In June, Level Short released Wish Upon a Crime: Crime Fiction Inspired by Fairy Tales, an anthology I edited with Michael Bracken. The stories range from light-hearted to noir. Fellow SleuthSayers, Joe Walker, Barb Goffman, and Michael Bracken, share insights about their amazing stories in previous posts and are worth checking out.
Today, I am delighted to talk about my story, “The Gingerbread Man.”
THE GINGERBREAD MAN
Imagine The Princess Bride meets The Sopranos inside a bowling alley in the 1960’s—that’s my Hollywood-style pitch for this story. It is inspired by the fairy tale and the lost world of action bowling.
The story opens with Jack O’Conner and his grandson. Jack tells him a bedtime story, his version of the fairy tale, “The Gingerbread Man.”
Jack flashes back to the 1960’s in New York City, the center of “action bowling,” games that involve small-time gangsters who make high-stakes bets on players.
Jack “Crazy-like-a-Fox” O’Connor was one of those bowlers. He’s leveraged by the police to become an informant to keep his wayward brother out of jail. His task, to find action bowler Francesco “The Gingerbread Man” Romano, the getaway driver for the Barnyard Gang that is linked to a series of convenience store robberies.
Action bowlers had monikers, a clue about how they “ticked.” I used these nicknames as a vehicle to retell this iconic fairy tale.
Jack’s version of “The Gingerbread Man” takes readers into the unique world of action bowling. It’s filled with quirky characters and a twist that I hope readers will enjoy.
THE TABLE OF CONTENTS
- “Hansel and Gretel” by Joseph S. Walker
- “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” by John M. Floyd
- “Rapunzel” by Adam Meyer
- “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Laura Oles
- “Three Billy Goats Gruff” by Michael Bracken
- “Beauty and the Beast” by James A. Hearn
- “The Bremen Musicians” by Debra H. Goldstein
- “Jack and the Beanstalk” by Andrew Welsh-Huggins
- “Cinderella” by Donna Andrews
- “The Frog Prince” by Josh Pachter
- “Little Red Riding Hood” by Barb Goffman
- “The Briar Patch” by Tom Milani
- “King o’ the Cats” by David Dean
- “The Gingerbread Man” by Stacy Woodson
If you want to learn more about action bowling, check out PIN ACTION by Gianmarc Manzione. It’s a fun read and offers insights into the history and unique subculture of action bowling.
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My latest story, "She Loves You," appears in Black Cat Weekly, Issue 255. "She Loves You" follows a lovesick country music singer who receives an unsolicited reading from a geriatric psychic and gets more than he bargained for in this twisted tale about loyalty, trust, and inevitable consequences.
