The Replacements sang about the bittersweet fruit of life. Love. Loss. Ambition. Failure. They showed us the highs of the party, and the lows of the harrowing hangover. The Mats wrote about people who dared to be, and ended up aching for it. They were square pegs in the round hole of the world, and for their fans, they connected like no other band.

Twenty-five crime writers take to the page to honor their misfit heroes with a series of stories about the sad, the twisted, the beat down, and the darkness that looms just beyond the periphery. Each tale is inspired by a Replacements song, and each story is just as unique and heartbreaking as its inspiration. Get in the van and ride to the next town with this rare tribute to a rarer musical phenomenon.