Bücher veröffentlicht von Down & Out Books

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

The drugs are missing and four lives are about to collide. Clyde just wanted to make a little extra cash on the side to raise his new baby. Now his life and the lives of his wife and newborn daughter are in jeopardy. Brent just wanted to do his job and be left alone. Now he's in a race against time for his life. Sean just wanted to escape the crime he committed in Detroit. Now he's stumbled into another. The money he embezzled is nothing compared the load of narcotics that fell into his lap. And Skeeter? Well, Skeeter wants the drugs back, and he'll use any means necessary to get them. When these four are let loose on a mad scramble to locate the drugs, they cut a path of mayhem and bloodshed across Virginia. Inept would-be criminals clash with ruthless drug dealers in a violent weekend where no one is safe. The only certainty: Everyone is in over their heads. "Hard boiled pulp, hot off the press. The writing team of JB Kohl and Eric Beetner give the middle finger to polite crime writing and splatter the pages of Over Their Heads with foul mouthed, two-fisted action delivered in a hail of bullets. Neo-noir, transgressive fans will cheer. Drawing room mystery readers may need smelling salts. Don't say you weren't warned." -Anonymous-9, author of Hard Bite and Bite Harder "Over Their Heads is a stripped down hot-rod of a novel. JB Kohl and Eric Beetner keep things fast and tight, with a gasp or a laugh on pretty much every page as an assortment of would-be badasses try to track down some missing drugs. It's a comedy of errors, scored with the sound of gunfire." -Jake Hinkson, author of The Big Ugly "Over Their Heads is a real tour-de-force from the writers that brought you One too Many Blows to the Head. A full-blown crime noir that will keep you on the edge of your seat!" -Bill Craig, author of the Marlow Key West Mysteries and the Decker P.I. mysteries

From Valley Girls to Valley of the Dolls, the L.A. Woman has captured our imagination and redefined the fairer sex. CJ Parker is our lifeguard, Lucy Arnaz, our studio executive, Angelyne, our reality star, and the Black Dahlia, our murder victim. L.A. neighborhoods have spawned the Beverly Hills housewife, the Hollywood starlet, the Van Nuys dominatrix, the Santa Monica Surf Betty and the Manson girls, to name a few. LADIES' NIGHT, an anthology by Sisters in Crime Los Angeles, includes stories by Julie G. Beers, Julie Brayton, Sarah M. Chen, Arthur Coburn, L.H. Dillman, Bengte Evenson, Cyndra Gernet, Andrew Jetarski, Micheal Kelly, Susan Kosar-Beery, Jude McGee, Gigi Pandian and Wendall Thomas. The anthology is edited by Naomi Hirahara, Kate Thornton and Jeri Westerson. Award winning L.A. crime novelist Denise Hamilton wrote the introduction.

In the Bakken oil field of North Dakota, they call the new guys "worms." Ferret is a worm from Alabama, trying to kickstart a new life for his family, while back home his in-laws whisper break-up songs in his wife Dee Dee's ear. His boss, a shadowy old guy called Pancrazio, drags in Ferret, Gene Handy, and two roustabouts from Oklahoma to deal with a new meth empire on the prairie. Meanwhile, a reservation cop keeps a close eye on the big picture. All Ferret wants is some easy money and the love of his family. But he quickly finds out that there's danger around every corner, in every drill, truck and train car. And if the machines or chemicals don't get him, then the other roughnecks will. Because beneath the dirt and grease, nobody is what they seem. Praise for WORM: "Years from now, Smith will be viewed as one of the best writers of our generation-he's just not capable of writing anything but a fantastic novel." -Les Edgerton, author of The Bitch, The Rapist and The Genuine, Plastic, Imitation Kidnapping "Worm is a tremendous achievement in the portrayal of duplicity and greed in the oil boom. Smith hasn't lost his fastball and he's aiming it right at the reader's head again, the way it should always be." -Benoit Lelievre, Dead End Follies "Smith pushes the characters hard and their flaws are ruthlessly exposed...it brings forward unlikely heroes who emerge from the mire when it becomes deep enough." -Nigel Bird, author of Southsiders "Smith's prose is memorable and cutting; the term you serve in this book with these men is one of pure pleasure." -Rusty Barnes, author of Reckoning and Rednedk "Be entertained, but also be warned. There is a definite human cost to every barrel pulled out of the ground, something Smith makes clear with every blow in Worm." -Ben Sobieck, author of The Invisible Hand

