#patrick millikin

[mulhollandbooks]

When your car-themed story anthology gives you the perfect excuse to gather some tremendous authors for a reading at Chevalier’s Books.

L-to-R: Ben Winters, Patrick Millikin, Sara Gran, Michael Connelly, Gary Phillips

[mulhollanduncovered]

Behind the scenes of The Highway Kind

Read about the origins of The Highway Kind: Tales of Fast Cars, Desperate Drivers and Dark Roads, containing original stories by Michael Connelly, George Pelecanos, C. J. Box, Diana Gabaldon, Ace Atkins & more...

The book's theme has morphed a bit since I originally conceived of it back in 2013.  At first, it was to be a collection of automobile-centric crime fiction tales in which each story would feature a different car.  My thought was that we'd have nifty pen and ink sketches before each story representing each car.  I originally sold the idea to Little Brown based on such a proposal, but as Josh Kendall and I batted the idea around, we decided that such an approach might limit our prospective audience. The last thing we wanted was something that was considered a niche market book, so I broadened the theme to "cars, driving and the road."  It seemed much more accessible to a wide audience. The experience of driving is something that many of us can relate to - and it resonates on so many levels.  

I've enlisted what I think is a pretty amazing and diverse list of authors, many from the crime fiction world, but others, such as Diana Gabaldon, Willy Vlautin, Kelly Braffet and Luis Urrea from other genres.  I'm fortunate to be in the middle of things as a bookseller in a very well-established independent crime bookstore, and have developed friendships with loads of writers over my 20-year tenure.  That certainly helped to strengthen my case when pitching the book, and I'd done an earlier anthology for Akashic Books that did quite well in its small universe.

When the stories started coming in it quickly became clear that this was going to be a pretty unique and special anthology.  Some of the stories are classic road stories, while others are definitely on the more existential side.  Quite a few of the pieces have a distinctly confessional feel.  As I point out in the intro, many of us spend a significant portion of our lives alone in our cars.  They represent our freedom AND our isolation, and in some ways they facilitate our secret lives..  I hope UK readers will enjoy the collection.  It sure was a privilege being a part of it.

The Highway Kind is out today. Discover it now.