Download or read book The Genuine Imitation Plastic Kidnapping written by Les Edgerton and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A mix of Cajun gumbo, a couple tablespoons of kinky sex and a dash of unusual New Orleans settings and you wind up with Les Edgerton’s latest romp fest! Pete Halliday is busted out of baseball for gambling and travels to New Orleans to make his fortune hustling. Five years later, he’s deep in debt to a bookie and in cahoots with Tommy LeClerc, a Cajun with a tiny bit of Indian blood who considers himself a red man. Tommy inveigles a reluctant Pete into one scheme after another, the latest a kidnapping scheme where they’ll snatch the Cajun Mafia King and hold his amputated hand for some serious jack. Along the way, Pete is double-crossed by Tommy and falls in love with part-time hooker and full-time waitress Cat Duplaisir. With both the Italian and Cajun mobs after them, a chase through Jazz Fest, a Tourette’s outbreak in a black bar and other zany adventures, all seems lost. Fans of Tim Dorsey’s character Serge Storms, and readers who enjoy Christopher Moore and Carl Hiaasen, will enjoy this story. Praise for THE GENUINE, IMITATION, PLASTIC KIDNAPPING: “A hard-driving, relentless story with grab-you-by-the-throat characters.” —Grant Blackwood, New York Times bestselling author “The Genuine, Imitation, Plastic Kidnapping is not for the faint of heart, and that’s just one of its selling points. If you like crime fiction that cracks wise while offering a peek into the darker recesses, this is the book for you.” —Bill Fitzhugh, author of Pest Control and The Exterminators “… a dark crime comedy that will have you laughing from page one. It crackles with manic energy and mad thrills. If you’re looking for a different kind of edgy crime novel, this is the one to grab.” —Bill Crider, author of the Sheriff Dan Rhodes Mysteries “Les Edgerton’s latest book is the real deal, and has everything to keep you turning the pages. It’s a caper, full of fun and high-jinx, but it’s also bitter-sweet, engendering a full range of emotions. You’ll smile, you’ll wince, you’ll laugh out loud, and sometimes you’ll even cringe, but you’ll come away from the read feeling thoroughly satisfied and entertained. A terrific read.” —Matt Hilton, author of the bestselling Joe Hunter thrillers

Download or read book The Origins of Benjamin Hackett written by Gerald M. O’Connor and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “O’Connor’s lilting prose beautifies his tale [as he] tackles a serious theme of forlornness with sincerity, buoyancy, and wit.” —Kirkus Reviews All families have secrets. Most go untold … In the summer of ’96, Benjamin Hackett has come of age, technically. And in the midst of the celebratory hangover, his world is whipped out from under his feet. His parents have finally shared their lifelong secret with him; he’s adopted. At the age of eighteen, the boy still has some growing up to do, and with the help of JJ, his loquacious consigliore and bodyguard, he embarks on an adventure that’ll put to bed a lifetime of lies. Over the course of five days, they find themselves caught up in the darker side of Cork. But when they sweep through the misfits blocking their way and finally discover the truth of it … now that’s the greatest shock of all. The Origins of Benjamin Hackett is a tender tale of heartache and displacement told through a wry and courageous voice. Set in Ireland, it’s a timely reminder that the world hasn’t moved on just as fast as we fancy. Now, in this emotionally charged story, Gerald O’Connor explores conditioned guilt and its consequences in a country still hiding from the sins of its past. Praise for THE ORIGINS OF BENJAMIN HACKETT “The Origins of Benjamin Hackett by Gerald O’Connor is a raucous and riotous coming of age story that is brutal, tender and hilarious.” — Paul D. Brazill, author of A Case of Noir and Guns of Brixton “O’Connor doles out killer dialogue that adds oodles of character to this hero’s journey. Told with the lilt and panache of Joseph O’Connor and Dermot Bolger in their novels of the ’90s, Gerald O’Connor is the new and improved voice we’ve been waiting for.” — Gerard Brennan, author of Undercover and Wee Rockets “Visceral writing that inherits a long Irish tradition. O’Connor’s narrative contains sharp characterisation, and has an assured voice, while dramatising conditioned guilt with humour and style.” — Richard Godwin, author of Apostle Rising, Mr. Glamour and One Lost Summer and others “If you’re expecting the usual coming-of-age tale, you’re in for a big shock. This is a tale big on heart and one which the author, Gerald O’Connor, has hied religiously to the advice of Harry Crews for writers, to ‘leave out the parts readers skip.’ None of those parts remain in these pages. An auspicious debut!” — Les Edgerton, author of The Death of Tarpons, The Bitch, The Genuine, Imitation, Plastic Kidnapping, Bomb, and others

