Pine Box for a Pin-Up

Pine Box for a Pin-Up PDF Author: Frank De Blase
Publisher: Down & Out Books
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 154

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Book Description
In the grand tradition of the great pulps of the ’50s comes Pine Box for a Pin-Up. Frankie Valentine just wanted to take girlie pictures. But a jealous woman, a call girl on the make, a dirty cop, and a cross-dressing judge bent on keeping his secret, plunge Valentine into a world of murder, badger games gone wrong, blackmail, burlesque, and violence … Also includes “Grift ‘n’ Grind”, a Frankie Valentine short story.

Pine Box for a Pin-Up

Pine Box for a Pin-Up PDF Author: Frank De Blase
Publisher: Down & Out Books
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 154

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Book Description
In the grand tradition of the great pulps of the ’50s comes Pine Box for a Pin-Up. Frankie Valentine just wanted to take girlie pictures. But a jealous woman, a call girl on the make, a dirty cop, and a cross-dressing judge bent on keeping his secret, plunge Valentine into a world of murder, badger games gone wrong, blackmail, burlesque, and violence … Also includes “Grift ‘n’ Grind”, a Frankie Valentine short story.

Clutching at Straws

Clutching at Straws PDF Author: J.L. Abramo
Publisher: Down & Out Books
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
The follow-up to the award-winning Catching Water in a Net… Lefty Wright had it all figured. In fact he was doing the math as he crawled into the deserted house through the kitchen window. Get to the bedroom, crack open the wall safe, grab the envelope, fifteen minutes. One thousand dollars a minute. Nice score. What Lefty neglected to factor in were the unknowns. And when the police nab him red-handed and discover the dead body of a prominent Criminal Courts Judge stuffed beneath the bed, Lefty finds himself charged with first degree murder with no shoes, no one believing in his innocence, and one phone call. He calls Jake Diamond. In his second outing, Diamond attempts to prove Lefty’s innocence while investigating a recent kidnapping and a fifteen year old homicide which may or may not be related to Lefty’s dilemma. From San Francisco to the avocado fields of central California to the sound stages of a film shoot in Denver, Diamond’s suspects seem to have one thing in common; they are in no condition to talk by the time Jake gets to them. Praise for CLUTCHING AT STRAWS: “A worthy successor to Catching Water in a Net, Abramo’s second in the San Francisco based Jake Diamond series is a clever and well-crafted detective novel, gritty enough to satisfy hard-boiled readers but not so dark that it will put off more traditional mystery fans.” —Publisher’s Weekly “This workmanlike second entry in the Jake Diamond series finds the San Francisco PI searching for the real killer of an unpopular local judge after one of Diamond’s clients, an accomplished burglar having a very bad night, is fingered for the murder. Although the story is light on action and suspense, it’s comfort food for PI fans.” —Booklist

Blackchurch Furnace

Blackchurch Furnace PDF Author: Nathan Singer
Publisher: Down & Out Books
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Blackchurch is not the sort of place where folks are inclined to be up in each other’s business, and strange house guests at a neighbor’s pad are not likely to be noticed, let alone remarked upon. So on a day in early October, when two beat-up-looking crackers, a pregnant teenage whore, and a small, androgynous Japanese woman in a large-brimmed sombrero, sunglasses, and wrapped in a patchwork down comforter came to call on D’antre Philips with heads full of prophetic visions and tales of the apocalypse already in progress, nary an eye was blinked. When the end times do come to Blackchurch, it’ll be a day like any other day. And the next day will be too. Blackchurch Furnace is a scathing satire of faith, family, and all that we hold dear, where the only thing you can believe in are the voices in your own head…and they are every bit as crazy as you are. Praise for BLACKCHURCH FURNACE: “Blackchurch Furnace is one of the most amazing books I’ve ever read. It reads like an underworld testament, groaning with ghost histories, clanking and burning with all the shuffling grandeur of its subject, Cincinnati. It’s haunting, it’s furious, it’s beautiful, it’s a book only Nathan Singer could have written. He’s the kind of writer who’ll just destroy you, in all the right ways.”—Benjamin Whitmer, author of Pike and Cry Father “Similar to author Victor LaValle (The Ecstatic, Slapboxing with Jesus and Big Machine), Nathan Singer is an urban wordsmith that blisters the pages with a language only he can scribe. Blackchurch Furnace is an apocalyptic head-scratching mystery laced with hip-hop, Louisiana metal, 9-11, Afghanistan and Iraq. Characters scour to LA and back to where the story is rooted amongst the struggling class of Ohio with Gothic saviors, saints and prophets searching to redefine what was once moral and just. This book is loud, comical, witty, and comes with a soprano-shriek that screams ‘read me!’”—Frank Bill, author of Crimes in Southern Indiana and Donnybrook “Reading Nathan Singer’s Blackchurch Furnace is like coming across a lost book of the Bible, equal parts profound and profane. Singer’s work has beauty and brutality in a balance no other writer can match. Blackchurch Furnace is a brilliant story of loss and struggle, pushed by an unrelenting momentum and characters of such power, such precision, that their impact will leave a sacred mark on the devout reader.”—Steve Weddle, author of Country Hardball “Blackchurch Furnace is a relentless, visceral, and black-humored ride through America’s alternately pious and depraved id. It turns a keen and tender eye to bars, churches, porn mansions, and boiler rooms. Singer has managed a finger-trap of a story that weaves together realism and apocalypse, heavy metal and children’s books, redemption and the lack thereof.”—Tyler McMahon, author of How the Mistakes Were Made

