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 The Origins of Benjamin Hackett written by Gerald O'Connor and published by . This book was released on 2017-02-06 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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. In this emotionally charged story, Gerald O'Connor explores truth and its consequences.

Download or read book Benjamin Hackett Collection written by Benjamin Franklin Hackett and published by . This book was released on 1862 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Photocopy of diary (1862-1863) kept by Franklin while serving in the U.S. Army; photocopy of his appointment as 3rd sergeant with the Vermont Volunteers; and genealogical table.

Download or read book A Negro and an Ofay written by Danny Gardner and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2017-05-15 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1952, after a year on the run, disgraced Chicago Police Officer Elliot Caprice wakes up in a jailhouse in St. Louis. His friends from his hometown secure his release and he returns to find the family farm in foreclosure and the man who raised him dying in a flophouse. Desperate for money, he accepts a straight job as a process server and eventually crosses paths with a powerful family from Chicago’s North Shore. A captain of industry is dead, the key to his estate disappeared with the chauffeur, and soon Elliot is in up to his neck. The mixed-race son of Illinois farm country must return to the Windy City with the Chicago Police on his heels and the Syndicate at his throat. Good thing he’s had a lifetime of playing both sides to the middle. Praise for A NEGRO AND AN OFAY: “A a solid entry in the ranks of African-American crime fiction.” —Publishers Weekly “Fans of Walter Mosley and George Pelecanos are going to devour Danny Gardner’s brilliant new book. A Negro and an Ofay breathes exciting new life into noir fiction.” —Jonathan Maberry, The New York Times bestselling author “Elliot Caprice is a terrific character with his own Midwestern territory and Danny Gardner tells his stories with style and cunning.” —Peter Blauner, The New York Times bestselling author and co-Executive Producer of CBS’s Blue Bloods “Danny Gardner’s Elliot Caprice is a complex mix of muscle and brain, of toughness and heart, of doing wrong and only sometimes getting it right. A Negro and an Ofay reads like a long lost Raymond Chandler, one that he wrote from the south side of Chicago.” —Lori Rader-Day, Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning author of Little Pretty Things and The Black Hour “Danny Gardner’s masterful debut engenders echoes of the greats. I had the impression I had somehow stumbled across a previously undiscovered work of Chester Himes, or Jim Thompson, or Walter Mosley―or all three magically rolled into one.”―David Corbett, prize-winning author of The Mercy of the Night “Immersive, poignant and utterly enthralling. Written from the middle of America’s great racial divide, it’s satirical, cool and irrevocably honest; imbued with an inherent nobility that rivals any modern day hero.” —Tom Avitabile, bestselling author of Give Us This Day “A Negro and an Ofay is a smart, crisp, historically accurate, and unapologetically racial narrative that signals the arrival of a strong, necessary voice in crime fiction. This is the best debut you’ll read in a long time.” —Gabino Iglesias, author of Zero Saints “Hard-boiled don’t get much harder than this. Danny Gardner hits all the right notes, but with enough swagger and voice to make it completely his own. Elliot Caprice is a fantastic character, stuck between two worlds—black and white, good and bad—and I really hope to see more of him.” —Rob W. Hart, author of South Village “One of the best tools Gardner has in his toolbox…is his sense of humanity.” —Scott Waldyn, Literary Orphans Journal “…it manages to be smart, historical, and about identity/racial issues while retaining all the entertainment value that pulpy thrillers bring to the table. This is a book with a carefully crafted plot that touches on a lot of issues that were as relevant six decades ago as they are now.” —Out of the Gutter Review “This is a stunning debut! A powerful combination of brilliant storytelling and a breathtaking grasp of dialog subtext that strongly reminds of Mamet. Gardner is destined to become a big name in this writing game.” —Les Edgerton, author of The Genuine, Imitation, Plastic Kidnapping “Elliot Caprice is a trouble magnet and that makes for a great character.” —Simon Wood, author of The One That Got Away “Plenty of hardboiled patter and a dense plot with a great sense of place and wonderful dialogue.” —Eric Beetner, author of Rumrunners “A Negro and an Ofay forces us to look into the brutal mirror of our past in the hope we might understand our future. With his sharp as a whip crack writing, Gardner may just change the world” —Paul Bishop, author of Lie Catchers