Download or read book Love You to a Pulp written by CS DeWildt and published by All Due Respect, an imprint of Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A strange trip through the Kentucky countryside with a glue-sniffing, skull-cracking, squirrel-hunting private detective by the name of Neil Chambers… When Chambers is approached by a father who wants to get back his (adult) daughter, he takes the skeptic’s view of the case. But he has no idea the chaotic fever dream that he’s about to stumble into. Vicious rednecks, more vicious rich people, crooked sheriffs—Neil will fight them all. F*** solving the case; this is about survival. Praise for LOVE YOU TO A PULP: “DeWildt stands alone as a wicked wizard of crime fiction. Love You to a Pulp serves up heart and depravity in equal portions. Bold, brash, and completely original.” —Tom Pitts, author of Hustle “Chris DeWildt is the first honest-to-God heir apparent I’ve read to the rural noir master Jim Thompson.” —Joe Clifford, author of Lamentation “DeWildt has a tendency to drag his characters, as well as his avid readers, through the most despicable of circumstances, yet with Love You to a Pulp, that tradition lets a little redemption seep in through the cracks. A balance DeWildt handles like a pro. This book is full of masterful imagery from a provocative author at the top of his game, piled high on a bullet train of violence that demands that once you start watching, you don’t look away.” —Brian Panowich, author of Bull Mountain

Download or read book Screen Test written by Jerry Kennealy and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2016-07-11 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In April of 1968 Steve McQueen arrives in San Francisco to film Bullitt. Rough-and-tumble SFPD Inspector Johnny O’Rorke, aka The Fixer, is the department’s Executive Protection Officer. His job is to make sure that visiting celebrities are well taken care of. O’Rorke is instructed to take special care of McQueen; the city’s movers and shakers are hoping to develop San Francisco into Hollywood North. McQueen takes a liking to O’Rorke, and when Russ Cortig, a member of his film crew, is busted at a wild Haight Ashbury party, he asks O’Rorke to try to have the charge dismissed. Fixing Cortig’s arrest sheet is a minor problem, but it leads O’Rorke into a tangled web of intrigue and corruption that includes the murder of one of his longtime informers, a crossdresser who goes by the name of Vanessa the Undresser, tangling with a Chinatown drug lord, being shot at by a sadistic Soviet hit man, going up against a wealthy former Russian Mafia leader now living in San Francisco, dealing with a vicious local gangster, Alec Zek, aka The Swine, and a chasing after a priceless blue diamond known as the Stalin Blue. If that isn’t complicated enough, O’Rorke breaks into a real sweat when McQueen asks him to make a screen test for a part in Bullitt. Praise for SCREEN TEST: “Steve McQueen. Bullitt. Transvestites. Murder. And the City by the Bay. Who could ask for more? Gear up for a rockin’ roller coaster ride up and down San Francisco’s tumultuous hills in Jerry Kennealy’s entertaining, triple-fast thriller Screen Test, but make sure to wear your seatbelt.” —Paul D. Marks, Shamus Award-winning author of White Heat Praise for the books of Jerry Kennealy: “Kennealy always delivers hard-boiled excitement nicely with humor and style.” —Booklist “Kennealy’s characters, combined with his seasoned ability to weave several plot elements into a smooth whole, make his books stand out in the crowded thriller genre.” —Publisher’s Weekly “Kennealy’s nicely crafted stories always hold my interest. Never a wasted word.” —San Francisco Chronicle

Download or read book Mystery written by Chantelle Aimée Osman and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2018-06-18 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Origins Game Fair is proud and pleased to present Mystery!, our 2018 fiction anthology. The collection features stories by authors in the convention's Library program. This collection brings together fourteen tales of mystery set across genres, in a legion of times and places. Each author has provided a story which will give you an excellent opportunity to sample their skill and imagination.

