Böcker utgivna av Down & Out Books

This third issue of Down & Out: The Magazine features a new Jim Brodie story by Barry Lancet, whose novel Japantown has been optioned by J.J. Abrams and Warner Brothers for the Hollywood treatment. Here we have Brodie on a trip to his home in Japan and a quest to find out what's going on with the yakuza and a perplexing kidnapping.But first up is a story by Canadian favorite Peter Sellers; he delivers a nasty little crime story of love and loyalty in the workplace in his own unique style. Patti Abbott gives us a searing story proving once again how nothing torches the human soul like that of another person's expectations. Art Taylor, one of the best and most prolific short story artists working today, makes his first appearance here with a relatively short tale reminiscent of the late great Richard Matheson. Speaking of legends, Robert J. Randisi shares a story from his "Rat Pack" series. Next a writer who makes words look as though they fit together far more easily than they actually do is S.A. Solomon with her tale of corporate Big Business and other vices. Writing partners Frank Zafiro and Jim Wilsky debut separate stories from their Ania series, actual prequels to the novels, the first of which, Blood on Blood, will be released in April by Down & Out Books. A fine noir tale by prolific author Michael Bracken helps round us out.As usual we have another fantastic column by J. Kingston Pierce on the novels of the late Stanley Ellin, and for our "A Few Cents a Word" feature we present a discussion and a story by one of the hard-boiled school's originators, Raoul Whitfield.

Joe Collins used to be Joey Connolly, alias Joey Kotex, an infamous enforcer for the Petucci crime family. He left that world behind to run a blues club in Chicago, but Carl Petucci finds Joe and forces him to do one last job. Joe's assignment takes him to Wesserunsett, a small Maine town that has seen better days. With a friend's life at stake, Joe must kill a porn director and recover a video starring Petucci's niece. Easier said than done, as the target's girlfriend, Wanda, is a Wesserunsett cop. Then there's Hag, a wannabe hitman, and his buddy Earl. Hag's looking to make a killing in the killing business. As Joey, Wanda, and Hag each pursue their own agenda, they move ever closer to a bloody showdown. Praise for BITTER WATER BLUES: "A glorious boilermaker of noir and East Coast gothic. The action is as taut as a sprung snare and Bagley tightens the screws with every page." -Laird Barron, author of Swift to Chase "There ain't much quaint and cuddly about Patrick Shawn Bagley's Maine, where the only folks more dangerous than the thugs and gangsters From Away are the locals. Bagley sandblasts the chipped veneer of small-town charm to expose the rot beneath. Bitter Water Blues is a vivid, unflinching portrait of desperate people struggling at the margins of society to survive." -Chris F. Holm, author of The Collector trilogy and The Killing Kind "Bagley's debut novel is pitch perfect crime fiction, as dark and raw as it gets with a rich tapestry of intersecting characters who bring a beleaguered blue collar New England community to life with the style and powerful punch of a seasoned veteran…a story of redemption and revenge, second chances gone awry, double-crosses and finding loyalty where it counts, even if a little too late…a refreshingly masterful new voice in noir, and highly recommended." -Ed Kurtz, author of Nothing You Can Do

Brilliant investor John Kent is living his dream. The success of his private equity firm has propelled him into the ranks of the world's super-rich, allowing him to give his family the security and advantages he didn't have in his own childhood. But John's dream is shattered with the discovery that his largest investor is bankrolled by the most vicious drug cartel in Mexico. Then one of his partners is murdered to guarantee his silence, and John realizes he cannot cooperate with the authorities. When the ambitious head of the DEA threatens John with incarceration, his nightmare is complete. If he resists the DEA, what will happen to his family while he's imprisoned? But the alternative is worse. For if John chooses to betray the cartel, he and his family will pay the ultimate price. Praise for THE GENEVA CONNECTION: "The Geneva Connection has a menacing opening with a hook and a barb to make the hook stick. Thriller readers are hooked, barbed and immediately reeled in. The narrative mesmerizes from the outset. The pace is swift and the action enough to make any reader's toes curl in frightening expectation." -Art Cockerill, writer and journalist "I couldn't put The Geneva Connection down once I started it. The intricate plot, laced with just enough background information to make it realistic and understandable, takes twist after turn until you reach the final destination, white-knuckling it all the way. An intense thrill ride through the world of investment banking, drug cartels, and money laundering." -Long and Short Reviews "Novelist Martin Bodenham has penned The Geneva Connection, a thriller straddling the City, the English countryside, Mexican back roads and the US Drug Enforcement Administration. With this page-turner, Bodenham aspires to do for fund managers what John Grisham has done for lawyers." -Corporate Financier Magazine "Bodenham, a dealmaker who made his name in the cut and thrust world of turnarounds, is a fine writer of thriller fiction." -Real Deals Magazine

