Trouble in the Heartland

In 2014, mystery and crime fiction author Joe Clifford edited and published Trouble in the Heartland, a collection of 41 short stories based on the songs of Bruce Springsteen from both famous and up and coming writers. Each author contributing to this anthology chose the title of a Bruce Springsteen song, which then also became the title of the story they wrote. In order to get around some of the logistics in adapting material not in the public domain, authors were free to use song names but not song content, so rather than fleshing out the plotlines in Springsteen’s music, the short stories instead borrow mood, emotions, and atmosphere.

The stories in Trouble in the Heartland amplify the themes sprinkled throughout Springsteen’s oeuvre. Most of them deal with criminality of one sort or another, but more than that, their commonality is in the way they pull out the imagery most often associated with Springsteen. The stories are set in a gritty, rundown America where desperate people whose future has been ripped away from them make bad decisions or gamble on one last hope of escape. The landscape is filled with greasy diners, ramshackle housing projects, abandoned and closed factories, and struggling small farms. Some stories end on a note of possibility, while others end in despair; some are realistic fiction, while others play with fantastic or science fiction elements. Nevertheless, the feel of Springsteen’s music unites them, as do the black and white photographs by Mark Krajnak that punctuate the sense of grimy endurance of the fiction.

This summary lacks the space to recap all 41 stories. Many are short enough that they have been made available on their authors’ websites; the following are some of the standouts.



The collection opens with Dennis Lehane’s “State Trooper,” which comes closest to simply playing out the plot of the Springsteen song with which it shares its title. In it, a criminal who is slowly becoming unhinged as he drives down the highway hopes he won’t be caught by the titular law enforcement official.

In “Prove it all Night” by Jordan Harper, a woman thinks back over her youthful crime spree with her boyfriend in Missouri when she was 17 years old—she made it out of that life, but her boyfriend did not.

The incredibly short “Candy’s Room” by Chris Leek features a man reminiscing about a passionate short-lived relationship he had with a woman who was raped and murdered by a small-time criminal—a man who was himself then butchered in a car accident.



“Dancing in the Dark” by Lynne Barrett is a more lighthearted story about marital infidelity.

The disturbing and perverse “Atlantic City” by Benoit Lelievre features a young couple who realize that they enjoy murder after first killing out of what seems like a necessity—and later just for sport.

Hilary Davidson’s “Hungry Heart” combines the story of two people flirting and beginning a new relationship with the heavy weight of a past that refuses to stop oppressing the present.



In “Queen of the Supermarket” by Chuck Wendig, a shopper in a grocery store tells us about his favorite checkout cashier. He watches her ring up the customers ahead of him, explaining to the reader the many ways in which he has done his best—in extreme, surprising, and unsettling ways—to make the cashier’s life more pleasant.

“Mansion on the Hill” by Chris F. Holm is a more sedate story, in which an older man thinks back over the many relationships he has had in his life. The true love of his life was the first girl he ever dated—everyone he has been with since compares poorly with her.

Todd Robinson’s “We Take Care of Our Own” is one of the collection’s longer stories. It is the sad story of a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, who makes it home in one piece despite being exposed to extremely dangerous situations—only to be a bystander killed by accident in a gang fight in his inner-city neighborhood.



In “Open All Night” by Eric Beetner, five people killing time by hanging out in a 24-hour diner early in the morning are planning a variety of misdeeds. As the story progresses, we hear from each of the characters in turn, as well as from the exhausted waitress watching them.

The last story in the collection, Richard Brewer’s “Last to Die,” describes three desperate and rather pathetic characters doing their best to plan a robbery of the new, slightly upscale burger restaurant that just opened in their neighborhood.