Download or read book Corrosion written by Jon Bassoff and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2017-12-11 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A mysterious Iraq war veteran with a horribly scarred face…A disturbed young man in a strange mountain town…A masked preacher with a terrible secret…Amidst a firestorm of violence, betrayal and horror, their three worlds will eventually collide in an old mining shack buried deep in the mountains. Corrosion, the shattering debut novel by Jon Bassoff, is equal parts Jim Thompson, Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner, and an unforgettable journey into the underbelly of crime and passion. Drawn from the darkest corners of the human experience, it is sure to haunt readers for years to come. Praise for CORROSION: “Bassoff confronts directly the traumatic stress disorder of our world today and tears off its mask, even if the face must follow.” —New York Magazine “Corrosion is a beautifully bleak noir novel that stretches the boundaries of the genre to its breaking point. A virtuoso performance by the terrific Jon Bassoff.” —Jason Starr, international bestselling author of The Craving “Like some unholy spawn of Cormac McCarthy’s Child of God and Donald Ray Pollock’s The Devil All the Time, Corrosion offers pungent writing, a cast of irresistibly damaged characters, and a narrative that’s as twisted and audacious as any I have read in a long while. A dark gem.” —Roger Smith, author of Dust Devils “Sharp, original, fierce, a real gut-ripper. Corrosion is one of the most startlingly original and unsettling novels I’ve read in ages. It ramps your pulse, it claws at your sweet spot. Bassoff has a career ahead of him brightly lit by a very bad star.” —Tom Piccirilli, author of the Edgar Award-nominated novel The Cold Spot “Imagine Chuck Palahniuk filtered through Tarantino speak, blended with an acidic Jim Thompson and a book that cries out to be filmed by David Lynch, then you have a flavor of Corrosion. The debut novel from the unique Jon Bassoff begins a whole new genre: Corrosive Noir.” —Ken Bruen, Shamus Award-winning author of The Guards “Jon Bassoff gives new meaning to the phrase ‘Hell on earth’ in his debut novel, Corrosion. It’s a harrowing page-turning tale of lost, misplaced, and mangled identity that barrels its way to breakdowns and showdowns of literal and figurative biblical proportions.” —Lynn Kostoff, author of Late Rain “Jon Bassoff’s stream of conscious novel sports Faulkner-like as this dark tale is told in first person timelines. It will grip and engage and ultimately leave you shaken to the core. Not for the tenderhearted… not no way, not no how. Corrosion is the tale of a man on a mission from God… or is it the Devil? Dare to find out.” —Charlie Stella, author of Johnny Porno “Talk about a book starting one way and then springing something on you…[Bassoff’s Corrosion] is dark and funny and sick, a book as much about identity as it is about crime.” —Bill Crider, author of the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series “Corrosion is a fever dream, a lucid nightmare. It is at once poetic and brutal; hypnotic and vicious; empathetic and heartless. It is the most effective kind of horror—the kind you believe. Reading it is a deeply uncomfortable experience in the best possible way.” —Marcus Sakey, author of The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes “An archetypal, nightmare journey down a hall of mirrors. Corrosion will burn your eyeballs. Keeps you reading relentlessly to the end.” —Jonathan Woods, author of A Death in Mexico

