Groovy Gumshoes: Private Eyes in the Psychedelic Sixties

The Sixties were a time of great cultural upheaval, when long-established social norms were challenged & everything changed: from music to fashion to social mores. And the Leave It to Beaver households in Middle America didn’t know what to make of it all.

In the midst of this, private eyes tried to understand & bridge the generational divide while providing their clients with legal & extra-legal detecting services.

From old-school private eyes with their flat-tops, off-the-rack suits, & well-worn brogues to the new breed of private eyes with their shoulder-length hair, bell-bottoms, & hemp sandals, the shamuses in Groovy Gumshoes take readers on a rollicking romp through the Sixties.

With stories by: Jack Bates, C.W. Blackwell, Michael Bracken, N.M. Cedeño, Hugh Lessig, Steve Liskow, Adam Meyer, Tom Milani, Neil S. Plakcy, Stephen D. Rogers, Mark Thielman, Grant Tracey, Mark Troy, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, & Robb White.

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https://www.thehardword.org/single-post/and-everything-changed-an-interview-with-more-groovy-gumshoes-editor-michael-bracken 

H.W. : What about the era makes it a prime background for storytelling?

M.B. :The sixties—especially the tail-end of the sixties—were a time of great cultural upheaval. Long established social norms were challenged & everything changed, from music to fashion to social mores. For these anthologies, I asked contributors to imagine private eyes working during this time, but the sixties would serve as a great background for nearly any subgenre of crime fiction.

H.W. : Did you notice any difference between the collections?

M.B. : I don’t think there is a striking difference between Groovy Gumshoes & More Groovy Gumshoes because I think of them as one large anthology split in two. I selected all stories but two from the same open submission window, & organized both volumes at essentially the same time.