Wiley's Refrain

Wiley's Refrain PDF Author: Lono Waiwaiole
Publisher: Down & Out Books
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
Wiley is a professional poker player in Portland who keeps vigil on the seedy streets of the city’s darker side. He’s no stranger to violence, but he’s got a good heart and a noble streak that his friends and family know is a mile long. His enemies often see a streak of a different sort, particularly when he teams up with this best friend, Leon, and the two are simultaneously beloved and feared among those who know them. Wiley is also a man who solves problems for his friends. The murder of a young musician who is close to his extended family puts Wiley in a vengeful frame of mind. He follows the evidence through the darkest corners of the city. When the trail points to Hawai’i, a place in which Wiley has never set foot but seems lately to be calling him home, he heads for the land of his ancestors in the hopes of finding justice for his young friend. Reminiscent of the classic noir masters but with a modern twist all his own, Lono Waiwaiole is increasingly recognized as one of the groundbreaking masters of noir fiction. Praise for the Wiley series … “Lono Waiwaiole’s Wiley novels are the past and the future of hardboiled crime fiction rolled up together inside prose that’s as cold and as shiny as the city streets — but there’s hope and redemption there too, glinting like the morning sun on wet pavement. Buy this book.” — Lee Child, author the Jack Reacher thrillers “[The Wiley books are} intelligent, satisfying, engrossing reads of the kind that are welcome on a rainy Sunday when all you want to do is curl up and go somewhere else in your mind.” — Honolulu Advertiser