Download or read book The Night of the Flood written by E.A. Aymar and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2018-03-05 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It happened the night Maggie Wilbourne was to be put to death, the first woman executed by the state of Pennsylvania in modern times. That was when a group of women passionately protesting Maggie’s imprisonment struck. They blew up a local dam, flooding the town of Everton and indirectly inspiring a hellish night of crime and chaos. Fourteen of today’s new and most exciting contemporary crime writers will take you to the fictional town of Everton, with stories from criminals, cops, and civilians that explore the thin line between the rich and the poor, the insider and the outsider, the innocent and the guilty. Whether it’s a store owner grimly protecting his property from looters, an opportunistic servant who sees her time to strike, or two misguided youths taking their anger out against any available victim, The Night of the Flood is an intricate and intimate examination of the moment when chaos is released—in both society and the human spirit. Praise for THE NIGHT OF THE FLOOD: “Plenty of complex characters and hard edges. Take a breath, then hang on and enjoy this entertaining romp.” —Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author “Bravo to all the authors who contributed to The Night of the Flood, a collection of brilliant short stories about residents of the dysfunctional town of Everton who are thrust into the turbulence of decisions that will forever change who they thought they were. A stormy page-turner that will leave you wanting more.” —Sandra Brannan, author of the award-winning Liv Bergen Mystery Series “A brilliant, multi-leveled concept, Faulknerian in its structure. A novel in stories. Wow. Fourteen new exciting crime writers create a rare three-dimensional mosaic of a doomed town and the night hell flooded through it. Terrifically exciting. Wonderfully inventive.” —David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author of Murder As a Fine Art

Download or read book Swann s Way Out written by Charles Salzberg and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2017-02-20 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For a limited time only! Purchase SWANN’S WAY OUT for just $2.99 and get a link to download the first book in this series, SWANN’S LAST SONG, for FREE! A friendly poker game leads Henry Swann out to Hollywood where he tries to find the man, Rusty Jacobs, responsible for embezzling $1,000,000 from his client, and then bring back the dough. Swann finds Jacobs, but the mercurial wannabe film producer is involved in a “surefire” movie project aimed at the growing Christian market. And the money? Well, it seems to have vanished into thin air. At the same time, thanks to his irrepressible partner, Goldblatt, Swann finds himself knee-deep in the New York City art world, as he tries to get justice for another client who’s possibly been defrauded on the purchase of a valuable painting that may or may not be a fake. As if this isn’t enough to keep him busy, in the midst of these two troubling cases, Swann finds that the teenage son whom he hasn’t seen in a dozen years has run away from his grandparent’s Minnesota home and, chasing after a girl, has possibly become involved with a cult. And so, a guilt-ridden Swann has to take time out from his paying cases to find his son. Praise for the Henry Swann Mysteries: “I always love it when I come across a new private detective to admire and worship, someone who is brave where I’m weak, someone who gets his hands dirty while I keep mine clean. Henry Swann is such a detective and he tells a great story. For fans of hard-boiled mysteries or just plain old good fiction, I’m sure you’ll love Swann Dives In.” —Jonathan Ames, author of Wake Up, Sir! and the creator of Bored to Death. “Smart, satisfying, even profound, this is exactly what every mystery reader is looking for: A terrific story, full of wit and originality, and a master class in voice. Charles Salzberg is a true talent, and his Henry Swann is a classic—complex, hilarious, and completely charming.” —Hank Phillippi Ryan, Mary Higgins Clark award winner for The Other Woman, Agatha winner for The Wrong Girl, on Swann’s Lake of Despair “Salzberg’s a hell of a writer. He delivers thrills, insight and plenty of laughs. Swann is a very cool take on the classic PI.” —Andrew Klavan, author of True Crime, on Swann’s Last Song

Download or read book Leon s Legacy written by Lono Waiwaiole and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2017-02-13 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The three novels in Waiwaiole’s dark and dangerous Wiley series chronicle the tragic twists and turns in the lives of two old friends after those lives have completely gone off the rails in Portland, Oregon. In LEON’S LEGACY, Waiwaiole goes back to where it all began — back when Wiley and Leon were high school kids pursuing the state basketball championship. Unfortunately, it was also the year that the crack gangs from California began to sink their talons into Portland’s inner city, a juxtaposition that threatens not only their hoop quest but also their lives. An inner-city high school teacher and basketball coach when this actually occurred in Portland, Waiwaiole has a wealth of first-hand exposure to this story and the writing chops to deliver it convincingly. Praise for LEON’S LEGACY … “Lono Waiwaiole writes with a command you don’t see much anymore. He is the opposite of the winking hard-boil writer of today. He writes authentically and knowingly about America’s underclass, the streets and being an outsider. Leon’s Legacy is an unexpectedly honest novel about a violent teenage world, peopled with intensely believable characters whose upside down humanity will grab you.” —Kent Harrington, author of The Red Jungle and Rat Machine Possible blurbs (most for previous books; not sure about Christgau’s) … “Lono Waiwaiole’s Wiley novels are the past and the future of hard-boiled crime fiction, rolled up together inside prose that’s as cold and as shiny as the city streets. But there’s hope and redemption there too, glinting like the morning sun on wet pavement.” —Lee Child “With prose so sharp you can’t even feel the cut, scalpel-like in its precision, and driving to the heart by way of the gut, Lono Waiwaiole is that rarest of writers — brutally honest, unflinchingly brave, and not about to take no for an answer. Neither Wiley nor Waiwaiole are to be missed!” —Greg Rucka “Noir fans need to know about Waiwaiole right now. He’s the real thing, and he’s too good to miss.” —Bill Ott (Booklist starred review) “A tale of basketball, friendship, and street gang hostility that reads with the pace of a blistering fast break.” —John Christgau, author of Tricksters in the Madhouse: Lakers vs. Globetrotters, 1948 and The Origins of the Jump Shot: Eight Men Who Shook the World of Basketball

Download or read book Saying Uncle written by Greg F. Gifune and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2018-06-18 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Andy DeMarco and his little sister Angela worshiped their Uncle Paulie. To them, he was a god, an enigmatic savior, the man who took the place of their absent father, who protected them and their mother, and who taught them about the true nature of life and family. But one horrible summer day something unspeakable happened to little Angela, and everyone’s world changed forever. Now, twenty years later, in the middle of a snowstorm, Andy has returned home to bury his uncle, a man with a shady past that ended with a caper gone wrong and a bullet in the back of his head. Only now can Andy begin to understand who his uncle truly was, and in doing so, finally begin to also understand who he is, and who he may still one day become. Praise for SAYING UNCLE: “This quietly powerful short novel should bring much deserved attention to Gifune, who succeeds in imbuing what could have been a clichéd and formulaic noir premise with haunting emotional depth. Fans of understated, sophisticated crime fiction are in for a treat.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review “Saying Uncle is steeped in some serious atmosphere. It’s the kind of book that you’ll want to rip through and yet also savor. You’ll reread passages for the pure poetry of sound as well as for the dazzling imagery. It’s that lush and affecting.” —Tom Piccirilli, author of Shadow Season “Saying Uncle is a tightly-crafted novel that is both an action story and an emotional one. Gifune’s words flow like mountain streams, and like those streams they bite hard when you step into their icy waters. It is a coming-of-age story filled with all the right components: strong characters, dark secrets, dangerous situations, and deep emotions. In short, it’s the kind of book other writers will wish they had written, and readers will be recommending to their friends.” —Dark Scribe Magazine “Devastating, in a good way, I feel like I experienced Gifune’s novel Saying Uncle firsthand. Wonderfully crafted on so many levels: description, characterization, atmosphere, thematically. A must read.” —Lisa von Biela, author of The Genesis Code “This—like most of Gifune’s vast body of work—is a novel first and a genre entry only secondarily. It’s a dark psychological study, engrossing and disturbing, profoundly reminiscent of the great “noir” classics of a generation ago…while remaining on the cutting edge of contemporary crime fiction. More people need to discover this excellent book. It’s hard to imagine a reader who wouldn’t be struck by its brilliance.” —Robert Dunbar, author of The Pines “Brilliant, grim, and absolutely devastating. An amazing work from quite possibly the greatest dark fiction author of our time.” —Sandy DeLuca, author of Descent

