Different Kinds of Dead

Receiving the International Fiction Award, Different Kinds of Dead displays Ed Gorman's talents as a masterful storyteller. This collection offers the murder-themed dark tales "Different Kinds of Dead," where a lonely car salesman learns life lessons from a dead woman sitting shotgun in his car, "Deathman," a killer who enjoys juicy steaks prior to murdering his victims and "A Girl Like You" about a misunderstood teenage boy who endures a fleeting and painful romance with a ghost. Gorman touches on futuristic fiction, as "Loverboy" offers a peek into a marriage strained by a husband's addiction to cyber-sex parlors and holographic women. His protagonists, gritty and gruff, are strangely likeable, and his writing, according to Mystery News, is "powerful, disturbing and often poetic."