Böcker utgivna av All Due Respect

Short crime fiction from the leading writers in the genre. Including work by: John Rector, Stephen D. Rogers, Emily Bay Moore, Copper Smith, Rob Pierce, K.A. Laity, Daniel Vlasaty, Wilson Koewing, Tracy Falenwolfe, Tom Leins, Preston Lang, Alec Cizak, and Jay Butkowski

Life is going great for Steve Harrison. Only thirty-five years old, he's already a Senior Vice President for a major financial firm. He's admired by his co-workers, his friends, his wife-and his mistress. There's nothing he can't handle. The world, as they say, is his oyster. And all of that is about to change. His phone rings and the caller says that his name is "Bill". That's it. Just Bill. And Bill's got a message. Steve's wife, Kathy, has been kidnapped. If Steve wants her back then he'll do exactly what he's told. Deviate even the slightest from the plan, Bill tells him, and Kathy will die. It's a classic kidnap. Or is it?

Contract killers have long been a point of interest for readers of crime fiction and action film fans. Dead-End Jobs: A Hitman Anthology offers up eighteen works of short fiction from some of the hottest writers in the business. While the stories all depict professional killers, they are wildly different in their tone and the styles in which they are written, as well as the way they are depicted and the point-of-view from which they''re told. <br><br>Some of these killers are seasoned professionals and others are new to the killing game. Some stories find their settings in urban locales such as New York City or Los Angeles and others in backwater rural locations. There are also contract killers of every stripe. Some stories depict the traditional organized crime gunmen while others feature corner boys doing the bidding of neighborhood drug dealers and the like. The stories in this collection are fast-paced and action-packed. <br><br>Just as there are contract killers of varying pedigrees here, Dead-End Jobs features the writing of veteran wordsmiths such as Joe R. Lansdale, Max Allan Collins, and Stephen Spignesi, as well as new but equally exciting writers. Each author in this collection is as skilled as the hitters depicted in the stories. But their weapons are words instead of rifles and pistols, and every one absolutely kills here. <br><br>Praise for DEAD-END JOBS: <br><br>"An incredible collection of powerful and haunting stories that exist in that shadowy realm between tragedy, nihilism and noir." -S.A. Cosby, author of Blacktop Wasteland

Thirty-one bullets that will leave you gasping for breath... From hardboiled to noir to just plain human, these stories allow you to experience lives you escaped, and to do so with dignity, humor, and an eye toward tomorrow. "What sets those particular stories apart is their ability to catch the browns and grays of the characters quickly, subtly and persuasively." -Barnstable Patriot "The sometime EQMM poet is so smoothly readable, explores such a variety of inventive situations, and is so ambitious in structure and theme, even the stories that don't quite hit the mark make enjoyable reading." -Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine "Each story is fresh and original, set against a New England backdrop, and includes colorful characters from diverse walks of life. Each plot twists and turns to its totally surprising and unpredictable ending." -Examiner

Dominick Prince has been a magnet for trouble his entire life. A series of poor life choices and their violent consequences have crushed his spirit. Desperate to outrun this burgeoning rage before it fully consumes him, Dominick accepts an offer he doesn''t trust from an old high school classmate. Dutchy Kent says he wants to make one last-ditch effort to prove his acting chops by mounting the New York City debut of a play based on one of Dominick''s stories, but the true story involves the real estate empire of a notorious Queens drug dealer and $1.2 million in cash. Dutchy would love to find that cash, but he needs someone else to do the dirty work, someone who attracts trouble and is easily manipulated. <br><br>Unfortunately for Dutchy, the Dominick he knew in school is gone. The Dominick who shows up at his office is bitter, twitchy, and repulsed by the trash heaps and junk yards of Long Island City that don''t fit into his vision of a New York debut. None of that matters to Dutchy though who continues with his scheme, unaware that every insult, every passive aggressive comment, and every physical intimidation pushes Dominick one step further toward his rapidly approaching breaking point.

