INTRODUCTION, by Margaret Maron

Sisters in Crime was formally organized when Sandra Scoppettone invited a group of interested women to her Soho loft back in 1987. Approximately thirty women crime writers attended to vent about the inequalities we had experienced in trying to get a fair share of the advances, the reviews and the promotion routinely given to our male counterparts but stingily doled out to us. As the organization grew, we banded together to pool travel expenses, slept on the couches of Sisters who ran bookstores, and shared tips and promotional strategies. Today, we number around 3600 members in forty-eight chapters around the world. SinC in the Triangle is one of those forty-eight and this anthology showcases the emerging talents to be found in North and South Carolina.

In keeping with the theme of lust, love, and longing, these stories range from Marjorie Ann Mitchell’s high-tech future of simulated sex play to Sarah Shaber’s look back to sugar rationing during World War II. To illustrate the changing face of the state, Britni Patterson’s story is set among Raleigh’s Korean-American community, while Karen Pullen gives us a gently humorous take on some local “working girls.”

The stories illustrate facets of sexuality often kept hidden and some even cross into taboo territory. The longing for love is universal. Equally universal are the evanescence of passion and the cruelty of lust. Love can liberate, love can suffocate, and sometimes love can even lead to murder.

Enjoy!

January, 2014