Download or read book Selena written by Greg Barth and published by All Due Respect, an imprint of Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2018-01-14 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Selena is living the dream on her terms—carefree and sloppy and all in the pursuit of pleasure. When a careless act of petty theft puts her in the crosshairs of a violent crime syndicate, her choices are clear—either curl up and die, or tear down the whole damned organization one bloody shotgun blast at a time. Nothing will satisfy her but savage retribution. Nothing can stop her. Get ready. Praise for SELENA: “Greg Barth cooked up something mean and served it up and I hope none of you choke on it because it’s mighty tasty.” —Eryk Pruitt, author of Hashtag and Dirtbags “It’s like the wildest of the men’s adventure novels of the ’70s, updated for the new millennium. Definitely not for the faint of heart.” —Bill Crider “Reminiscent of Larry Brown’s Fay, but less innocent and more violent, Selena combines fine writing and an indelible character to help fill the gap of female protagonists in the world of noir.” —Vicki Hendricks, author of Miami Purity “Greg Barth writes with a knife-like edge…A fast, crazy read.” —Marietta Miles, author of Route 12 “This book had me turning pages and gritting my teeth…a total punch to the gut, and it hurts so good.” —S.W. Lauden, author of Crosswise “Selena is a visceral pulp thriller that had me gripped from the outset.” —Tom Leins, of Dirty Books Blog “Greg Barth writes a hell of a book. He steps on the gas and doesn’t let up for a second.” —Michael Finamore “This series is a literary legend in the making” —Will Viharo, author of Love Stories Are Too Violent For Me “Selena is a tour de force of unapologetic sex and violence, not for the faint of heart but definitely for hardcore fans of fast paced, unrelenting pulp-noir in the fashion of nobody except Greg Barth.” —Shane D. Keene “Greg Barth writes well—hard charging and fast paced.” —Tony Knighton, author of Three Hours Past Midnight

Download or read book Manifesto Destination written by Alec Cizak and published by All Due Respect, an imprint of Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2018-02-04 with total page 139 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Elmore Johnson has only got two friends, the bottle of Jim Beam in his coat pocket and a revolver named Lorraine. He worked for the Indianapolis Police Department until they booted him for exposing dirty cops. Now he makes a meager living snapping seedy photos. But when Elmore shoots pictures of the daughter of a wealthy CEO making cheap porn, the girl ends up dead. As the bodies pile up, Elmore finds himself trapped in the heart of a bizarre conspiracy until he discovers the horrifying truth about a place called Manifesto Destination. Alec Cizak’s Manifesto Destination will take you back to dystopian 1998 Indianapolis where everyone—the cops, big business, and even the little guy—is dirty and only looking out for themselves. His writing is boiled rock hard and keeps you turning one noir-infested page after another until you find yourself as paranoid as Elmore Johnson. Praise for MANIFESTO DESTINATION: “Alec Cizak finds the naked truth on the printed page. An artist with no fear and thankfully no moral center.” —David Cranmer, editor of Beat To a Pulp “The city of Indianapolis like you haven’t seen it before (at least not yet), seasoned with a splash of noir, a dash of dystopia and almost but not quite hard-boiled. More like Eggs Benedict—though that breakfast was originally invented as a hangover cure, and this might cause one. Alec Cizak’s heady mixture of sci-fi and P.I., bad cops and Big Brothers, is a dark, funny read, full of twists and a barely controlled rage at the state of our corporate nation. And by nudging his detective story into a disturbing but recognizable future, the author paints this concoction with an extra layer of despair, as we realize his Phil Dickian satire of manipulation is not just familiar, but also inevitable. Best read with Charlie Parker in the background (the hero probably wore out his ‘Charlie Parker With Strings’ tape, but it weaves the perfect soundtrack). Jazzy and weird, the whole thing is probably a thinly-veiled threat, but I had too much fun to heed any warnings. See you at the Magic Carpet before they tear it down.” —David James Keaton, author of Fish Bites Cop: Stories To Bash Authorities