Second Story Man

Second Story Man PDF Author: Charles Salzberg
Publisher: Down & Out Books
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description
Francis Hoyt, arrogant, athletic, brilliant, manipulative and ruthless, is a master burglar. He specializes in stealing high-end silver, breaking into homes that seem impenetrable. He’s never been caught in the act, although he has spent some time in prison on a related charge, time he used to hone his craft and make valuable connections. (Hoyt is based on two real-life master burglars: the so-called Dinnertime Bandit, who only stole when his victims were home, and The Silver Thief, who was only interested in high-end silver). Hoyt follows the money. In the winter, he works down south, primarily in southern Florida and Georgia, around the Atlanta area. Summers, he moves back up north, where he plies his trade in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts. One day, Charlie Floyd, brilliant, stubborn, an experienced investigator, who has recently retired from his job with the attorney general’s department for the state of Connecticut, receives a phone call from Manny Perez, a Cuban-American Miami police detective. Perez, who’s worked with Floyd previously, wants to enlist the former investigator in his efforts to put an end to Francis Hoyt’s criminal career. Floyd accepts the offer and they team up to bring Hoyt to justice. Told in alternating chapters representing Hoyt’s, Floyd’s and Perez’s points-of-view, the story develops into a contest between the two lawmen and this master burglar. As Floyd and Perez get closer to their prey, Hoyt finds out they’re after him and rather than backing down, he taunts them, daring them to bring him in. The stakes get higher and higher, and Hoyt, who is always concerned about proving he’s the best at what he does, even resorts to murder. Eventually, the story climaxes in a confrontation between the three men. Praise for SECOND STORY MAN: “Second Story Man is a down and dirty game of cat and mouse, only this time there are two cats and the mouse hasn’t yet seen the trap that can touch him. Are two cats better than one? Read it and see.” —Reed Farrel Coleman, New York Times bestselling author of What You Break “Salzberg is a superb wordsmith, with an honest ear for dialogue, and a delight in plot twists. If you’re not already a Salzberg fan, read this book; you will become one.” —Michael Sears, Edgar Award nominee and Shamus Award winner for Black Fridays “With Second Story Man, Charles Salzberg works his magic on the old cat-and-mouse game: he adds an extra cat, a (Michael J) foxy mouse, and a mousetrap you won’t see coming until it snaps shut.” —Tim O’Mara, Barry Award-nominated author of the Raymond Donne mysteries “Traversing my old stomping grounds, from Connecticut to South Beach, I loved the local touches and flavors. But what hit me hardest is how much this plays like a re-envisioned Michael Mann’s Heat. The terse dialogue, two men on opposite sides of the law but oh-so-much alike, the chess match. I would’ve liked to see that movie.”—Joe Clifford, author of the Jay Porter thriller series “Terrific. And the riveting Second Story Man is also a master class in voice and dialogue and storytelling. This caper about three men—two cops and a burglar—reinventing themselves for the second stories of their lives is unique, textured and even hilarious. Charles Salzberg has perfected the existential crime novel—and this one will break your heart.” —Hank Phillippi Ryan, Anthony, Agatha and Mary Higgins Clark Award-winning author “Charlie Floyd and Manny Perez are a new and most welcome team on the investigative scene. Now that they’ve dispensed with master burglar Francis Hoyt—or have they?—I’m expecting, and looking forward to, more of their unique take on how to bring down evil-doers.” —SJ Rozan, Edgar Award-winning author of Ghost Hero

Triple Shot

Triple Shot PDF Author: Ross Klavan
Publisher: Down & Out Books
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description
Shadow towns, smugglers and secret notes — this trio of New York authors are a TRIPLE SHOT of twists and turns in three novellas. Payback leads to an unmarked grave in Ross Klavan’s Thump Gun Hitched. A freak accident forces two L.A. cops to play out a deadly obsession that takes them from back alley payoffs to hard time in prison, then deep into the tunnel networks south of the border to a murderous town that’s only rumored to exist. Before the last shot is fired, everything they thought was certain proves to be a shadow and everything they trusted opens into a trap. Life was so much simpler for Tim O’Mara’s marijuana-selling narrator in Smoked when all he had to worry about was keeping his customers, now ex-wife, and daughter satisfied. When he forges a reluctant alliance with his ex-wife’s new lover, he realizes there’s lots of money to be made from the world’s number one smuggled legal product — cigarettes. Unfortunately, his latest shipment contained some illegal automatic weapons. Now he’s playing with the big boys and finds the price of the game way over his head. Murder was never part of his business model. And finally in Twist of Fate, Charles Salzberg follows Trish Sullivan, an ambitious TV reporter working in a small, upstate New York market. She receives a note from Meg Montgomery, a beautiful young woman convicted of murdering her husband and two children. Montgomery claims she’s innocent and Sullivan, smelling a big story that may garner some national attention, investigates and turns up evidence that the woman has, indeed, been framed. What happens next changes the life of both women in unexpected ways.

Texas Two-Step

Texas Two-Step PDF Author: Michael Pool
Publisher: Down & Out Books
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
Cooper and Davis are a couple of jam band-obsessed Texas ex-pats growing some of Denver’s finest organic cannabis and living the good life on tour. Or, at least they were, until legal weed put the squeeze on their market and cramped their playboy lifestyle. When their last out-of-state distributor gets busted by an Illinois task force, they're left with no choice but to turn to their reckless former associate Elroy “Sancho” Watts to unload one last crop down in Teller County, Texas. But Sancho Watts has troubles of his own in the form of Texas Ranger Russ Kirkpatrick, tasked under the table with nailing Watts for anything that will stick because of his involvement in the drug-induced suicide of a state senator's son. Not to mention his infamous new business partner, Heisman quarterback and NFL burnout Bobby Burnell, a man working to rise from the ashes of his self-destructed football career by making a name for himself in his criminally inclined Teller County family, no matter who he has to double-cross to get there. What ensues is a pine-curtain criminal jamboree where everyone involved keeps their cards close to their vest, and all the high-stakes two-stepping is sure to result in bloodshed.