Malefactors is defined as "those who commit an offense against the law", or more simply put, "one who does ill toward another". This collection of short stories from Jim Wilsky is chock full of them. Tales that are all different, yet all the same. The locales and characters range from rural to urban. Office buildings, swamps, wealthy estates and corn fields are some of the places. The people range from folks with money to flat broke, from those who have a lot on the line to those who have nothing to lose, old and young alike. There are stone cold killers to good guys and those in between. Those walking on that shaky bridge, that thin tightrope that connects good and evil. The stories all share the same common ingredients though. Plots that are brutal, chaotic, desperate, vengeful and violent. These pages paint the rage and burning fire that dwells within almost everyone but only surface and re-erupt in some. From guns, to knives, to swords and bare hands, this collection will push all the right buttons for crime fiction readers. These specially selected stories touch every base. So, buckle up and read on.

Gary Chance is a former Australian army driver, ex-bouncer and thief. His latest job takes him to Surfers Paradise, Queensland, working for aging standover man, Dennis Curry. Curry runs off-site, non-casino poker games, and wants to rob one of his best customers, a high roller called Freddie Gao. The job seems straightforward but Curry's crew is anything but. Frank Dormer is a secretive ex-soldier turned private security contractor. Sophia Lekakis is a highly-strung receptionist at the hotel where Gao stays when he visits Surfers Paradise. Amber, Curry's female housemate, is part of the lure for Gao. Chance knows he can't trust anyone, but nothing prepares him for what unfolds when Curry's plan goes wrong. Praise for GUNSHINE STATE: "Part heist novel, part revenge tale, Gunshine State is a searing action story in exotic locales populated by fascinating grifters and unsavory characters. You won't know where it's going next but you'll love getting there. Add this to your must read list." -Eric Beetner, author of Criminal Economics and The Year I Died Seven Times "A tense, fast-moving, vividly-drawn thriller." -Garry Disher, author of the Wyatt novels "A gritty slice of Down-Under noir, served lean and mean." -Wallace Stroby, author of The Devil's Share and Shoot the Woman First "A phenomenal, hard-as-nails thriller with more tight corners than a maze and a double cross around every one of them. I loved it." -Timothy Hallinan, award-winning author of the Poke Rafferty and Junior Bender mysteries "A lean, mean, hard-boiled knockout." -David Whish-Wilson, author of Line of Sight and Zero at the Bone "Gunshine State moves like a bullet. The prose is taught without sacrificing atmosphere, character or psychological depth. Brimming with evocative settings, sharp dialogue and vibrant characters, this novel firmly positions Nette as one of Australia's leading writers of hard-boiled crime." -Alex Hammond, author of The Unbroken Line and Blood Witness "Gunshine State is magnificent. Taut, tense-a tremendous thriller." -Andrew Grant, author of False Positive and Run "Gunshine State is a breakneck ride from first page to last. Nette drags the reader into a sharply drawn world of dark motives and even darker morals. A must for lovers of hard-boiled crime fiction." -Emma Viskic, author of Resurrection Bay "This brutal, hard-boiled thriller comes at you like a furious street brawler and pins you to the wall with a white-knuckle plot and authentic characters. Like a vicious left hook to the ribs it will leave you breathless." -Leigh Redhead, author of Peepshow, Rubdown, Cherry Pie and Thrill City