Download or read book Presiding Over the Damned written by Liam Sweeny and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2018-08-20 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An arson in New Rhodes reveals the body of Julia Mae Jefferson, an eight-year-old African American girl in the city’s North Central District. Jack LeClere, the top homicide detective in the New Rhodes Police Department, is paired with a new partner for the case, Clyde Burris, a former New York City homicide-turned-New Rhodes PD Internal Affairs detective. Jack and Burris have a mutual distrust of each other, but that’s the least of their worries. In the heat of the ashes of that row-house, the search for a brutal killer awaits. New Rhodes is a city on the edge. An influx of new police recruits aren’t adjusting to the community they serve. A fight during a protest at a defunded community center begins a back-and-forth struggle between the New Rhodes Police and the North Central community that threatens the relationships that Jack and Burris need to find leads in Julia Mae’s case, including the already fractured relationship with the community’s lead activist, Marcus Ellison. A well-intentioned move by Jack to help with her funeral backfires as Ellison discovers the true nature of her murder that same day. Julia Mae’s world was one of neglect—of a child, and in fact, many of the North Central children—falling through the cracks. Jack and Burris follow her through those cracks and discover an underbelly of abuse and an industry of exploitation in the guise of a daycare center called Mount Vision. Jack and Burris, through their own struggle to build trust in a city where little can be found, find something that even the most cynical activists could never have imagined—a true wolf in sheep’s clothing, and a monster with an SS tattoo and a rebel flag in his window. To give Julia Mae justice, Jack, Burris and Marcus Ellison must make a temporary peace, and the city must come face-to-face with the fruits of its indifference. Praise for PRESIDING OVER THE DAMNED: “Presiding Over the Damned is a journey into the heart of darkness. Lucky for us Detective Jack LeClere is our fearless guide through the shadows.” —S. A. Cosby, author of My Darkest Prayer “Holy Moley! I was just going to read the first chapter of Liam Sweeny’s new novel, Presiding Over the Damned, and seven hours later, I finished it. What a page turner! Not since Peter Benchley’s Jaws have I had a novel pull me into the story with such voracity that I was afraid to stop reading, lest I miss what was coming next! The characters are crafted so skillfully that I felt I knew them, maybe I’ve even worked with them. Even the criminals seemed familiar. The story is so skillfully written, it almost seemed like Liam had worked with me at some point. On a scale from one to ten stars, I give this novel ten stars and highly recommend it to everyone.” —Michael G. Edwards, author of the Mike J. Rock, NYPD Homicide series “Take a deep breath before cracking the spine of Liam Sweeny's latest Jack LeClere novel, Presiding Over the Damned. It will be a while before you draw another one. Jack LeClere returns, hits the ground running, and races the reader through a deliciously twisted plot peppered with whip-crack dialogue amid breakneck pacing. If you have to pick one detective novel for 2018, make it Liam Sweeny's Presiding Over the Damned. Sweeny continues to deliver and should be on everyone's Must Read list.” —Eryk Pruitt, Anthony-nominated author of What We Reckon “Jack LeClere is a cop you want on your side. Liam Sweeny is a writer you want on your bookshelf. Presiding Over the Damned, more than a great addition to the LeClere series: a book that will not only gut you, but one you can't help but cheer on.” —Beau Johnson, author of The Big Machine Eats “Presiding Over the Damned is more than just a flash-bang police procedural; it’s also unafraid to plunge into some of the roughest, toughest issues of our time. If you’re a fan of Michael Connelly or George Pelecanos, you’re going to dig the heck out of this.” —Nick Kolakowski, author of Boise Longpig Hunting Club “Fast and violent like a fire, strong like Jack LeClere’s knuckles, and as brutal as a kid in a body bag, Liam Sweeny’s prose is a pleasure to read. Here’s an author doing the thing instead of talking about it, and he does it in a commanding manner and with an undeniable touch of swag. This is solid crime fiction done right.” —Gabino Iglesias, author of Zero Saints “Sweeney’s Presiding Over the Damned is a finely tuned crime fiction piece of powerful and provocative writing. The dialogue roars with authenticity, the tension is thick and the story is marinated in reality. If you are a fan of hard boiled crime fiction moving at the speed of a bullet, you’ll want to read this book. Sweeney’s books will certainly occupy a prominent place on my bookshelf.” —Pam Stack, host, Authors on the Air