Eddie and Sunny have never had anything in life save for each other's love. For months they've lived out of their car with their young son, and the stress of it all has driven pregnant Sunny to the point she wants to ditch Eddie and her kid and vanish from the life Eddie's tried so futilely to build for them in rural North Carolina. When they stop at an abandoned service station, the point is just to survive another night in their car. But inside they discover a marijuana grow operation, cash, and a stockpile of weapons. As they leave, the owners arrive and Sunny is forced to shoot the dealers to save her family. Eddie and Sunny become fugitives of the law and the drug dealers' kin and are separated with each believing the other has been killed in an act of retribution. Eddie & Sunny is the story of a family finding its soul, but to do so they have to lose one another first. It is a story of hope, love, and the American Dream. It is the great American novel set to a crime fiction soundtrack.

Winner of the 2016 Shamus Award for Best Original Paperback PI Novel! Private Investigator Jacob Diamond and San Francisco Detective Sergeant Roxton Johnson are famous for not getting along. Cats and dogs. Oil and water. Liston and Ali. Jake and Rocky. When an assistant district attorney is murdered in his high-rise apartment building, and Johnson suspects his lieutenant may have something to do with it, he can think of no one else to turn to for help-no one he can trust-except Jake Diamond. If the mismatched duo can avoid stepping on each other's toes long enough-they may be able to stop circling the runway and land on the villain's doorstep. Lieutenant Laura Lopez, Detective Ray Boyle, Joey Clams, Vinnie Strings and Darlene Roman are all back in the first new Jake Diamond escapade since Counting to Infinity. "Jake Diamond is back and it feels like the return of an old friend. One of my all-time favorite PI series-Circling the Runway is the best yet."-Steve Hamilton, Edgar Award-winning author The Lock Artist "Think it is impossible to find a new take on the wise-cracking San Francisco PI? Meet Jake Diamond and think again. Jake and his crew-both the good guys and the bad guys-are sharp and smart, convincing and complex."-SJ Rozan, Edgar Award-winning author (as Sam Cabot) of Skin of the Wolf "J.L. Abramo's Circling the Runway offers the swagger and strut of Raymond Chandler, the skintight plotting of James M. Cain and smart-ass one-line humor smacking of Mickey Spillane."-Jack Getze, author of Big Money and Big Mojo "In Circling the Runway, J.L. Abramo is shooting at us again-and he's doing it from every shadow and hidden doorway, from every window and passing car. And damned if every bullet doesn't hit its mark perfectly."-Trey Barker, author of Death is Not Forever and Exit Blood "J.L. Abramo's Circling the Runway takes up where Black Mask boys like Hammett, Gardner, and Carroll John Daly left off. It's loaded with tough guys and hard-boiled action-emphasis on the hard."-David Housewright, Edgar Award-winning author of Unidentified Woman #15 "Jake Diamond returns after a ten-year hiatus, and his reappearance is well worth the wait. Abramo offers yet another smart, funny and action packed installment to his award-winning series with Circling the Runway."-The Denver Review

When ex-sheriff Ken Burke is attacked and winds up in an unusual coma, the former hitman Sangster finds himself pulled into the world of Voodoo in order to save his friend. Sangster discovers he has stepped into a hornet's nest as the search leads him through a myriad of French Quarter Voodoo businesses, a Catholic church, a mysterious Voodoo priest in the bayou while avoiding the next would-be hitman wanting to take Sangster out. "Leave it to master-storyteller Robert Randisi to come up with a soulful new spin on the hitman genre. Sangster is a unique addition to the ranks of killers for hire." -Max Allan Collins, creator of QUARRY "As many excellent hitman novels as there have been over the years...you wouldn't think there would be much left to do with the sub-genre. But you'd be wrong, as Robert J. Randisi...proves quite handily. -James Reasoner, author of Texas Wind "...an ambitious, fast-paced thriller that plunges readers headlong into the world of professional hitmen...author Randisi promptly throws some fresh twists into his tale that amp up the excitement and suspense all the more." -Wayne D. Dundee, author of the Joe Hannibal PI series