McGill and Gropper work as unlicensed PIs operating out of a diner in Charleston, South Carolina. McGill, a former police officer now incredibly out of shape, rarely leaves the diner and has a fondness for pancakes, bacon, and coffee. Gropper is well versed in fighting, tactics, and has a mysterious past. Together, they make an imposing team. Most of their business is small time allowing them to stay off law enforcement's radar. One of their specialties is the returning of stolen goods and property to the rightful owner. McGill and Gropper take almost any job and are willing to break the rules to get these jobs done. As they conduct business, someone from McGill's past returns to enact revenge.

Winter has set in a small town on the California coast and a fishing vessel has been lost amongst the gray waves. Grace runs the bowling alley and ghosts through his own life. He lives in the layer of fat between the underbelly and society. He completes tasks given to him by the people who run the town and is grounded only by his aging grandmother and her weekly bingo trips. <br><br>Grace is charged with issuing payments to the fishermen''s widows. He pulls on his funeral suit and borrows his grandmother''s New Yorker. When Grace is unable to find one woman, he uncovers something that threatens the oligarchy''s reign and his way of life.

Twelve short stories from the top writers in crime fiction today. Featuring the work of Stephen D. Rogers, Tom Leins, Michael Pool, Andrew Davie, Sharon Diane King, Preston Lang, Jay Butkowski, Steven Berry, Craig Francis Coates, Bobby Mathews, Michael Penncavage, and BV Lawson. Edited by Chris Rhatigan and David Nemeth.

Skint, on the skids, reduced to life in skid-row shelters, Trevor English, petty thief and habitual blackmailer, is apprehended shoplifting by store-detective-cum-freelance-investigator Leonard Bellow. Turning a blind eye to his theft, Bellow offers Trevor a job doing shutterbug reconnaissance work-an opportunity Trevor jumps at (if already with his own ends in mind). But in the world he has cornered himself in nothing remains what it seems on the surface...except, he comes to realize, for Trevor English: deadbeat, desperate, easy mark, lamb to the slaughter. this gun from Norman Court is the final installment in Pablo D'Stair's five-novella Trevor English cycle. Praise for Pablo D'Stair: "D'Stair is clearly a master. Likely Jean Patrick Manchette reincarnated..." -Matt Phillips, author of Countdown and The Bad Kind of Lucky "Somehow again and again you're drawn in...you get used to the book's rhythm and follow it because the work is obsessive. We find ourselves in a languid kind of suspense, bracing ourselves..." -Bret Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho "Pablo D'Stair doesn't just write like a house afire, he writes like the whole city's burning, and these words he's putting on the page are the thing that can save us all." -Stephen Graham Jones, Bram Stoker Award-winner "Pablo D'Stair is defining the new writer [and the new film maker]. D'Stair's late realism needs to be included in any examination of the condition of the novel." -Tony Burgess, award-winning author/screenwriter "Like Kerouac before him, I felt there was one roll of paper on which the story was typed. And there's a rhythm behind it. Not the speedy bop of jazz this time, more an urban dubstep. Shadows and edges becoming audible." -Nigel Bird, author of Smoke

Two women and a child are murdered. Dust, who unknowingly set them up, returns to Berkeley to find the killer. With his old buddy Karma in tow, Dust discovers that one of the culprits was Vollmer, a ruthless hired gun working for Dust''s former boss, Rico. When Vollmer finds out Dust is in town the hunt becomes mutual. <br><br>In this, the third book of the Uncle Dust series, old debts are paid and new ones incurred. Brutish, dangerous men lurk in every corner and slaughter runs rampant. <br><br>Abductions and Confrontations. <br>Blood. <br>By. <br>Choice. <br><br>Praise for BLOOD BY CHOICE: <br><br>"There are writers who take the language of the gutter and elevate it to a tarnished gospel. Rob Pierce is one of those rare authors who does that effortlessly." -S.A. Cosby, author of <i>Blacktop Wasteland</i> <br><br>"Rob Pierce is not afraid to write noir. His dialogue crackles and hooks you, while never veering into clichés, and his characters, the bad ones and the badder ones, all are imbued with a level of humanity which pulls you into <i>Blood By Choice</i> from the opening character. You might not fully like Dust, but I guarantee you''ll follow him as he cuts a path of vengeance through the Oakland landscape." -Hector Acosta, author of <i>Hardway</i> and Edgar nominee <br><br>"Rob Pierce gets the world I see; it''s a world that owes you nothing and gives you even less. For all the losers, troublemakers, and assholes who will never fit in, thank God (or the other guy) for Rob Pierce." -Joe Clifford, author of <i>The Lakehouse</i> <br><br>"Rob Pierce gives you no time to get reacquainted with Uncle Dust with his latest, <i>Blood By Choice</i>, because he lights the fuse right away. The result is the beat-down, junked-up, sideways shit-uation you''ve come to expect from the master of hardboiled, low-life noir author of <i>Uncle Dust</i>, <i>Tommy Shakes</i>, and <i>With the Right Enemies</i>. Go ahead and re-shelve your Parker novels in the kiddie lit section; it''s time to make room for Dust." -Eryk Pruitt, author of <i>Dirtbags</i> and <i>What We Reckon</i> <br><br>"Anyone who believes revenge is a dish best served cold has never read Rob Pierce. He serves it up hot. And nasty. It''s also said a man heading off on a journey of vengeance should begin by digging two graves. Having just finished <i>Blood by Choice</i>, I''d call that number a bit low." -David Corbett, award-winning author of <i>The Long-Lost Love Letters of Doc Holliday</i> <br><br>"With <i>Blood By Choice</i> Rob Pierce reasserts himself as one of Noir''s underground heroes. Tough, taut, and will get your attention like brass knuckles to the face. Good thing we''re all used to washing our hands a lot, because you''ll need to after this gritty dive into a world of dirty dealings and vicious revenge." -Eric Beetner, author of <i>All The Way Down</i> <br><br>"Pierce returns with his favorite felon, Uncle Dust and builds the East Bay body count one terrible twist at a time." -Tom Pitts, author of <i>Coldwater</i> <br><br>"Rob Pierce-The Grand Poobah of Nasty Noir-closes out his Dust To Dust Trilogy (or whatever the $@&% he''s calling it) with <i>Blood By Choice</i>-an absolute shotgun blast to the gut of a crime novel." -Todd Robinson, author of <i>Rough Trade</i>

Laying low in a cold water flat, petty crook Trevor English inadvertently discovers the truth behind a violent crime. Taking no action against the perpetrator, he is nevertheless accused of holding the information over their head.And despite his claims of non-involvement, Trevor soon finds he must either play fall-guy to the crime or else pay out someone else''s blackmail to keep his own past from being raked up.Praise for the Books by Pablo D''Stair"D''Stair is clearly a master. Likely Jean Patrick Manchette reincarnated..." -Matt Phillips, author of Countdown and The Bad Kind of Lucky"Somehow again and again you''re drawn in...you get used to the book''s rhythm and follow it because the work is obsessive. We find ourselves in a languid kind of suspense, bracing ourselves..." -Bret Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho"Pablo D''Stair doesn''t just write like a house afire, he writes like the whole city''s burning, and these words he''s putting on the page are the thing that can save us all." -Stephen Graham Jones, Bram Stoker Award-winner"Pablo D''Stair is defining the new writer [and the new film maker]. D''Stair''s late realism needs to be included in any examination of the condition of the novel." -Tony Burgess, award-winning author/screenwriter"Like Kerouac before him, I felt there was one roll of paper on which the story was typed. And there''s a rhythm behind it. Not the speedy bop of jazz this time, more an urban dubstep. Shadows and edges becoming audible." -Nigel Bird, author of Smoke

Newcastle, 1978. John is sleeping with Mary. Mary is married to Daniel. Both men work for her father, the Top Man. Daniel is his son-in-law, next in line to take over his little empire. John is muscle. The Top Man orchestrates robberies-banks, pay rolls, anything that will bring in some easy money. When Daniel discovers his wife''s illicit liaison, he wants John dead. The Top Man signs off on it.But John''s a man you only get one shot at. When Daniel happens to botch that one shot, then everyone involved needs to watch their back. Because John will be coming for them, and he won''t stop until he''s taken revenge on every last one involved in leaving him for dead.Praise for CUTTHROAT:"Paul Heatley remains a master of savagery, of bloody men and how they live, how they die, how they kill." -Rob Pierce, author of Tommy ShakesPraise for Paul Hartley:"Heatley is becoming a master of American noir in the vein of Jim Thompson and James M. Cain." -David Nemeth

HELEN TOPAZ, HENRY DOLLAR is the third installment in Pablo D'Stair's five-novella Trevor English cycle.

Ageing hit-man Tommy Bennett left London and returned to his hometown of Seatown, hoping for respite from the ghosts of the violent past that haunted him. However, things don't go to plan and trouble and violence soon follow Tommy to Seatown. Tommy is soon embroiled in Seatown's underworld and his hopes of a peaceful retirement are dashed. Tommy deliberates whether or not to leave Seatown and return to London. Or even leave Great Britain altogether. So, he heads back to London where violence and mayhem await him.Man of the World is a violent and darkly comic slice of Brit Grit noir.Praise for MAN OF THE WORLD:"Hitman Tommy Bennett's first-person narration is spot on [in Man of the World]. He's perceptive and fills each page with dry and often hilarious commentary, taking in everything from politics to pop music, social order and criminal disorder. Paul D Brazill excels at dialogue too. Cold fatalism is as evident in the conversation as it is in the violence. There's a strong theme here and it's one of the author's favourite topics: fading glory. Tommy Bennett, like his colleagues and counterparts, like Britain itself, is staving off the inevitable…and he knows it." -Crime Fiction LoverPraise for the Books by Paul D. Brazill:"If you took Ken Bruen's candor, the best of Elmore Leonard's dialogues, sprinkled in some Irvine Welsh, and dragged it all through the dirtiest ditch in South London, the result will be something akin to Brazill's writing." -Gabino Iglesias, author of Zero Saints and Gutmouth, for The Last Laugh"A broad range of cultural strands come together in the melting pot and form a delicious stew of criminal adventure… The observations are sharp and the characters create small nuclear explosions as they collide with each other." -Nigel Bird, author of Southsiders, for The Last Laugh"Brazill offers a series of amusing episodes filled with breezy banter in this offbeat slice of British noir." -Publishers Weekly, for Last Year's Man"It's all here, everything you've come to expect from a Paul D. Brazill caper-the fast pace, the witty banter, the grim humour and the classic tunes-except this time he's REALLY outdone himself. Unlike the lament in the song the title takes its name from, Paul's best years are surely still ahead of him." -Paul Heatley, author of Fatboy, for Last Year's Man"Paul D. Brazill is the Crown Prince of Noir. That's my opinion, granted, but I stand by it. For those who require proof, just pick up his latest novel, Last Year's Man, and it will be clear why I make that statement. All hail the crown prince!" -Les Edgerton, author of The Genuine, Imitation, Plastic Kidnapping, Just Like That and others"Brazill is brilliant, a unique voice which stands out from the crowd." -Keith Nixon, author of the Solomon Gray books, for Last Year's Man

Wynol Trot—a family man and high school teacher with a pornography habit he takes pains to keep hidden.To Trevor English, the idea is simple—threaten Wynol with exposure unless a modest sum is paid.But when the blackmail doesn’t go through, Trevor realizes his own past makes him more vulnerable than his would-be victim—and that Wynol Trot is more amoral than he could have imagined.Praise for the Books by Pablo D’Stair“D’Stair is clearly a master. Likely Jean Patrick Manchette reincarnated…” —Matt Phillips, author of Countdown and The Bad Kind of Lucky“Somehow again and again you’re drawn in…you get used to the book’s rhythm and follow it because the work is obsessive. We find ourselves in a languid kind of suspense, bracing ourselves…” —Bret Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho“Pablo D’Stair doesn’t just write like a house afire, he writes like the whole city’s burning, and these words he’s putting on the page are the thing that can save us all.” —Stephen Graham Jones, Bram Stoker Award-winner“Pablo D’Stair is defining the new writer [and the new film maker]. D’Stair’s late realism needs to be included in any examination of the condition of the novel.” —Tony Burgess, award-winning author/screenwriter“Like Kerouac before him, I felt there was one roll of paper on which the story was typed. And there’s a rhythm behind it. Not the speedy bop of jazz this time, more an urban dubstep. Shadows and edges becoming audible.” —Nigel Bird, author of Smoke

Eric is an ex-con, bareknuckle boxer better known around his Chicago neighborhood as “Ugly.” He wants to shed his past, build a life with his family, but his past won’t be so easily left behind. His junkie brother Joe has stolen $100K from a powerful drug dealer—and Ugly’s on the hook unless he hands Joe over.Which is gonna be hard considering he has no idea where Joe is.Ugly and his “business partner” Nicky hit the streets to find him, each step taking Eric back into the violent life he’s desperate to leave behind. Ugly’s done with it all. He’s pissed, sad, and exhausted, but he’s gotta keep moving if he wants any chance of Joe—and himself—getting out alive.Praise for STAY UGLY:“Daniel Vlasaty’s Stay Ugly is a vivid, visceral and bone-crunching tale of loyalty, loss and redemption.” —Paul D. Brazill, author of Last Year’s Man and Man of the World“Stay Ugly is raw and nasty in all the right places. Punch-drunk bareknuckle hardman Ugly is our tour guide across nocturnal Chicago, and his quest to find his junkie brother is a bone-shattering, bullet-strewn treat. This book fights hard and it fights dirty, and Daniel Vlasaty has crafted a brutally entertaining dog-eat-dog thriller. Savage, visceral stuff.” —Tom Leins, author of Repetition Kills You and The Good Book“Daniel Vlasaty has a unique and recognisable voice in crime fiction. His dialogue crackles, and his violence hurts. He creates a vivid world that you’ll find yourself fully immersed in as Ugly—sorry, Eric—chases his junkie brother through a busy night in Rogers Park, accompanied by his friend Nicky. It’s a tale of loyalty, familial binds, and asks whether one man can outrun his checkered past, especially when everyone around him is desperate to drag him back into it.” —Paul Heatley, author of Guillotine and Fatboy“In Stay Ugly, Daniel Vlasaty continually pushes the story forward, compelling the reader to turn the page. This book is so good, so beautifully written, and so horrible in its consequences, that Vlasaty succeeds in ways few writers would even attempt. I would say this novel is darkly evocative, but what in Hell does it evoke? The earlier works of Vlasaty is my only answer. And that is a darkness I would encourage any reader of dark fiction to step into.” —Rob Pierce, author of Tommy Shakes, Uncle Dust, and With the Right Enemies“Vlasaty’s latest gutter pulp gem has the propulsion of a meth head driving a race car that’s on fire. Simultaneously over-the-top and romantically mundane, equal parts Frank Bill and Sam Pink.” —Kelby Losack, author of Heathenish and The Way We Came In“What makes Daniel Vlasaty’s Stay Ugly pack such a potent punch is its heart. And this isn’t ‘heart of champion’ or ‘tenderhearted,’ or even ‘at his heart he’s a good guy’ sentiment. Eric (AKA Ugly) isn’t a good guy. He doesn’t have some sacred street code he’s ready to die for. Frankly he isn’t going anywhere but six feet under. Just a question of when. That he knows someday he’ll go down and not get up again doesn’t faze him. All that matters is that until that day, he’ll take his punches and get back up and keep doing the best he can in a fight we all lose in the end. And that, my friends, is the stuff of poetry and legends.” —Joe Clifford, author of Junkie Love and the Jay Porter Thriller Series