Download or read book The Blade This Time written by Jon Bassoff and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on with total page 165 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A man wakes to find himself below ground in the abandoned subway stations of New York City. He has no idea how he got there, no idea who he is. In his pocket he finds only a wad of blood-stained cash and a deck of playing cards. Once above ground, he rents out a cheap apartment, previously occupied by an enigmatic artist named Max Leider who’d left most everything behind—books, clothes, personal letters. But most peculiar are a series of paintings, each one of a mysterious woman hidden behind a curtain. Without an identity of his own, the man becomes fascinated with Leider. He begins wearing his clothes. He begins painting on his canvases. He begins taking on his obsessions. But as his persona fully transforms into Max Leider, he will find some horrifying truths about the artist…and himself. Praise for THE BLADE THIS TIME: “Jon Bassoff’s The Blade This Time is a nightmarish descent into the underbelly of New York City and the darkest corners of the psyche. A gritty, disorienting ride.” —Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts “The Blade This Time a dark masterpiece of classic horror. Bassoff blends art, insanity, violence, and obsession into a haunting nightmare that you don’t want to stop. Truly, Bassoff at his best.” —C.J. Howell, author of The Last of the Smoking Bartenders “Jon Bassoff’s latest full-length piece of noir, The Blade This Time, transports you into the bowels of urban, subterranean, humankind. Literally. A riveting, tightly woven masterpiece of hard-boiled loneliness, I was held mesmerized by it. Part Charlie Huston, part Henry Miller with a sprinkling of Bukowski, this is a novel you will not want to miss.” —Vincent Zandri, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Remains and Orchard Grove “Dark and disturbing, a guided tour through one man’s private hell. You can feel the pain, touch the grime, and smell the decay. I burned right through it, tripping on the feverish story arc, and came out the other side more than a little uneasy.” —Tim Curran, author of Doll Face “The Blade This Time is the book David Goodis would have written if he’d taken WAY too much mescaline one weekend and holed himself up in an abandoned Port Richmond movie theater and hallucinated straight into his typewriter. Brilliantly demented. —Scott Phillips, author of The Ice Harvest “Creepy, intriguing, compelling and well-crafted, Bassoff’s novel is the kind of thing you didn’t realize you were looking for until you’re already up to your neck in it. And by then you’re hooked.” —Victor Gischler, author of The Deputy

Download or read book Blood on the Bayou written by Greg Herren and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2016-09-15 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bestselling novelists David Morrell, Alison Gaylin and Elaine Viets headline a new anthology of 22 tales exploring the unique aura of mystery of New Orleans and the surrounding bayou country. BLOOD ON THE BAYOU is published in conjunction with Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, which is being held in New Orleans in 2016. As with the convention itself, the anthology spreads a broad canopy across a wide variety of crime writers from across the country and around the world — including both veteran writers and the brightest up-and-coming talents in the field. These stories range from the light-hearted and fun to the darker side of crime, just as New Orleans and the bayou country can show both to the unsuspecting. All participants contributed their efforts to support our charity — the New Orleans Public Libraries — and by extension readers and writers everywhere. ALL PROFITS GO TO THE LIBRARY. Edited by Greg Herren with an Introduction by Heather Graham. Stories by Kaye Wilkinson Barley, Eric Beetner, G. J. Brown, Sheila Connolly, O'Neil De Noux, Barbara Ferrer, John Floyd, Alison Gaylin, Greg Herren, BV Lawson, R. T. Lawton, Deborah Lacy, Edith Maxwell, Liz Milliron, Terrie Farley Moran, David Morrell, Dino Parenti, Michael Penn, Gary Phillips, Thomas Pluck, Paula Pumphrey, and Elaine Viets.

Download or read book Down on the Street written by Alec Cizak and published by ABC Group Documentation, an imprint of Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2017-06-16 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What price can you put on a human life? Times are tough. Cabbie Lester Banks can’t pay his bills. His gorgeous young neighbor, Chelsea, is also one step from the streets. Lester makes a sordid business deal with her. Things turn out worse than he could ever have imagined. “Alec Cizak demonstrates in Down on the Street that he remains among the top fiction writers alive, regardless of genre. This is a crime story, but it’s so much more. Words like sharpened blades cut out the reader’s heart, emotionally and otherwise. I read this novella in a burst. A week later, I’m still absorbing it.” —Rob Pierce, author of Uncle Dust and With the Right Enemies.

