Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Stephen Sondheim? Seriously? What in the world do Sondheim and crime fiction have in common?
Well, nothing…unless you remember that Sweeney Todd is the story of a murderous barber, and Assassins is the story of multiple killers and would-be killers, and Into the Woods tells the story of a wolf who eats grandmothers, and The Last of Sheila–not a musical comedy for the stage but a devious whodunnit Sondheim co-wrote with Anthony Perkins for the screen–won the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Allan Poe Award for the best mystery film of 1973.
In Every Day a Little Death, twenty authors–some from the world of crime fiction, some from the world of the theater–use Sondheim’s lyrics as the inspiration for twenty tales of malfeasance, misdemeanor…and murder.
My short story, “Not a Day Goes By”, was inspired by the musical Merrily We Roll Along.