Featuring Work By: Dickey Betts, Sherman Alexie, Willy Vlautin, Vicki Hendricks, Chris Hedges, Chris Offutt, Jason Isbell, Daniel Woodrell, Patrick Michael Finn, Joseph D. Haske, Steven Huff, Eric Miles Williamson, Ron Cooper, Esther G. Belin, Michael Gills, Larry Foundation and Mark Turcotte Stray Dogs is a collection of writers, poets and songwriters who write about the America that does not exist in the glossy magazines, the Hollywood blockbuster or the corporate novel. These are highway songs and gutter poems, whiskey-soaked and sun scorched stories for the forgotten and lost. This is the other side of the electric American night.

Crimespree Magazine's Jon and Ruth Jordan provide the best coverage for the crime fiction aficionado in each jam packed issue. In addition to serving up the magazine, they have also dined with the best the crime community has to offer. Therefore, they felt it was time for a cookbook! "Tired of the same old knuckle sandwich? Check out the killer new recipes in the Crimespree cookbook." -Robert Crais "I don't like to brag, but no one knows more about eating than I do. No one." -Laura Lippman

After three years and fifty-nine releases-some old, some new-Down & Out Books thought it was cause for a celebration. This anthology is a sampling from twelve authors published by Down & Out Books. The contributions include six brand new stories, three excerpts from forthcoming novels and three previously published stories. The line-up of Down, Out and Dead is impressive-Anonymous-9, Trey R. Barker, Rob Brunet, Tom Crowley, Frank De Blase, Les Edgerton, A.C. Frieden, Jack Getze, David Housewright, Bill Moody, Gary Phillips and Robert J. Randisi.

Bouchercon has been the annual gathering-in of mystery readers and writers, all of us fans of the genre, since the very first event in 1970 in Santa Monica, CA. In 2014, Bouchercon celebrates a return to the California beach, this time Long Beach, with an anthology of short stories by a roster of talented writers. You'll never think of sun, sand, or picnics the same way again. All proceeds from this anthology support the Long Beach Public Library Foundation. As writers, readers, and fans, we know how important a strong vibrant library system is. No matter what we write or read, across category and genre, we all agree on this: librarians rock! The collection is edited by Dana Cameron and features stories by Patricia Abbott, Al Abramson, Roger Angle, Craig Faustus Buck, Bill Cameron, Judith Cutler, Ray Daniel, Jeffery Deaver, Phillip DePoy, Sharon Fiffer, Delaney Green, Eldon Hughes, Tanis Mallow, Edward Marston, Krista Nave, Gigi Pandian

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

What could possibly go wrong when the backwoods Libidos Motorcycle Club hires a high school dropout to tend a barn full of high-grade marijuana? Plenty, it turns out. In a world where indoor plumbing's optional and each local wacko is more twisted than the last, drug money draws reprobates like moths to a lantern. From loveable losers to gnarly thugs and law-and-order wannabes, every last one of them has an angle-their best shot at being stinking rich. And with their own warped ideas about right, wrong, and retribution, the Libidos aren't far behind. "Brunet's hilarious caper [is] populated with a motley collection of unforgettable would-be heroes, all scrabbling for a piece of the action. Thoroughly entertaining!" -Owen Laukkanen, Anthony-, Barry-, ITW-, and Spinetingler-nominated author of The Professionals, Criminal Enterprise, and Kill Fee "One of the wildest romps you'll ever go on...the cast is right out of a John Waters movie and with more unexpected twists and wrong turns than a blind rat on crack running a maze. This book rocks!" -Les Edgerton, O. Henry-, Edgar Allan Poe, and Spinetingler-nominated author of The Bitch and The Genuine, Imitation Plastic Kidnapping "If Carl Hiaasen were Canadian and enjoyed partaking in a little Class D substance for recreation, then you'd have an idea of what Stinking Rich has for you between its covers." -Todd Robinson, Anthony-nominated author of The Hard Bounce

"Gordon Gekko meets Janet Evanovich in this wry and winning caper-Jack Getze does it again!" -Hank Phillippi Ryan, Agatha, Anthony and Mary Higgins Clark Award winning author of Truth Be Told Wall Street's miasmal garbage washes up on the Jersey Shore when a small time broker falls in love: Is he attracted to the beautiful lady-or her brother's inside information? Held spellbound by a steamy, auburn-haired woman with a dubious past and a get-rich-quick, insider trading scheme, Austin Carr knocks down a beehive of bad-acting Bonacellis, including the ill-tempered "Mr. Vic" Bonacelli, who wants his redhead back, and local mob lieutenant Angelina "Mama Bones" Bonacelli, architect of a strange and excruciating death trap for the fast-talking stockbroker she calls smarty pants. To survive, Austin must unravel threads of jealousy, revenge and new affections, discover the fate of a pseudo ruby called the Big Mojo and slam the lid on a pending United States of America vs. Austin Carr insider trading case. Can Austin and his Jersey Shore mouthpiece possibly out maneuver the savvy U.S. District Attorney from Manhattan? Will anything matter for Austin ever again if Mama Bones flips that switch?

Some say he's a serial killer. Others say he's a vigilante doing what police can't or won't do. What's certain is that Dean Drayhart, a paraplegic, will soon sit on death row for killing hit-and-run-drivers in Los Angeles. But not if the Mexican Mafia gets hold of him and those he loves first. Dean may be broken in body but his fierce spirit is determined to protect his pet monkey named Sid and girlfriend Cinda-out there running hard and fast from the law. Hardboiled, funny, relentless, and unexpectedly tenderhearted BITE HARDER delivers riotous action all the way to a bombshell climax that could only have been written by Anonymous-9, the self-declared mad scientist of crime fiction. "Bite Harder is part screwball comedy, part killer crime story entirely unlike anything else out there. It is unique and vicious and bloody funny but what kept me turning pages deep into the night was its heart. I loved Hard Bite, and Bite Harder is even better, stronger, wilder." -Josh Stallings, Beautiful, Naked & Dead, Anthony Award nominee "Brilliant, brutally funny, so real you can taste it. Starring the finest serial-killing helper monkey in all fiction." -Douglas Lindsay, author of The Long Midnight of Barney Thomson, soon to be a major motion picture starring Emma Thompson and Robert Carlyle

Three years ago, Sangster, a hitman, woke up and discovered he had a soul and decided to retire to New Orleans. Now, his former life has finally caught up with him. And they want him back or the alternative is his death. To truly escape his past, Sangster must decide between saving his soul or eliminating the threat the only way he knows how. "Randisi is a masterful writer . . ." -James W. Hall "Randisi is a master of the genre. He's one of the best." -Michael Connelly "A skilled, uncompromising writer, Randisi knows which buttons to press-and how to press them." -John Lutz

East Bay Grease, Eric Miles Williamson's now classic first novel, has received worldwide acclaim as one of the great depictions of working-class America in the latter half of the 20th century. The story of T-Bird Murphy, born in the tumultuous 1960s and raised in the ghettoes of Oakland by his mother, who rides with the Hell's Angels, his father, who is an ex-convict, and the father figures who range from musicians to construction workers, East Bay Grease is a novel of dignity, honor, and courage that has been compared to the works of John Steinbeck, Jack London, and Upton Sinclair. Praise for EAST BAY GREASE: "Williamson's writing becomes transcendent. His prose cuts loose in torrid rhythms that evoke the peril and exuberance of jazz." -The New York Times Book Review "A confident debut, an arresting, often harrowing read." -The London Times

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! 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 "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

"I'd been a grown-up since age twelve, when my father strangled my mother and took my family, my home, my cat, and any chance at ever having a normal life away from me." The teenage daughter of a killer. "Kevin thinks he's a millionaire. This jar of pennies weighs a ton, so Kevin thinks he must be rich, but there's no connection between weight and value. Kevin's father is proof of that." What happens when Santa threatens to put Kevin on the naughty list? A divorced dentist. A former prostitute. A retired cop. An escaped convict. The daughters of a drunk. These are just some of the characters who bare their souls in this issue of Spinetingler Magazine. How does unimaginable loss redefine a teenager's life? What does it take for a mother who's barely coping with life to learn to appreciate her son? What could cause fifty-year-old secrets to surface? What truths will surface when our diverse cast of characters faces their defining moments? Join us on journeys fascinating and unforgettable.

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

The year is 1953. Disgraced in the psychiatric hospital where he'd practiced for nearly thirty years, Dr. Walter Freeman has taken to traversing the country and proselyting about a very new kind of salvation: the transorbital lobotomy. With an ice pick and a hammer, Freeman promises to cure depression and catatonia, delusions and psychosis, with a procedure as simple and safe as curing a toothache. When he enters the backwater Oklahoma town of Burnwood, however, his own sanity will be tested. Around him swirls a degenerate and delusional cast of characters-a preacher who believes his son to be the Messiah, a demented and violent young prostitute, and a trio of machete-wielding brothers-all weaved into a grotesque narrative that reveals how blind faith in anything can lead to destruction. Praise for THE INCURABLES: "A twisted tour through the asylum that Jon Bassoff calls his mind. The Incurables is filled with the mad and desperate, but ultimately it's the humanity that Bassoff finds in his broken characters that sets this novel apart. Don't get me wrong though, The Incurables is certifiably insane-and I mean that in the best possible way." -Johnny Shaw, Anthony Award-winning author of Big Maria "Jon Bassoff's The Incurables practically bleeds off the page with a dark poetry so intense, that you can still feel it after your eyes are closed. It's the rarest type of novel that won't only sink its teeth into you, it will leave you relishing the scar." -Todd Robinson, author of The Hard Bounce "With influences and homage as wide and varied as The Alcoholics, Cuckoo's Nest, and 'Murder in the Red Barn,' The Incurables oddly and most affectionately invokes Nick Cave-but not Cave the singer, Cave the novelist-with its backwoods preachers, hellbent harlots, and dead-eyed dreamers. Think And the Ass Saw the Angel, only superiorly written, carved by prose that cuts deep. Bassoff's crooked trip to hell is a powerful rumination on the beauty of the damned." -Joe Clifford, author of Junkie Love and Lamentation "The Incurables reads like an unhinged murder ballad. In it, Bassoff's crafted a violent-and oddly affecting-ode to the outcasts, the downtrodden, the broken, the grotesque, and the misunderstood." -Chris Holm, author of The Big Reap "The Incurables is terse, sparse and brutal, yet strangely touching at times. Another winner from the Bassoff pen." -William Meikle, author of The Hole "Imagine One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as re-written by Elmore Leonard. A mesmerizing novel." -Ken Bruen, Shamus Award-winning author of The Guards