Download or read book A Better Kind of Hate written by Beau Johnson and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on with total page 139 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world has never been perfect. The world has never been all bad. But there has always been evil and men who drink of it. This ends now. Enter Bishop Rider and people like him who have had enough and are willing to embrace what most will not. The world will never be perfect. The world will never be all bad. It’s the middle we must embrace. This, a better kind of hate. Praise for A BETTER KIND OF HATE: “Hard hitting stories of lives on the razor’s edge.” —Paul D. Brazill, author of Too Many Crooks, A Case of Noir, Guns of Brixton, The Last Laughand Kill Me Quick! “Beau Johnson is a lawless writer. Several—but not all—of the stories in his collection, A Better Kind of Hate, feature his renegade cop alter ego Bishop Rider, a battered and bruised, world-weary hero forced to operate outside a corrupt system to find justice. And that’s just what these stories have in common: justice, in all its muted, corrupt glory. Whether showcasing Rider or another flawed hero, Johnson operates in shades of gray, where sometimes all it takes is for a bad man to kill a worse one. A stark and sobering reality, and a stellar debut.” —Joe Clifford, author of the Jay Porter Thriller Series “Beau’s ability to strike at the heart of human emotion is both unnerving, uncanny, and unique. It allows him to wring tears from the darkest recesses of the human experience. A dark chameleon who slides from twisted villain to damaged innocent like a well-tuned master of fiction. A how-to on the craft of short fiction.” —Tom Pitts, author of Hustle and American Static “A Better Kind of Hate will haunt you like a specter. An uneasy collection, Beau Johnson crafts each story with masterful precision and an icy cold edge. Each page, each word, escalates the tension, ratchets the foreboding . Dripping with psychological terror, nerve racking suspense and characters unhinged, A Better Kind of Hate is an offering of patience, plans, and revenge. Johnson’s talent is spectacular and terrifying.” —Marietta Miles, author of Route 12 “Beau Johnson writes from that place inside us all that is nothing but brutal honesty and grit. And while most people avoid this place, Beau milks it for every word he can.” —Ryan Sayles, author of the Richard Dean Buckner series

Download or read book The Selected Letters of the Late Biagio Serafim Sciarra written by George Williams and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2018-02-19 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The stories in this breathless and relentless collection are rendered in a voice both elegant and manic, as if we’re seeing the world through a surreal and yet precise kaleidoscope, one that both celebrates and condemns our foibles and follies. Satirical and cutting as Jonathan Swift, hectic and skewed as Van Gogh, bitter and morbid as Poe, the stories collected in The Selected Letters of the Late Biagio Serafim Sciarra show us that all is not well in Paradise, that the savage wealth of America has created a land of lunacy. Perhaps only Gogol and Barthelme have written stories this fantastically brutal and beautiful. George Williams is one of the finest minds and writers of our generation.” —Eric Miles Williamson

Download or read book Bird Lives written by Bill Moody and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2014-06-23 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For a limited time only! Purchase BIRD LIVES! for just $2.99 and get a link to download the first book in this series, SOLO HAND, for FREE! For jazz pianist Evan Horne, things couldn’t be better: His hand has healed, he’s getting gigs at some of the Southern California clubs, and he’s even been approached about a recording contract. He couldn’t have planned it any better. What he never considered, though, was that a murderer was going to add some startling improvisations… The dead sax player was someone many in the traditional jazz community wouldn’t miss; he was, after all, just another Kenny G clone, someone capitalizing on an uneducated public’s willingness to support “smooth jazz” while the heirs to the tradition and music of Charlie Parker—“Bird” to the real fans—were starved for work. It is immediately clear to Horne that the murderer must have known that Parker was one of the greatest and most influential men to wet a reed. That’s the only reason the words “Bird Lives” were scrawled on the wall above the body, the same words that appeared on walls all over the world after Parker’s death…and that soon appear next to a second corpse. With a tie-in like that, it is no surprise that the cops turn to Evan; he’d helped them before when death stalked the music community. This time, though, helping could cost him his future…and his life. Praise for BIRD LIVES! “The jazz esoterica and the unusual serial killer should keep Evan Horne fans reading.” —Publishers Weekly “The witty premise and all the jazz talk will more than satisfy series fans.” —Booklist

Download or read book Pull Pray written by Angel Luis Colón and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2018-07-30 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An estranged family member! A score to end all scores! Continued gastrointestinal issues! Five years after surviving the most harrowing heist of her life, Fantine Park is lured back to the United States by her aunt. The bait: a lead on the identity of her mother’s killer and a score known as the ‘pension plan’, a piece of software that can literally pay out in perpetuity if they can get their hands on it in time. Working with a team of actual professionals with their own motivations; Fan’s loyalties and beliefs will be tested as nothing is as it seems; especially when one of the members of this crew may have been the last person to see her mother alive. It’s going to be lies, murder, and gas station hot dogs all the way down as Fan races to get the answers about the day her mother died and maybe, just maybe, the kind of cash that will pull her away from a continued life of crime. Praise for PULL & PRAY: “Tough, sly, and funny as hell; Fantine Park is a noir hero for a new century. With Pull & Pray, Angel Luis Colón continues to show why he’s one of the finest voices in crime fiction.” —Nick Kolakowski author of Slaughterhouse Blues and Somebody’s Trying to Kill Me “Slick, smart and bristling with attitude, Pull & Pray is a fast-paced and fun romp of a heist novel. With the badass characters of Fan and Matty leading the way, Angel Luis Colón proves that he has his finger on the pulse of contemporary crime fiction.” —Steph Post author of Walk in the Fire “Pull & Pray will have you laughing a one minute and shaking your head in disbelief the next. Can’t wait to see where Colón takes Fantine Park next!” —Hector Acosta author of Hardway