Download or read book Accidental Outlaws written by Matt Phillips and published by All Due Respect, an imprint of Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2017-12-15 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three linked crime novellas that follow working class antiheroes as they indulge in theft, murder, and lawless shenanigans. Ain’t no cops running things out this way. In “Mesa Boys,” Ronnie plots a haphazard heist with a twisted con man. In “The Feud,” tough-as-nails Rex lets his resentment for a local pot dealer cloud his judgement. And, in “Bar Burning,” a mysterious drifter goes toe-to-toe with his new lady’s psychotic ex-husband. Accidental Outlaws is a hellfire ride through working class America’s angsty underbelly. Praise for ACCIDENTAL OUTLAWS: “The hardest hitting rural noir I've read in ages, like a mule-kick in the teeth.” —CS DeWildt, author of Love You to a Pulp and Kill ’Em with Kindness “Just sh*t loads of good fun...trailer trash noir at its very best.” —Grant Nicol, author of On a Small Island, The Mistake, A Place To Bury Strangers and Out On The Ice “Matt Phillips speaks fluently the language of the dispossessed... His whiskey-soaked prose can at times be as slick as a man slinging snake-oil, and other times as brutal as a baseball bat to the head.” —Eryk Pruitt, author of Hashtag and Dirtbags “Phillips’ writing is so multi-layered and deep...An author to watch out for.” —Regular Guy Reading Noir

Download or read book Gitmo written by Shawn Corridan and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2017-06-05 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Retired smuggler Dixon Sweeney exits Raiford after eight long years behind bars, vowing “From here on out, things are gonna be different.” And boy is he right: his wife has left him, emptied his safe deposit box, moved their entire house to Key West, and is shacking up with Sweeney’s former partner and Best Man. Worse yet, Buck Wiggins is after him for a sixty-five grand debt. But Sweeney’s broke! So Buck sends Gooch and Gunther Canseco, twin towers of steroidal ape stuff to tune Sweeney up each week until he pays Buck back. And he thought life in prison sucked! When a mysterious Cuban-American approaches Sweeney with an offer, Sweeney is forced to accept. The payoff? A cool half mil. The problem? The money is hidden inside a house in Cuba. Worse yet: on Guantanamo Naval Base, a.k.a. GITMO! Strap on your seat belt and prepare for the ride of your life, as unlikely hero Dixon Sweeney and his beat-up Chris-Craft challenge the Gulf Stream, waterspouts, man-eating sharks, the crazy Canseco twins, the Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, the entire Cuban military and one super sexy senorita in this hilarious romp through the Florida Straits! Praise for GITMO: “Amid the mayhem, the authors provide a number of surprising plot twists and quite a few laughs.” —Publishers Weekly “An exciting read that should appeal to fans of Carl Hiaasen, espionage thrillers and caper comedies.” —Kirkus Reviews

Download or read book American Static written by Tom Pitts and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After being beaten and left for dead, Steven finds himself stranded alongside the 101 in a small Northern California town. When a mysterious stranger named Quinn offers a hand in exchange for help reuniting with his daughter in San Francisco, Steven gets in the car and begins a journey from which there is no return. Quinn has an agenda all his own and he’s unleashing vengeance at each stop along his path. With a coked-up sadist ex-cop chasing Quinn, and two mismatched small town cops chasing the ex-cop, Steven is unaware of the violent tempest brewing. Corrupt cops and death-dealing gangsters manipulate the maze each of them must navigate to get to the one thing they’re all after: Teresa, the girl holding the secret that will rip open a decades-old scandal and scorch San Francisco’s City Hall. Steven finds Teresa homeless and strung out as their pursuers close in and bodies begin to pile high on the Bay Area’s back streets. Hand in hand Steven and Teresa lead the mad parade of desperate men to the edge of the void. American Static is a fast paced crime thriller with a mystery woven in. It’s played out against the backdrop of Northern California’s wine country, Oakland’s mean streets, and San Francisco’s peaks and alleys, written by one of its favorite sons, a man who knows the underbelly of the city like no one else. American Static’s prose has been compared to Elmore Leonard, Richard Price, and Don Winslow. Praise for AMERICAN STATIC… “American Static is a stunning achievement and nobody could have written it but Tom Pitts. Pitts ain’t just the real deal: he set the mold for what the real deal is, and the rest of us are just plastic copies.” —Benjamin Whitmer, author of Pike and Cry Father. “American Static grabs you by the collar and drags you through a dirty, dangerous tour of San Francisco. Tom Pitts serves up noir just the way you want it—dark, relentless, and inevitable.” —Rob Hart, author of New Yorked, City of Rose, and South Village. “American Static is a remarkable novel, a ride with brilliant twists and turns and a relentless momentum, racing to an ending both unavoidable and unexpected.” —Steve Weddle, author of Country Hardball. “Fast-paced, gritty and laugh out loud funny, nobody is safe in Tom Pitts’ maniac thrill ride through the Bay Area. Featuring a burgeoning body count and a memorable collection of antiheroes on all sides of the law, American Static is a hot dose of pure adrenaline that will leave you gasping for breath and begging for more. You’ve been warned!” —Owen Laukkanen, author of The Forgotten Girls.