Everglade

Everglade PDF Author: Greg Barth
Publisher: All Due Respect, an imprint of Down & Out Books
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 157

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Book Description
After 18 months under the thumb of a local cartel, Selena is ready for a change. Her self-destructive lifestyle and criminal enterprise have put strains on both her relationships and her health. But getting out won’t be easy. Selena’s operation is too lucrative to let go, and this is a business where the only way out is retirement with flowers and a hearse. When tough posturing turns into a pissing match, Selena escalates things to a war of attrition. With no escape in sight, Selena must destroy her most formidable enemy yet—herself. Everglade is the fifth and final book in the Selena series. Praise for the SELENA SERIES: “Greg Barth cooked up something mean and served it up and I hope none of you choke on it because it’s mighty tasty.” —Eryk Pruitt, author of Hashtag and Dirtbags “It’s like the wildest of the men’s adventure novels of the ’70s, updated for the new millennium. Definitely not for the faint of heart.” —Bill Crider “Reminiscent of Larry Brown’s Fay, but less innocent and more violent, Selena combines fine writing and an indelible character to help fill the gap of female protagonists in the world of noir.” —Vicki Hendricks, author of Miami Purity “Greg Barth writes with a knife-like edge…A fast, crazy read.” —Marietta Miles, author of Route 12 “Greg Barth writes a hell of a book. He steps on the gas and doesn’t let up for a second.” —Michael Finamore “Mister Barth writes well—hard charging and fast paced.” —Tony Knighton, author of Three Hours Past Midnight “This book had me turning pages and gritting my teeth…a total punch to the gut, and it hurts so good.” —S. W. Lauden, author of Crosswise “Selena is a visceral pulp thriller that had me gripped from the outset.” —Tom Leins, of Dirty Books Blog “This series is a literary legend in the making” —Will Viharo, author of Love Stories Are Too Violent For Me “Selena is a tour de force of unapologetic sex and violence, not for the faint of heart but definitely for hardcore fans of fast paced, unrelenting pulp-noir in the fashion of nobody except Greg Barth.” —Shane D. Keene

Accidental Outlaws

Accidental Outlaws PDF Author: Matt Phillips
Publisher: All Due Respect, an imprint of Down & Out Books
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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

Coast to Coast 2: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea

Coast to Coast 2: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea PDF Author: Paul D. Marks
Publisher: Down & Out Books
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
Hardboiled. Softboiled. Noir. East Coast. West Coast. And all points in between. Whatever you call them, gumshoe, shamus, Pinkerton, detective, private eye, P.I., shadow, tail, investigator, and wherever you need them, from East to West, North to South. They’re all here. From the hard pavement of Brooklyn, New York, to the mean dusty streets of Carson City. Down to sultry New Orleans and the freak show that’s Venice, CA. From the flim-flammers of Waco, Texas to DC, Las Vegas to San Berdoo and LA. And from Iowa City to San Diego and small town North Carolina—not to mention the low-life drug dealers in a little place called King’s Quarter, Maine. No one is safe in this impressive collection featuring fourteen original private eye stories plus one previously published bonus story. Crime fiction connoisseurs will visit one major crime scene after another with some of today’s best-of-the-best crime writers serving as tour guides. Poisoned-pen masters like: J.L. Abramo, Eric Beetner, Michael Bracken, Meredith Cole, Matt Coyle, Thomas Donahue, John Floyd, Gay Toltl Kinman, Terrill Lee Lankford, Janice Law, Paul D. Marks, Andrew McAleer, O’Neil De Noux, Robert J. Randisi, Art Taylor. COAST TO COAST: PRIVATE EYES FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA features suspense stories ranging from hardboiled to psychological to thrillers. And while these stories differ in locale, climate, mood and tone, they all resonate with the dark underbelly of crime. Praise for COAST TO COAST 2 … “Tough, taut and terrific. This cross-country collection of sleuthing stories —from the best writers in the private eye biz —is wonderfully written, always surprising, and completely entertaining.” —Hank Phillippi Ryan, Anthony, Agatha and Mary Higgins Clark award-winning author of Say No More “A tantalizing array of stories guaranteed to please fans of PI fiction. High fives all around!” —MWA Grand Master Bill Pronzini on Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea “A bang-up read of PI fiction from a gallery of impressive authors. Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Sea is compelling, fun, and full of surprises. A treat.” —Shamus Award-winning author John Shepphird