Download or read book Monday s Meal written by Les Edgerton and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2018-04-23 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The stories in this collection represent a range in topics and styles and feature a wide assortment of individuals who, although diverse, all have in common a singular element—trouble in their lives. That’s what fiction is about—trouble—and short stories have a particular mandate to be about the frailty of the human condition as well as its strength. The author has an affinity for the disenfranchised among us and it is those often heroic people that interest him the most. In these stories he treats them with the sensitivity and dignity they deserve. Praise for MONDAY’S MEAL: “The sad wives, passive or violent husbands, parolees, alcoholics and other failures in Les Edgerton's short-story collection are pretty miserable people. And yet misery does have its uses. Raymond Carver elevated the mournful complaints of the disenfranchised in his work, and Edgerton makes an admirable attempt to do the same.” —The New York Times Book Review “Reading Les Edgerton’s stories is like listening to those old World War II broadcasts from the London blitz, with the reporter crouching under a restaurant table, microphone in hand, while the bombs drop on the city and the ceiling caves in. Edgerton reports on the world and the news is not good. There’s a kind of wacky wisdom in these bulletins from the underside of life; the stories are full of people you hope never move in next door, for whom ordinary life is an impossible dream. This is good fiction; Edgerton writes lean and nasty prose.” —Dr. Francois Camoin, Director, Graduate School of English, University of Utah “Edgerton’s best stories are uncompromising in their casual amorality. They stare you down over the barrel of a gun, rip you up whether or not the trigger gets squeezed.” —Diane Lefer, Creative Writing Instructor in the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College of Fine Arts “When it comes to short stories, Americans rule the roost. Flannery O’ Connor, Raymond Carver, Stephen King, Dorothy Parker, Charles Bukowski, Richard Ford, Kyle Minor. And you can add Les Edgerton to that list. Monday’s Meal contains twenty-one tales of dirt realism, sharp slices of American life. Edgerton has a strong and sure grasp of the lives of people who are standing on the edge of a precipice.” —Paul Brazill, author of Too Many Crooks and The Last Laugh “Filled to bursting with writing you can taste. Whether dining on bisque and blackened redfish at an upscale cafe, or eating rank mule meat in a pine board cabin, the characters in Edgerton’s world bite down hard and grind up one another with their back teeth. Monday’s Meal is a most satisfyingly vivid and visceral feast.” —Melody Henion Stevenson, author of The Life Stone of Singing Bird “This collection of 21 unsettling stories will appeal to readers looking for nontraditional contemporary plots with characters living on the fringes of society. Several selections will haunt readers for some time as events often take a morbid twist; others will leave them wondering about the endings.”—School Library Journal

Download or read book One Last Hit written by Nathan Walpow and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2018-01-22 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Back in ’68 they made killer music…now their music is killing them. It’s been thirty years since Joe Portugal put his electric guitar away. Maybe that’s one reason he’s suffering a serious case of the mid-life doldrums. Then Joe stumbles upon a chance to put the band he was in as a teenager back together. And maybe his life too. All he has to do is find the lead guitarist, who hasn’t been seen since the 70s. But when he starts to look, it’s quickly clear that someone doesn’t want to see a reunion tour...someone who’s very handy with a gun. Praise for the Joe Portugal mysteries: “I love reading Nathan Walpow books…a solid, intelligent mystery…add Walpow’s marvelous sense of humor and you’ll see why he’s winning new fans ever day.” —Jan Burke, Edgar Award-winning author “Snappy Chandleresque dialogue.” —Los Angeles Times “Joe’s wry sense of humor will convert readers into loyal fans.” —Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine “This guy is a hell of a writer.” —Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher series