We love our cars. It’s the most important purchase that most of us make, right behind a home. It can represent everything from a rite of passage to a tool for employment. There is a feeling of power, of freedom, that comes from having a full tank of gas in an automobile. As with anything and everything, though, it can be used or abused.

THE HIGHWAY KIND, an anthology of 15 original stories lovingly and deftly selected by Patrick Millikin, focuses primarily but not exclusively on the darker side of automobile use, where cars and the people who drive them occasionally win, frequently lose and intermittently draw. Millikin went to the well with a large, pristine bucket and filled it to the lip with terrific stories by a number of today’s top authors in the mystery and thriller genres, and beyond.

All of the stories here have something to recommend them. The best of them never lose sight of the brighter and darker sides of humanity and how motor vehicles motivate, affect and influence both. Michael Connelly just had to be in this anthology, and indeed, he offers up a smart piece of short fiction titled “Burnt Matches” involving Mickey Haller, the Lincoln Lawyer --- whose office is in his car --- for a piece that presents just what can occur when an unhappy former client invades your office, and your office is mobile.

"Millikin went to the well with a large, pristine bucket and filled it to the lip with terrific stories by a number of today’s top authors in the mystery and thriller genres, and beyond."

I can’t get the story out of my head, nor can I exorcise “Power Wagon” by C.J. Box, though for entirely different reasons. While a motor vehicle is central to this story involving the sins of the father being visited upon the son, it is the relationship between Brandon and Marissa, the couple who receive a surprise and unpleasant visit in the wake of the death of Brandon’s father, that makes this a truly outstanding tale. I will never drive past a barn again without thinking of it. What occurs when the past invades the present is also a primary theme of James Sallis’ “What You Were Fighting For,” a tale of just a few pages that you will wish would go on and on. Most of the action takes place in the past or off the page, but you’ll barely notice it in this account of the desperate acts of a man on the run.

There is also a new twist on a tale that you think you’ve read before. You couldn’t have a noir automobile anthology without Wallace Stroby, and his inclusion in THE HIGHWAY KIND is a variation on a theme of a classic story by Richard Matheson. Stroby, though, takes his “Night Run” into darker and more enigmatic places, leaving the reader to delightfully fill in a blank or two that may not even be there.

Some of the stories are somewhat lighter in tone, including “Apache Youth” by Ace Atkins and “Driving to Geronimo’s Grave” by Joe R. Lansdale. Both of these authors are incapable of disappointing and demonstrate that here. “Apache Youth” is somewhat of a cautionary tale about entrusting your car keys to a drunk with a gambling problem on a road that leads past an Indian casino. It’s a terrific story, primarily for the way it unfolds itself in one’s head while being read. “Driving to Geronimo’s Grave” is a Depression-era story full of dark humor as it follows a young brother and sister tasked with driving to Oklahoma to bring the ripe body of their dead uncle home to Texas for burial. It has a very happy ending, but getting to that point provides most of the fun.

Three stories in particular are my favorites. I am well familiar with the work of Willy Vlautin, whose characters are as real as any you are likely to encounter. “The Kill Switch” is about a man of infinite patience whose charity and goodwill never seem to be returned in kind until a car changes everything for him. There is “The Pleasure of God” by Luis Alberto Urrea. I had not read any of Urrea’s work before this, but I am in the process of attempting to rectify that oversight after reading this violent tale of crime and revenge. Cars are barely mentioned in it --- though one makes a critical appearance near the end --- but the absence is felt throughout the story as the elderly, tough and very angry protagonist makes at least one corner of the world a better place. First among equals of my favorites is by a gentleman named Patterson Hood. I know of Hood through his work with the rock band Drive-By Truckers, but knew nothing of his prose. “Whipperwill and Back” is as fine a slice of redneck noir as you are likely to read this year, a tale of shifting alliances and friends falling out to bad ends. I hope that there is more to this story and more from Hood sooner rather than later.

I can’t comment on everything in THE HIGHWAY KIND, but there are additionally fine stories by George Pelecanos, Ben H. Winters, Gary Phillips, Sara Gran, Kelly Braffet (whose “Runs Good” is my favorite title) and Diana Gabaldon. All are worth your time and financial layout. And a special tip of the fedora to Patrick Millikin, whose strong editorial chops put it all together.