Private Eye Action, as You Like It

Private Eye Action, as You Like It is a collection of short stories from early in the careers of Joe R. Lansdale and Lewis Shiner, published in a limited edition by Crossroads Press in 1998. They have never been made available in other collections and are now extremely rare.

First edition

The Lansdale solo stories feature a character named Ray Slater; Lansdale also wrote a Ray Slater novel, unpublished at the time but later included in For a Few Stories More. After the mysteries did not catch on, Lansdale published the western novel Texas Night Riders using Ray Slater as a pseudonym (it was eventually re-published under his own name). Shiner possibly wrote two of the three Sloane stories specifically for inclusion in this collection. In the late-1970s, Lansdale and Shiner collaborated on a few stories about John Talbot; both were published, though at least one of them was heavily edited prior to publication.

It includes:

Joe Lansdale's Ray Slater stories

• Introduction to the Slater stories
• The Full Count {originally published in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, June 1978}
• Long Gone Forever {originally published in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, Dec 1978}
• One Blonde, Well Dead {originally published in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, Apr 1979}

Lewis Shiner's Sloane Stories

• The Short Unhappy Career of Lew Shiner, Tough-Guy Writer (introduction)
• Deep, Without Pity {originally published in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, June 1980}
• The Killing Season {first publication}
• Prodigal Son {first publication}

Lansdale & Shiner - the John Talbot Stories

• Can You Run With It? (introduction, by Lewis Shiner)
• Black As The Night {originally published in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, Sep 1979}
• Man Drowning {originally published in an edited form in Pulpsmith, Fall 1983}
• Afterword to the Talbot Stories by Joe R. Lansdale