Frankie Avicious is a hard-luck fellow with a sordid past. Living in a dreary meatpacking town, stuck in a loveless marriage, and spending his days slaughtering cattle, Frankie has nothing to look forward to but his next swallow of bargain whiskey. His wife is threatening to leave him, and the local sociopath is threatening to kill him. And then there's Scarlett Acres, a stripper with a heart of fool's gold. Frankie can't stop thinking about her... With the encouragement of a mysterious traveling salesman, Frankie sets out to reverse his destiny through a series of bizarre murders. The consequences of his brutality turn out to be far worse than even he could imagine. Praise for THE DISASSEMBLED MAN: "The Disassembled Man is lean and mean-with the emphasis on mean-a true psycho-noir novel that leaves the reader to work out the truth behind events we can only see from the point of view of the protagonist. The twist that comes maybe two thirds of the way through the book ups the stakes even more and those last few pages are a real mindbender. Taken as a whole, The Disassembled Man is a damn fine read; a brilliant and raw example of the Psycho Noir genre." -Russel D. McLean, Crime Scene Scotland "For the first third of Jon Bassoff's beautifully ugly first novel The Disassembled Man, I felt the presence of Jim Thompson. Nothing wrong with that, the tone and feel of Thompson are appropriate to the material. But then Bassoff gets going on his own and you realize that while he uses the same kind of Swiftian tone Thompson did, every nuance of ugliness writ large-I always had the feeling that Thompson used it as comic relief, a kind of fabulism if you will. Laughing past the graveyard that would all too soon claim you. I don't get that feeling at all with the Bassoff novel. The power of this book, and it has considerable power, is that Bassoff never apologies for his people or their story. An impressive and imposing debut." -Ed Gorman, Ed's New Improved Blog "Bassoff has written sheer, nasty beautiful prose with this book. The wince factor is high and the characters horridly riveting. The envelope has not just been pushed, but set on fire." -Jennifer Jordan, Crime Spree Magazine "The Disassembled Man is remarkable for its ugliness. It's hard to think of a book with a character as despicable as Frankie Avicious. This Jim Thompson on mescaline story is not for the faint of heart." -Nathan Cain, Independent Crime "Jon Bassoff's novel The Disassembled Man is a wince-inducing front row seat to a soul shredding. It's so unrelentingly dark, so hopeless and dank, that when the humor rears its fugly head you'll want to wretch because you laughed. You will hate yourself for those laughs. But you will laugh. Whatever literary tag it's given, The Disassembled Man is a hell of a statement." -Jedidiah Ayers, Hardboiled Wonderland "Bassoff is good, and the things that are at the heart of a good psycho noir-great characters, lurid action and a propellant plot-are all here in abundance." -John Kenyon, Things I'd Rather be Doing "Jim Thompson's psychotic hell brutally collides with Bruce Jay Friedman's absurdist humor in this shotgun blast of a novel." -Dave Zeltserman, author of Small Crimes "Having read quite a number of psycho noirs, I'd have to say this one's a bit special. Jon Bassoff really nails it." -Allan Guthrie, author of Slammer "This is strong stuff, definitely not the kind of thing that you're going to find from a mainstream publisher. If you have a taste for the off-beat, this might be just what you're looking for." -Bill Crider, author of Murder in Four Parts "Flexer's gritty, nasty tale in the classic dime-novel tradition moves like a bullet from a Beretta." -Mike Segretto, author of The Bride of Trash