"A searing crime novel…Gifune shows his versatility in this coming-of-age tale." -Publishers Weekly All they had was each other…and nothing to lose… Summer, 1984. For Richie Lionetti and his gang of friends, their years as teenagers are coming to an end. At a crossroad in their lives as petty criminals and thugs on the mean streets of New Bedford, Massachusetts, they've got one final summer, one last chance to fall in love, brawl for their turf, rob and pillage, and one last chance to make a move and pull a job that could change their lives forever. As a series of brutal heatwaves hit southeastern Massachusetts, the city boils, and everyone is on edge. In the hopes of finding something better, Richie desperately searches for meaning in all the violence, sex and degradation that is his daily life. But at what price? Part coming-of-age tale, part dark crime thriller, Dangerous Boys is the story of a group of young punks with nothing left to lose, fighting to find themselves, their futures, and a way out of the madness and darkness before it's too late. Praise for DANGEROUS BOYS: "Extremely well written and quite compelling, Dangerous Boys hits all the right marks. It's a novel you'll enjoy reading and regret when the last page is turned. Reminded me a bit of Dennis Lehane, a bit of Martin Scorsese, and a bit of S.E. Hinton. What I'm saying is: Greg F. Gifune has written a crime novel that's character-driven, jarringly violent, and somehow tender." -Grant Jerkins, author of Abnormal Man "Dangerous Boys may well be the best thing Greg F. Gifune has written, and that's a tall order given his deep and accomplished oeuvre. Stunning, breathtaking, and a bloody nightmare of a ride, this crime novel will reverberate through every inch of your heart and soul, and will cement Greg's already top-shelf reputation with readers of real literature." -Trey R. Barker, author of the Jace Salome novels "Dangerous Boys is Vision Quest meets The Outsiders with a dash of Less Than Zero thrown in. If none of those references make any sense to you, then you have some reading to do...AFTER you devour Dangerous Boys! Whether you want nostalgia, pain, darkness, sex, violence, or struggle, you'll find it here." -Frank Zafiro, author of Blood on Blood "This is it-a gritty, street-wise, cigarette-behind-the-ear coming-of-age novel that evokes Hinton's The Outsiders, the best of Dennis Lehane, and a dash of Mean Streets. Gifune continues to astound, able to perfectly balance the darkest parts of humanity with its most tender moments. Dangerous Boys is Gifune at his best." -Ronald Malfi, author of Bone White "Dangerous Boys is a testosterone-fueled, taut moral tale in the tradition of Nelson Algren's lonely street hustlers and Richard Price's The Wanderers. Greg F. Gifune drops you into the backseat of an IROC cruising the hot mean streets with cigarette smoke in your eyes and last night's booze on everyone's breath. He makes your palms sweat and your heart break for these small-time hoods. Fast, brutal, vivid action-and dialogue as sharp as a broken pool stick. These boys are gonna kick your ass!" -Steven Sidor, author of Fury From the Tomb

THE DAMP FEDORA introduces 1940's detective Nelle Callahan, gal gumshoe with gumption, with a case that struts its stuff like the breeze off a good Narragansett sail. Brisk. Brash. Knowing where the wind's coming from, and yet...wondering. Nelle's job? Cut through some slick con's shadow, lift a corner of chintz off the mist, let some truth shine in for the chippies and the chopper squad-you know-menfolk who measure themselves by how big their tommy guns really are. In this outing, Nelle finds herself helping a damp fedora wearing Harry-who's not a Harry- Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Eddie Waitkus, MLB pitcher Paul Katcher and her OSS handler-agent, none other than former White Sox catcher Moe Berg.

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#&146;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#&146;re all after: Teresa, the girl holding the secret that will rip open a decades-old scandal and scorch San Francisco#&146;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#&146;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#&146;s played out against the backdrop of Northern California#&146;s wine country, Oakland#&146;s mean streets, and San Francisco#&146;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#&146;s prose has been compared to Elmore Leonard, Richard Price, and Don Winslow.

Cincinnati, just before rock changed from spandex to flannel... Kenny Rockford has the best gig in town, drumming for local heroes The Selekt. The pay's OK, but the benefits are amazing. One benefit is Jean Cassidy, the girl at the club with a taste for the loud and fast. And they're making beautiful music together-until Kenny learns about Jean's husband. From there on, it's lust, murder and madness, at a tempo even Kenny may not be able to match. Praise for BROKEN GLASS WALTZES: "I tried to read this slowly to prolong the pleasure, but found it impossible. The blend of obsession, darkness, and intriguing character and plot, as well as seamless literary style, wouldn't let me go." -Edgar Award-nominated crime novelist Vicki Hendricks "Broken Glass Waltzes is as relentless as Tony Iommi's guitar and pounds at the reader's brain like Dave Lombardo's machine gun drums. A heavy metal noir ride replete with sex, drugs, rock n' roll-and a murder conceived in insanity-this wicked gem moves at a breakneck pace from the moment Cincinnati's number one metal drummer meets the girl of his nightmares to the shocking climax. Two sets of devil horns, high up." -Ed Kurtz, author of Bleed, Control, and A Wind of Knives

Jake and his pal Bud's journey begins six months after he is released on parole and is occasioned when his girlfriend Donna dumps him and aborts their child. After a suicide attempt where the Norelco shaver cord he used to hang himself breaks, on an impulse-everything in Jake's life happens "just like that"-he calls up Bud, who lives by the same credo, and the two take off with no particular destination in mind. They're just going "south"-somewhere where it's warm. An hour before they leave, Jake on another impulse, holds up a convenience store to get some traveling money. Ultimately, they end up in New Orleans and then Lake Charles, Louisiana and from there, back to Indiana. Along the way are many "watercooler" moments and near the end Jake takes a fall when he is caught burglarizing a bar back in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, gets shot in the leg and is returned to Pendleton where he kills the inmate he had a nasty encounter with during his first stay in prison. Just Like That is based on an actual trip the author took with an ex-prison cellmate under similar circumstances as protagonist Jake Mayes does in the narrative. The scenes in Pendleton are also based on true experiences he had while incarcerated. Approximately 85% of the novel is taken from real life. Portions of the book have previously appeared as short stories in the literary magazines Murdaland, Flatmancrooked, and High Plains Literary Review, the latter of which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was selected for inclusion in Houghton Mifflin's Best American Mystery Stories, 2001. Praise for JUST LIKE THAT: "Edgerton's got a story to tell you so get ready; it's coming at you fast. Get ready..." -Linwood Barclay, international bestseller "Edgerton draws memorable portraits of these dangerous and unpredictable characters." -Library Journal "Just Like That is yet another Les Edgerton winner. In his prison memoir, Edgerton conjures up in honest, Bukowski-esque prose a mad dog life lived behind and beyond the bars of institutional correctional facilities. Literature's version of Johnny Cash, America has yet another gifted bard to sing the blues of time served. I have long believed Edgerton to be an American original, who has for too long remained one of our best kept literary secrets." -Cortright McMeel, author of Short "Just Like That has it all. Great dialogue, whipcrack scenes and meaty characters haul you along on a hardboiled crime road-trip worthy of the Elmore Leonard and Joe R Lansdale. A shot to the heart as well as the head, Just Like That is highly recommended." -Paul D. Brazill, author of A Case of Noir "Edgerton establishes the kind convincing, and wrenching, interiority with his characters achieved by only the most adept fiction writers." -Peter Donahue, Sam Houston State University "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, UCLA and Vermont College, author of The Circles I Move In "Les Edgerton creates a vivid and compelling world. We feel the rhythm of his language and live in the skins of his characters. Altogether, a memorable experience." -Gladys Swan, Missouri University and Vermont College, author of A Visit to Stranger "Les Edgerton writes like a poet with a mean streak, and his prose goes down easy and smooth like good liquor as it carves up your insides." -Henry Perez, bestselling author of Mourn the Living "The characters in Edgerton's world bite down hard and grind up one another with their back teeth. Their authenticity is palpable as soft-shelled clams; these are sad, mean, fully human characters who long for connection almost as fiercely as they fear it." -Melody Henion Stevenson, author of The Life Stone of Singing Bird

