Money, business, sports, love: All involve risk—and skill. The skilled authors in this volume masterfully exhibit both. Buckle in while a locomotive engineer uses magic in a race to avoid extinction, a game developer must outmaneuver an alien for Earth's fate, and an exterminator risks everything to go after some really big rats. Crossing genre lines through science fiction, fantasy, mystery, historical, and mainstream, these adrenaline-pumping stories about taking risks offer nothing but reward.

"... fans of the unconventional will be well satisfied."

—Publishers Weekly on Fiction River: Pulse Pounders

"Fiction River: Fantastic Detectives is a great choice for anyone who loves it when genres are swirled together. It's nominally more heavily influenced by mystery conventions and tropes, but the science fiction and fantasy elements in it are almost as strong."

—Long and Short Reviews on Fiction River: Fantastic Detectives

Table of Contents

"Play the Man" by Dan C. Duval

"The F Factor" by Chrissy Wissler

"No Free Lunch" by Anthea Sharp

"Winning the Ocean Pearl" by T. D. Edge

"China Moll" by Cindie Geddes

"A Tale of Good Whiskey, Bad Coffee, and One Devious Woman" by Annie Reed

"Bucking the Tiger" by John Helfers & Kerrie Hughes

"The Messiah Business" by Robert T. Jeschonek

"Muggins Rules" by Russ Crossley

"Cost and Conscience" by Christy Fifield

"Side Baiting" by Phaedra Weldon

"Gambler's Fallacy" by Brigid Collins

"The Man Who Decided" by Dean Wesley Smith

"Rats" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

"Driving the Line" by Dan C. Duval

"Side Bet" by Lee Allred