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This is the book of the expanding man.What’s the end result of a crazy scheme to match some of music history’s most evocative and memorable songs with twelve of today’s most entertaining writers?You’re looking at it.With this collection there’s no need to chase the dragon, tour the Southland in a traveling minstrel show, or drink Scotch whiskey all night long. You’ve already bought the dream.Covering every game in the Grammy-winning catalog of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker—collectively celebrated as Steely Dan—these compulsively readable stories will stagger the mind of ramblers, wild gamblers, and—of course—the winners in the world.From the suburban streets of Annandale to the mystical spheres of Lhasa…from the shine of your Japan to the sparkle of your China…from Sunset Boulevard to Camarillo and from Scarsdale to Brooklyn … put these twelve masters of crime fiction behind the wheel, and come along for a ride you won’t soon forget.Like a Sunday in T.J., it’s cheap, but it’s not free.

Pulp According to David Goodis starts with six characteristics of 1950s pulp noir that fascinated mass-market readers, making them wish they were the protagonist, and yet feel relief that they were not. His thrillers are set in motion by suppressed guilt, sexual frustrations, explosions of violence, and the inaccessible nature of intimacy. Extremely valuable is a gangster-infested urban setting. Uniquely, Goodis saw a still-vibrant community solidarity down there. Another contribution was sympathy for the gang boss, doomed by his very success. He dramatizes all this in the stark language of the Philadelphia's "streets of no return." The book delineates the noir profundity of the author's work in the context of Franz Kafka's narratives. Goodis' precise sense of place, and painful insights about the indomitability of fate, parallel Kafka's. Both writers mix realism, the disorienting, and the dreamlike; both dwell on obsession and entrapment; both describe the protagonist's degeneration. Tragically, belief in obligations, especially family ones, keep independence out of reach. Other elements covered in this critical analysis of Goodis's work include his Hollywood script-writing career; his use of Freud, Arthur Miller, Faulkner and Hemingway; his obsession with incest; and his "noble loser's" indomitable perseverance. Praise for PULP ACCORDING TO DAVID GOODIS: "This was a fascinating read. [Gertzman] appears as an expert not only on Goodis's body of work but on the pulp era of fiction in general, mid-twentieth-century American history, Philadelphia history, literary analysis, and a litany of other subjects. The book is stylishly written and well designed for reaching a broader, nonacademic audience interested in the pulp's history, role in American culture, and meaning. Frankly, the crime fiction community needs more books like this!" -Chris Rhatigan, editor, publisher, and writer of hard-boiled and noir literature "Jay Gertzman is one of those rare maverick critics with the courage to explore the dark alleys of American literature, and to report back with commendable honesty about what he has found. His book Pulp According to David Goodis is a perfect match of critic to author, and it belongs in the collections of universities hoping to be regarded as major." -Michael Perkins, author of Evil Companions, Dark Matter, and The Secret Record: Modern Erotic Literature "The most comprehensive Goodis study yet. Gertzman culls the files, brings everything together and then some. Not only essential reading for all Goodis obsessives but an excellent introduction to one of noir's greatest writers." -Woody Haut, author Pulp Culture: Hard-boiled Fiction and the Cold War, Heartbreak and Vine, and Neon Noir: Contemporary American Crime Fiction

From a host of bestselling and award-winning authors come the stories from the darkest corners of their imaginations featuring one of the most abhorrent acts of mankind; cannibalism! Throughout history, human beings have feasted on human flesh. Whether it was to survive starvation or to horrify their enemies or to satisfy their own deranged urges, people have eaten other people for centuries. Skin & Bones features stories by Patricia Abbott, Charles Ardai, Lawrence Block, Joe Clifford, Angel Luis Colón, Bill Crider, Glenn Gray, Tim Hall, Rob Hart, Tess Makovesky, Terrence McCauley, Marietta Miles, Richie Narvaez, Stuart Neville, Thomas Pluck, Ryan Sayles, S.A. Solomon, Jason Starr, Liam Sweeny, Dave Zeltserman, and Dana C. Kabel.

