3 Women, 4 Towns, 5 Bodies

& other stories

Townsend Walker’s twelve stories are rooted in foreign places, cemeteries, violence and strong women. The worlds his characters construct are unforgiving. Their paths cross in twisted and sometimes fatal ways. In the title novella, three women use wit, seduction, and weapons to master the men they meet. The ribald reverend in The Second Coming meets his match in 19 year-old Charity. In Super Secrets two women are neighbors and lovers, until one is betrayed and extracts revenge. On a darker note, a crazed horse and a storm at sea shatter a fragile love in Slashing at the Nets. Then, in Storm Painter an artist moves in with a writer, but their past destroys his third novel. Place is important. None other than an Italian detective would find a clue in a singularly shaped tortellini. The New York sniper would only be trained by the Israeli Defense Force.

3 Women 4 Towns 5 Bodies is a short story collection spanning centuries, where nothing is as it seems and twists are as abundant as they are deadly

Praise  & Reviews

Written with crisp, precise prose, 3 Women, 4 Towns, 5 Bodies is a stylish and modern take on noir fiction. These stories portray a world that is glamorous, mysterious, a bit seedy, and thoroughly compelling. Fans of Raymond Chandler and Elmore Leonard will love the sparkling dialogue and dry wit.
–Martha Conway, author of The Underground River

If you like your plots hard-boiled, your romances illicit, and your beautiful dames worldly and sharp as their murder weapons, look no farther than this fast-paced collection of gleeful tales of trickery, murder and slow-simmered revenge. Set in lush locations as varied as 1960’s NYC, revival tents in 1928 Texas, and a mountain village in 1839 Hungary, these fascinating morally ambiguous stories will be just your cup of tea….or glass of fizzy champagne. Or claret. Or port….
–M. M. De Voe, author of The Boy Who Loved Trees and founder of Pen Parentis

Townsend Walker’s collection of short fiction, 3 Women 4 Towns 5 Bodies & Other Stories, is a compilation of tales reflecting numerous different women, their lives, their loves, their hates, their crimes, and their plotting.  

The characters featured in the anthology are an eclectic bunch. While several men play various roles in the many narratives, the heart of the book revolves around the women who are either caught in webs of violence and danger or are weaving those webs themselves. As each story unfolds, it’s never clear until the end whether the central female character is a heroine or a villainess, if she is motivated by justice or malice, or if she plans vengeance or forgiveness.
–The Strand Magazine

An impeccably written collection of stories–each one different, but somehow creating the same effect. The dark tone, the morally ambiguous characters, and the vivid imagination of the author make this collection worthy of a permanent place on the bookshelf.
–Sheri Hoyte, Reader Views

Awards

Book Excellence Awards Winner

Pinnacle Book Achievement Awards Winner

Eyelands Book Awards Winner

Silver Feathered Quill Winner