Was I a little ahead of the curve again, but this time with my short stories? Guns, cocaine, fentanyl—but no coffee—in Cumberland Coffee & Snacks in North Philadelphia…The police arrested a drug ring fronted by a coffee shop.

My short stories have focused on Philadelphia and crime—on desperate people making bad choices. In “Nostalgia,” a young man does stress tests on the facades of businesses used as fronts for illegal activities to make sure they seem legitimate. He knows he’s working for bad people, but he didn’t realize just how bad, until…. (collected in Low Down Dirty Vote, vol. 3).

The folks at Cumberland Coffee could have used my unnamed, nostalgic narrator as a “consultant.”

And in “Raccoon Summer,” (still, alas, homeless) a delivery driver and a corner store owner who has been strong-armed into being a front see a way out. But they’ll have to hold their nerve.

For stories to ring true, to have verisimilitude, the writer has to work out just how something might work in the real world if s/he has any hope of it working on the page. My first reader, and harshest critic (my wife), is excellent at poking holes in scenarios that I think are bullet proof, often sending me back to the drawing board.

This attention to detail extends to the “bad guys” themselves. The characters may know that what they do is wrong, but they feel justified in doing what they do. Only Iago and Richard III know that they’re evil, and they revel in it.

But to have verisimilitude—and tension—they both protagonist and antagonist must believe they’re in the right. And for a story to maintain tension, the reader has to believe that what’s happening on the page could happen in real life.

And sometimes, it sort of does.

The two short stories I mention above are not available online, but the list below gives links to titles you can find online, and buy links to those in anthologies or physical books.

FREE ONLINE
“Coffin Corner,” in Tough/Redneck Press July, 2025
In a small corner of Philadelphia, a funeral director steals a man’s car as payment on a debt…

“What’s Hidden,” in Killer Nashville Literary Magazine, Feb. 2024 issue
An old map reveals a crime and offers some redemption

“Eight O’clock Sharp,” in Retreats from Oblivion: The Journal of NoirCon Jan./2022
There’s freedom when the past forgets you. Set in Philadelphia’s 9th Street Market

ANTHOLOGIES (available for purchase):

“Ultimatum Games,” in Rock and a Hard Place magazine – Winter/Issue #7 – Jan./2022.
“Nostalgia,” in in Low Down Dirty Vote, vol. 3, May 15, 2022.
“Numbers Don’t Lie,” a short story LOW DOWN DIRTY VOTE, Vol. 2 – July, 2020

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James McCrone’s stories raise questions about the nature of power, the choices we make and the lessons we don’t learn.

He’s the author of the Imogen Trager political suspense-thrillers Faithless Elector, Dark Network and Emergency Powers–noir tales about a stolen presidency, a conspiracy, and a nation on edge. Bastard Verdict, his fourth novel, is about a conspiracy surrounding a second Scottish Independence referendum. His current novel, Witness Tree, is out on submission.

All books are available on BookShop.org, IndyBound.org, Barnes & Noble, your local bookshop, and Amazon. eBooks are available in multiple formats including Apple, Kobo, Nook and Kindle.

James is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Int’l Assoc. of Crime Writers, and he’s the current president of the Delaware Valley chapter of Sisters in Crime. He has an MFA from the University of Washington in Seattle, and he now lives and writes in Philadelphia, PA.

For a full list of appearances and readings, make sure to check out his Events/About page. Follow this blog, or follow him on Substack!

Some of his short stories are available FREE online. Links are HERE toward the bottom of the page.