Matt Chance is on the run. Murder, sexual exploitation, designer drugs, international terrorism and an off the rails CIA station chief. When Matt Chance is asked to look into what first appears to be a simple but brutal crime, he has no idea of the combination of forces which will send him on the run and threaten his life as well as the lives of those closest to him. A teenaged street boy is found viciously murdered in the most unlikely of places, his nude body laid out on the bare concrete floor of the slaughterhouse where they kill the pigs. The boy was a student at the muay thai school run by Coach Somchai, who is also Matt's mentor. Afraid the cops may find the killing easy to dismiss as just another meth crazed killing, Coach Somchai calls on Matt to look into the boy's death. Matt finds the boy was drawn into a sex service ring whose clients include international terrorists and those who control them. Most troubling of all, the trail leads Matt to a covert CIA operation and one of the most notorious of CIA operatives, a man Matt has clashed with before in Iraq. The operative's power in Thailand means Matt's safety is in question. He must run for his life searching outside of Thailand for allies to help counterbalance the threat and solve the murder.

Winnie doesn't remember the last time she felt anything below her neck. Her spine is severed at the seventh vertebrae, but thanks to implants from a sabotaged biomedical start-up, she has regained mobility. She is a prototype: a living, breathing-walking-demonstration of revolutionary technology that never made it to market. Her disability has become her armor. Because she doesn't register fatigue, she has trained relentlessly. Her hand, arm, and leg strength are off the scales for a woman, and she has honed self-defense techniques to channel that strength. She's a modern-day Amazon who feels no pain. When the sociopath who torpedoed the start-up sends killers to harvest the implants from her body, Winnie must team up with broken-down private investigator August Riordan to save both their lives-and derail sinister plans for perverse military applications of the technology. Praise for books by Mark Coggins "A bang-bang thrill ride. Winnie is a female Jack Reacher." -Seth Harwood, author In Broad Daylight "Smart, stylish, sexy and amusingly insouciant...a panoramic tour de fource." -San Francisco Chronicle "Gritty...seamy...very, very funny. [Coggins] has given the form fresh life." -National Public Radio "Dry ice sarcasm...and plenty of nasty chuckles in route." -Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Coggins hauls on a dark, hip journey." -Detroit Free Press "Coggins writes tight prose with a clean, unadorned style; he is a Hammett for the turn of the 21st century." -Loren D. Estleman "Utterly entertaining" -Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

Nominated for the 2017 Anthony Award for Best Anthology/Collection For the first time, more than two dozen crime and mystery authors have joined together to use the strongest weapon at their disposal - words - in a call for reasonable gun control in the U.S.A. In this collection you get all the thrills and excitement you come to expect from a great crime story, but without any guns. From best sellers and writing legends to the brightest stars of the next generation of crime writers, the twenty-five authors here have taken pen in hand to say enough is enough. Gun violence has got to stop and this is our way of speaking out - by showing that gun violence can be removed from the narrative, and maybe from our lives. It's not anti-gun, it's pro-sanity. And above anything else, these are thrilling crime stories that will surprise and shock, thrill and chill - all without a gun in sight. The writers are from both sides of the political aisle and many of the authors are gun owners themselves. But everyone felt it was time to speak out. Featuring the talents of J.L. Abramo , Patricia Abbott, Trey R. Barker, Eric Beetner, Alec Cizak, Joe Clifford, Reed Farrel Coleman, Angel Luis Colón, Hilary Davidson, Paul J. Garth, Alison Gaylin, Kent Gowran, Rob Hart, Jeffery Hess, Grant Jerkins, Joe R. Lansdale, S.W. Lauden, Tim O'Mara, Joyce Carol Oates, Tom Pitts, Thomas Pluck, Keith Rawson, Kelli Stanley, Ryan Sayles, and Holly West. Proceeds from the sales of Unloaded will benefit the nonprofit States United To Prevent Gun Violence (ceasefireusa.org).