Download or read book The Sin Tax written by Preston Lang and published by All Due Respect, an imprint of Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2018-06-10 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everyone knows that cigarettes will kill you… Mark works the overnight in a grimy deli in the Bronx, selling gray-market smokes and bad meat. His hot-headed manager Janet pushes him to help her con their boss into paying cash for a truck full of tax-free cigarettes. Soon he finds that Janet is willing to do nearly anything to grab the money, and what they’re up to is a lot more dangerous than three packs a day.

Download or read book Beware the Shill written by John Shepphird and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life can turn on a dime against the jagged cliffs of California’s Central Coast… Bruised, battered, but determined, Jane Innes must navigate a tangled web of deception, depravity and murder, and turn the tables on cunning swindlers. Using the art of deception, this out-of-work actress embarks on a daring caper—her last chance to take down a deadly adversary. Nominated for a 2017 Anthony Award, BEWARE THE SHILL concludes this thrilling trilogy from Shamus Award-winning author John Shepphird. Praise for the Shill books: “Sly, sexy and surprising, THE SHILL is a darkly comic Hollywood tale of a not-so-innocent out-of-work actress being groomed for larceny.” —Wallace Stroby, author of The Devil’s Share, Shoot the Woman First, and Cold Shot to the Heart “[THE SHILL is] a fast-paced heist story filled with colorful characters and interesting plot twists.” —S.W. Lauden, author of Crosswise “[KILL THE SHILL is] a fast and hard ride into a con trick. Told by a writer who pulls no punches this does not disappoint.” —Richard Godwin, author of Wrong Crowd “Hell hath no fury like an actress duped. Revenge is the motivation, deception the means to get even in this exciting crime thriller.” —Scott Adlerberg, author of Spiders and Flies and Jungle Horses, on KILL THE SHILL

Download or read book Swann s Lake of Despair written by Charles Salzberg and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2017-02-06 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When rare photos‚ a scandalous diary‚ and a beautiful woman all go missing at once‚ the stage is set for three challenging cases for Henry Swann. It begins with an offer to partner up with his slovenly‚ unreliable frenemy‚ Goldblatt. The disbarred lawyer-turned-“facilitator” would provide the leads and muscle‚ while Swann would do all the fancy footwork. A lost diary by a free-loving Jazz Age flapper is worth enough to someone that Swann takes a beat down on an abandoned boardwalk. Pilfered photos of Marilyn Monroe propel him deep into the past of an alcoholic shutterbug‚ his wife; and he’s hired to search for a lonely writer’s runaway girlfriend. The cases converge and collide in a finale that lifts the curtain on crucial‚ deadly facts of life for everyone—including Swann himself. Praise for SWANN'S LAKE OF DESPAIR… “Smart, satisfying, even profound, this is exactly what every mystery reader is looking for: A terrific story, full of wit and originality, and a master class in voice. Charles Salzberg is a true talent, and his Henry Swann is a classic — complex, hilarious, and completely charming.” —Hank Phillippi Ryan, Mary Higgins Clark award winner for The Other Woman, Agatha winner for The Wrong Girl.