Russell Carver, an enigmatic and tortured man in search of a young girl gone missing, has come to Factory Town, a post-industrial wasteland of abandoned buildings, crumbling asphalt, deadly characters, hidden secrets and unspeakable depravity. Wandering deeper and deeper into the dangerous, dream-like and darkly mysterious labyrinths in town, Russell stumbles upon clues that not only lead him closer to the missing girl, but to his own troubled past as well. Because in Factory Town nothing is what it seems, no one is safe, and there's no such thing as a clean escape. From Jon Bassoff, author of Corrosion, comes a dark, gritty and surreal novel that is at once a compelling mystery and an exploration into the darkest recesses of the human soul. Welcome to the haunting, frightening, and disturbing experience that is Russell Carver's search for the truth... Praise for FACTORY TOWN: "This is a profoundly discomfiting and pessimistic exploration of a deeply damaged man, and when Bassoff (Corrosion) invokes real-world horrors alongside the fantastical ugliness of Factory Town and its inhabitants, he suggests that similar foulness is common to all people. This is one to read with all the lights on." -Publishers Weekly "Factory Town: A hallucinatory descent into an urban hell that rivals Jim Thompson for stark terror. Jon Bassoff is a master of that territory where pulp becomes poetry, crime fiction mates with horror, but this novel is very much its own self-an unnervingly individual piece of work." -Ramsey Campbell, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Ancient Images "Factory Town is a journeyman's surreal voyage through the very heart of hell. A novel full of a crazed, ugly, vivid, disturbing energy held together by a deft hand. Bassoff is the king of creepy crime-horror fiction." -Tom Piccirilli, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Last Kind Words "For those of us who love the horror-crime genre, Jon Bassoff is a Godsend. Creepy, poetic, and beautifully dark, Factory Town is an absolutely mesmerizing ride." -John Rector, Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Already Gone, Lost Things, and Out of the Black "In Factory Town, Jon Bassoff gives us Russell Carver, a man whose desperate search for a missing girl takes him to a bleak city where hope has long since been abandoned, and the grotesque is accepted as normal. By turns brutal and lyrical, shocking and uplifting, Factory Town provides a visceral experience unlike any other novel you'll read this year. Jon Bassoff is quickly becoming a must-read author in the field of dark fiction. Don't miss this worthy follow-up to last year's must-read Corrosion." -Allan Leverone, author of Final Vector and Mr. Midnight "No crime writer today does bleakness and despair as well as Jon Bassoff. He has the voice of a modern day David Goodis, if Goodis had been influenced by Stephen King. Factory Town is a thrilling genre bending mystery that is as scary as it gets." -Jason Starr, international bestselling author of The Craving and The Returning "Factory Town is the novel Kafka would have written had he lived longer. Brilliant writing, this, in the vein of Jung's shadow world. Jon Bassoff's novel is the contemporary Pilgrim's Progress; Russell Carver, the Christian of John Bunyan's work, traveling through the Slough of Despond looking for a salvation that will never come. And, then-there are lines that make you weep at their truth and beauty, like: 'She had once been beautiful, so beautiful that I almost believed in God, but beauty falls apart, just like everything, rusts and rots, disintegrates and deteriorates.' This is nihilism in its final, apocalyptic, terrible form." -Les Edgerton, author of The Rapist, The Bitch and The Genuine, Imitation, Plastic Ki

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

Meet the McGraws. They''re not criminals. They''re outlaws. They have made a living by driving anything and everything for the Stanleys, the criminal family who has been employing them for decades. It''s ended with Tucker. He''s gone straight, much to the disappointment of his father, Webb. When Webb vanishes after a job, and with him a truck load of drugs, the Stanleys want their drugs back or their money. With the help from his grandfather, Calvin-the original lead foot-Tucker is about to learn a whole lot about the family business in a crash course that might just get him killed. Praise for RUMRUNNERS: "By far the most fun I''ve had reading a novel in a long time." -Stuart MacBride, author of A Dark So Deadly "I stayed up half one night reading Rumrunners. Man, I love that book. Terrific. Dark magic." -Ken Bruen, author of the Jack Taylor series "Buckle up... Rumrunners is a fast and furious read." -Samuel W. Gailey, author of Deep Winter "Rumrunners just never lets up. It''s a fuel-injected, mile-a-minute thrill ride. I had a blast." -Grant Jerkins, author of A Very Simple Crime and Abnormal Man "Few contemporary writers do justice to the noir tradition the way Eric Beetner does. Others try to emulate and mimic; Beetner just takes the form and cuts his own jagged, raw and utterly readable path. Rumrunners is the latest example of his great storytelling skills, and his uncompromising commitment to the dark, often violent truth at the center of the human heart." -Gar Anthony Haywood, author of the Aaron Gunner series "Beetner is an old school talent, a crime writer''s crime writer like Gil Brewer (although, in my humble opinion, he''s better than Brewer), who writes stuff that is fast and funny and dark all at once." -Jake Hinkson, author of Hell On Church St. and The Big Ugly Praise for Eric Beetner: "To be blunt, he''s the 21st century''s answer to Jim Thompson." -LitReactor "Eric Beetner seems to have a formula that he has used for every book he has published: Fun plot + believable characters + witty dialogue + breakneck pace = novel that knocks your socks off." -Regular Guy Reading Noir "Beetner has a keen eye on how to plot a book that never allows the reader a chance to catch their breath." -Out of the Gutter