose brother appears to die from COVID, doesn't know she's witnessed a crime until a pizza dinner forces her to ask some unwelcome questions. Royalties from this volume will be donated to the Alliance for Safe Traffic Stops.

The 14 stories in this strong all-original anthology from Phillips (The Obama Inheritance) and Haywood (the Aaron Gunner series) focus on witnesses to crimes who, as the editors point out in their introduction, "take the initiative to see that the guilty are punished and the victims receive justice." Standouts include Aaron Philip Clark's stunning "Death at the Sundial Motel," in which an undocumented woman from Haiti seeks to do right by her 20-year-old son after he's killed in a hit-and-run in San Diego County; Richie Narvaez's riveting "The Gardener of Roses," in which a budding journalist gets caught up in "fake news," a terrorist plot, and an FBI search in Puerto Rico; and Darrell Jones's "Star Witness," which exposes the abuses of Arizona guards in a migrant border detention center. Also notable are Cara Black's tense spy tale set in German-occupied Paris, "Code Name Pénélope," and S.J. Rozan's "Pearl Joy," which makes clever use of Chinese superstitions such as vertical chopsticks in a rice bowl, "an offering from the living to the deceased." These tales put a gimlet eye on the satisfying rewards of retribution. Agents: (for Phillips) David Hale Smith, InkWell Management; (for Haywood) Lukas Ortiz, Philip Spitzer. (Nov.)

Introduction When former First Lady Nancy Reagan introduced the phrase "Just Say No" to young Americans as an approach to avoid crack cocaine in the early 1980s, no one could deny how catchy it was. And as a tactic in the War on Drugs, it sounded so simple and easily adopted. But just saying "no" to some things is often difficult, if not impossible, and the slogan's advice soon proved easier said than done. Similarly, "See Something, Say Something" suffers from this same dichotomy: it sounds so easy to do and yet is quite often anything but. Aside from the natural reluctance many have to get involved in other peoples' business, reporting someone to the authorities over one infraction or another we just happened to witness feels something like only a snitch or a "rat" would do, to quote every film noir ever made. For in some cases, you can get yourself hurt or even killed for being a rat. Luckily for all of us, there are heroes among us who, when they saw something, they said something. Despite the possible consequences for them. Darnella Frazier is one such hero. Ms. Frazier at the time was a seventeen-year-old Black woman who, in recording George Floyd's death at the hands (or rather, left knee) of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in May of 2020, helped lead to Chauvin's eventual conviction on murder and manslaughter charges. People across the country, including Floyd's family, have applauded her bravery and quick thinking in the face of police pressure to leave the scene, which they say made the guilty verdict possible. The stories in Witnesses for the Dead are inspired by Ms. Frazier's courage in choosing to make George Floyd's business her own. These tales are indeed about people driven, to lesser and greater degrees, to do the right thing, though what is "right" in some cases is purely subjective. The ideas some have about balancing the scales might give you, the ordinary, upright, pay-my-bills-on-time denizen, considerable pause. There are characters populating these pages who, rather than simply observing a crime, take the initiative to see that the guilty are punished and the victims receive justice. In some stories, our "heroes" are drawn into perilous situations against their will, and must fight to survive just to ensure what they've witnessed will matter. For the most part, the protagonists herein don't wear uniforms or carry a badge--they're ordinary people, sometimes shady people, who nonetheless take extraordinary steps to right a wrong. Given the choice between inaction and action, these men and women take the latter route, sometimes with great reluctance, and occasionally at great risk to themselves. As the editors of this collection, we hope you'll find these stories entertaining as well as thought-provoking. You may not always find the actions of these characters "heroic," but you might admire their courage in the face of danger enough to find such courage yourself, should the need ever arise. Because you never know when you might stumble upon something dark and frightening that you weren't meant to see, and you'll have to decide what to do about it. Pretend it didn't happen or shine a light to answer an injustice? When and if that time ever comes, we trust you'll let what Darnella Frazier did be your guide. All royalties from this collection will be donated to the Alliance for Safe Traffic Stops. Excerpted from Witnesses for the Dead: Stories All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.