When petty crook Trevor English is offered two thousand dollars to deliver a letter across the country, the choice seems fairly simple—money up front, no way he can go wrong.And when he finds himself in possession of correspondence several parties would pay to get their hands on, the choice seems even simpler—take what he can, while he can, from who he can…and disappear.this letter to Norman Court is the first installment in Pablo D’Stair’s five-novella Trevor English cycle.Praise for the books by Pablo D’Stair:“D’Stair is clearly a master. Likely Jean Patrick Manchette reincarnated…” —Matt Phillips, author of Countdown and The Bad Kind of Lucky“Somehow again and again you’re drawn in…you get used to the book’s rhythm and follow it because the work is obsessive. We find ourselves in a languid kind of suspense, bracing ourselves…” —Bret Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho“Pablo D’Stair doesn’t just write like a house afire, he writes like the whole city’s burning, and these words he’s putting on the page are the thing that can save us all.” —Stephen Graham Jones, Bram Stoker Award-winner“Pablo D’Stair is defining the new writer [and the new film maker]. D’Stair’s late realism needs to be included in any examination of the condition of the novel.” —Tony Burgess, award-winning author/screenwriter“Like Kerouac before him, I felt there was one roll of paper on which the story was typed. And there’s a rhythm behind it. Not the speedy bop of jazz this time, more an urban dubstep. Shadows and edges becoming audible.” —Nigel Bird, author of Smoke

Testament, Florida is the town where the American dream bottomed out. A town that was bled dry and kicked into the weeds by venal men with bad intentions. A town so insignificant that it no longer appears on any map.During the 1980s, however, it was home to the Testament Wrestling Alliance, the chaotic wrestling promotion that made stars of Gringo Starr, ‘Voodoo’ Ray Blanchette and the Jazz Butcher. The man who made it happen was promoter Frank ‘Fingerf*ck’ Flanagan, who ruled his territory with an iron fist. A tough man willing to make tough decisions, Flanagan’s personal road to hell is paved with dead wrestlers.The Good Book is an interlinked, 21-story collection that takes place between 1980 and 1999. These stories are grubby, hardboiled tales that explore the lives of desperate menw—men who can’t leave their rivalries in the ring. In Testament, every action has a reaction and every feud ends in carnage. If someone else wins, you lose.

Jane is a struggling con artist, estranged from her ex and her sick son, just trying to raise a little cash to buy some black-market meds from a mysterious seller called P8, a dangerous, raspy-voiced woman.Kanganis is a widely-hated pharma executive, furious that the raspy-voiced girl he picked up at a chic downtown bar just ripped him off for millions in prescription drugs.When Jane figures out a way to con P8 out of her entire stash of stolen meds, it’s great news for her kid’s lungs, but it also puts Jane and her family in grave danger. Soon they’re on the run from a criminal network bigger and darker than they understand. And when Kanganis begins to use all of his resources and guile to catch up with his lost drugs, the game becomes even more deadly.Price Hike is a fast-paced tale of con games, corporate greed, and one of the douchiest bros of modern times.

