The Beat of Black Wings

A gripping anthology of twenty-six tales of crime, revenge, and murder by twenty-eight authors, each inspired by the music of Joni Mitchell.

Anthony Award Nominee for Best Anthology/Collection of 2021

Joni Mitchell is one of the most important singer-songwriters, not only of her generation, but also in the history of popular music. With seventeen studio albums, she has won ten Grammys and multiple lifetime achievement awards, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. She even earned a Top Ten ranking on Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time.” There is no question that her music has touched the lives of so many.

In The Beat of Black Wings, twenty-eight accomplished crime writers pay tribute to the music of Joni Mitchell with short stories inspired by songs spanning all of her studio albums, from 1968’s Song to a Seagull to 2007’s Shine.

Each tale takes you on a journey through a dark world inhabited by a diverse group of troubled souls and tortured hearts. A national guardsman makes a detour on his way to lay two fallen comrades to rest in “River,” winner of the 2021 Derringer Award for Best Short Story. In “Dog Eat Dog,” nominated for the International Thriller Award and the Macavity Award for Best Short Story, a tycoon’s young wife contemplates her freedom. In “Marcie,” a woman struggles with pain and regret after a breakup. A wife sends letters to her imprisoned husband in “Both Sides, Now.” A music professor plots a murder in “Big Yellow Taxi.” A deluded homeless man arms himself against a strange threat in “Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire.”

This collection includes stories from Stacy Woodson, Elaine Viets, Rickie Thomas, Art Taylor and Tara Laskowski, Kathryn O’Sullivan, Donna Andrews, and more.