Download or read book Cold War Canoe Club written by Jeffery Hess and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2017-05-22 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “With his finger firmly placed on sailors’ wartime experiences, Hess delivers a potent, thrilling collection of sharply drawn tales.” —Kirkus Reviews The stories in Cold War Canoe Club are like vertical launch missiles that explode to reveal a darker side of the US Navy in a time when most of the action took place away from the headlines. Welcome to the period between World War II and the Desert Storm, when enemies were just as likely to be seen on radar as aboard the same ship. The characters who populate the stories Hess has written face their own doom through dangers—foreign and domestic, including shipmates, spouses, secrets, lies, greed, lust, and bad decisions. As Cold War Canoe Club unfolds, we witness the darkest recesses of war ships and the men who sail aboard them as well as the women who wait for them in port and at home. There’s a submarine sinking in frigid waters, a pregnant Navy wife distraught over the Cuban Missile Crisis, a race riot aboard an air craft carrier, fist fights, loose women, bad luck, and bad decisions. Hess’s sailors and veterans haunt deeply with the authentic sense of people being on ships at sea or at the ends of their ropes as civilians. These stories bristle with noir intrigue and energy, while transporting readers to worlds few have ever seen. A dark exploration of service men, officers, gentlemen, lowlifes, and those trying to navigate troubled waters across oceans and on land. Praise for Cold War Canoe Club… “Jeffery Hess combines a flair for gripping storytelling with a powerful lyrical sensibility to produce that rarest of birds: a book full of page-turners that read like literary fiction. Like Tim O’Brien and Kevin Powers, Hess writes with absolute authority about the military men whose lives he sees with utter clarity and intimacy.” —Pinckney Benedict, author of Miracle Boy, The Wrecking Yard, and Town Smokes “Eerily timely and rendered with gritty realism, Cold War Canoe Club beckons us to recall a time when actions and attitudes appeared motivated by an entire world perpetually hovering along the brink of utter destruction. Each tightly woven gem of a short story represents a microcosm of the Cold War macrocosm, and dares to expose Hess as a genius for his artful juxtaposition of humanity’s brash boldness with humanity’s amnesic naiveté.” —Tracy Crow, author of Eyes Right: Confessions from a Woman Marine, and editor of Red, White, & True: Stories from Veterans and Families, WWII to Present “Hess is one of those rare talents who tells a great story with compelling characters, pacing and action.” —Terrence McCauley, author of Sympathy for the Devil and The Devil Dogs of Belleau Wood “Cold War Canoe Club presents an eclectic array of situations and stories all tied together by Hess’s hard-edged prose style and deeply-developed characters. In the smart, snappy tradition of Elmore Leonard and James Lee Burke, Hess is a writer who pulls no punches and delivers authenticity in rapid-fire doses.” —Steph Post, author of Lightwood and A Tree Born Crooked “Smart, poignant, often slyly funny, these are stories that will both take your breath away and take you places you’ve never been before. A true and honest salute to much more than those who serve in the Navy, rich with history real and imagined.” —Fred Leebron, author of Welcome to Christiania and Out West “Jeffery Hess reminds of the glory days or noir: wayward women, brawling sailors, and shadow-lurking heroes who were too hung over when redemption dawned. If you want a quick literary jab to your heart, any of Hess’s short fiction will do. Just finish burying that body, pal, and read.” —James R. Duncan, author of Blood Republic

Download or read book Blind Eye written by Marcus Pelegrimas and published by Down & Out Books. This book was released on 2018-02-05 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Being a bad guy isn’t just a way of life. It’s an art. Eddie Ballard is a hitman who loves his job. He is also inexperienced and enjoys making the kind of noise that just isn’t professional. If Eddie wasn’t so good at what he does, He could be the next one put onto a slab. Cecil Marzynski is a quiet, skinny man with eyes that have seen all there is to see in the St. Louis underworld. Cecil is also a hitman, but one that uses a vast network of contacts as his primary weapon. So many important people on both sides of the law owe him favors that some have taken to calling him Marker. Eddie enjoys fast cars, loud guns and louder music. Cecil has been circling the same woman for months, trying to find the perfect angle to approach her without tipping her off that he is wanted for murder in several states. Eddie thinks he knows how to be a tough guy. Cecil has forced some of the toughest criminals to give up everything they held dear. The figure at the top of St. Louis’s biggest organized crime syndicate is known as Pyotr The Greek. Pyotr is the only man with enough power to convince Cecil to take Eddie under his wing and teach him about what it means to be a true professional. Along the way, perhaps Eddie can show Marker a thing or two about savoring the good things in a bad life. Unfortunately for both of them, there is a new threat coming to town that might hit The Greek hard enough to topple his entire family.