Tommy Shakes is a career criminal, and not a very good one. He earned his name as a heroin addict. Now he's just a drunk, drinking so much that he spends much of his time in bathrooms, exploding from one end or the other.He's in a marriage he wants to salvage. He convinces himself that his wife will stay with him if he can bring home enough money. She tells him that won't do it, but Tommy gets a crack at a big heist and decides to pull the job.The job is ripping off a popular restaurant that runs an illegal sports book in back. When it turns out that one of the security guys works for a local gangster, Joey Lee, Tommy figures there's enough money that it's worth the risk.They pull the robbery but one member of Tommy's crew gets gun happy and it turns into a bloodbath, which includes killing Lee's man. Now they're wanted for murder, and the law is the least of their problems.Praise for TOMMY SHAKES:"With his pitch-perfect ear for dialogue, his knack for crisp pacing, and his unerring eye for what might be called the milieu of functional dissolution, Rob Pierce has revealed himself in story after story as a poet of the luckless, the bard of the misbegotten. In the hero of his latest and best, Tommy Shakes, he has found his Frankie Machine." -David Corbett, award-winning author of The Long-Lost Love Letters of Doc Holliday"Tight as a drum, vicious as a pitbull. I don't remember the last time I read something that scratched the scuzzy itch of noir as well as Tommy Shakes. Just, maybe don't read it with a full stomach." -Rob Hart, author of the Ash McKenna series"When you pick up Tommy Shakes, make sure you have nothing to do, because you're not going to want to put this one down. Rob Pierce at the tip-top of his game. Watch out, y'all." -Eryk Pruitt, author of What We Reckon"When I was in rehab, a psyche ward in Boston, I read the book Crime Novels: American Noir of the '50s. Willeford, Goodis, Thompson, Highsmith, and Himes. Had it all. Wretchedness, duplicity, alcoholism, and hopelessness. Tommy Shakes by Rob Pierce would've slotted in there perfectly. Nobody does grim and grave better." -Joe Clifford, author of Junkie Love and the Jay Porter Thriller Series"Rob Pierce writes the downtrodden like Rodin casts bronze, and Tommy Shakes is his masterpiece." -Benjamin Whitmer, author of Cry Father and Pike"If you like the kind of noir that makes you want to break out the hand sanitizer, Rob Pierce is the King-and the King does not disappoint with Tommy Shakes. Hard and mean and in your face like noir ought to be." -Todd Robinson, author of The Hard Bounce and Rough Trade"Pure noir prose. Dark, disturbing, devastating. A journey through Pierce's Oakland is a hellish thrill-ride. Or thrilling hell-ride." -Tom Pitts, author of 101 and American Static"Tommy can't get a break, but it's not like he's out to give himself one. This book is as relentless as it is bleak, yet oddly inspiring. You won't just root for an underdog, you'll root for collapse!" -Nick Mamatas, author of I Am Sabbath and Providence

McGill and Gropper are unlicensed private investigators who operate out of a diner and do whatever it takes to get a job done.When a trucker attacks a prostitute, her pimp turns to McGill and Gropper for protection.But taking the job means crossing dangerous and well-connected criminals who will stop at nothing to settle the score.

"We are such fragile creatures." The men, women and children in these stories will all be pushed to the breaking point, some beyond. A failed boxer turned mob enforcer in Boston looks back on a life filled with pain, inflicted and endured. In Los Angeles, a recovering heroin addict revisits an old haunt on a twisted mission of mercy. Luck has run out for a crooked politician in Hartford who tries to cash in his chips before leaving town. Crazy visits a young boy in the form of a jilted actress who takes him on a doomed road trip he'll never forget. A little girl who doesn't want to lose her parents will commit a crime for all the right reasons. Heroes, villains and victims. The lives Miner examines are haunted by pain and violence. They are all trying to find redemption. A few will succeed, but at a terrible price. All of them will face the consequences of their bad decisions as pipers are paid and chickens come home to roost. The lessons in these pages are learned the very hard way. Throughout, Miner captures the savage beauty of these dark tales with spare poetic prose. Praise for THE HURT BUSINESS: "Mike Miner's short stories hit like a heavyweight's body shots. So buy this book, and tighten your abs. Or go buy Eat, Pray, Love and shut the f**k up." -Todd Robinson, author of The Hard Bounce and Rough Trade "Mike Miner is a dissector of the human soul, and this piercing collection reminds us that the way people hurt each other and the way people love each other are inextricably linked." -Scott Adlerberg, author of Jack Waters and Graveyard Love