You want heartfelt sensitive stories about the mid-life crisis of a middle-class white guy? How about ironic tales of suburban marriages where the love has faded? Yeah, if that's what you want, pick up some other book, because Crooked Roads, Alec Cizak's first short story collection, is not for you. This book is about real humans in the real streets of cities and small towns. People who are messed up, people at the edge of things-at the edge of sanity, at the edge of morality, at the edge of legality. Criminals, the homeless, the depraved, the perverted, and just normal folk at the end of their rope. Go ahead, pick it up, give it a read. We dare you. Praise for CROOKED ROADS: "With fists pounding against cliché and convention, Alec Cizak creates prose that is bold...and bloody." -David Cranmer, author of Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles, and publisher of Beat To a Pulp Books

A Crime Novella. When two young girls disappear with a trunk-load of pot, unaware their payload has been packed with an extra five kilos of cocaine, a lovable loser persuades a sociopathic killer to pursue them across Northern California on a violent, twisted goose-chase that ends in a horrific place none of them could have foreseen. Praise for PIGGYBACK: "Piggyback restores noir to its dark kingdom, a rollicking pumping novel of losers, psychos, stone killers, idiotic amateur rip-off artists, and a road-movie of a story that is as fast as it is beautifully written. Think Don Winslow's Savages meets Christopher Cook's Robbers and you have the dark read of the year." -Ken Bruen, two-time Shamus Award-winner "Piggyback is a wild frenzy of drugs, violence, and crazy plot twists. Somebody needs to make the film version." -Tony DuShane, author of Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk

Picking up from where our last issue left off, we have another group of crime stories written especially for us. Starting with ex-police detective Lissa Marie Redmond whose short fiction has appeared in anthologies like Akashic's Buffalo Noir and whose debut novel will be out in February 2018, we move along to novelist Andrew Welsh-Huggins, author of the Andy Hayes PI series. Then we have a chilling new tale by short story specialist Nick Kolakowsi, followed by this issue's featured writer, Bill Crider, who takes us to Blacklin County, Texas, where he treats us to a new story starring everyone's favorite sheriff, Dan Rhodes. Tim Lockhart's debut novel came out earlier this year amidst a lot of buzz and he's here with a very dark tale indeed. Next we offer a taste of J.J. Hensley's fast-paced writing with an airborne story as we await the premiere of a new series early next year. Our trip to the past brings us to the legendary writer Carroll John Daly and his no-holds-barred character Race Williams, who never shot any man that didn't deserve it. We close out the issue with a story strong with irony by Ben Boulden. Throw in a terrific column by J. Kingston Pierce and you've got another issue of Down & Out: The Magazine.

Back in '68 they made killer music...now their music is killing them. It's been thirty years since Joe Portugal put his electric guitar away. Maybe that's one reason he's suffering a serious case of the mid-life doldrums. Then Joe stumbles upon a chance to put the band he was in as a teenager back together. And maybe his life too. All he has to do is find the lead guitarist, who hasn't been seen since the 70s. But when he starts to look, it's quickly clear that someone doesn't want to see a reunion tour...someone who's very handy with a gun. Praise for the Joe Portugal mysteries: "I love reading Nathan Walpow books...a solid, intelligent mystery...add Walpow's marvelous sense of humor and you'll see why he's winning new fans ever day." -Jan Burke, Edgar Award-winning author "Snappy Chandleresque dialogue." -Los Angeles Times "Joe's wry sense of humor will convert readers into loyal fans." -Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine "This guy is a hell of a writer." -Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher series

"The stories in this breathless and relentless collection are rendered in a voice both elegant and manic, as if we're seeing the world through a surreal and yet precise kaleidoscope, one that both celebrates and condemns our foibles and follies. Satirical and cutting as Jonathan Swift, hectic and skewed as Van Gogh, bitter and morbid as Poe, the stories collected in The Selected Letters of the Late Biagio Serafim Sciarra show us that all is not well in Paradise, that the savage wealth of America has created a land of lunacy. Perhaps only Gogol and Barthelme have written stories this fantastically brutal and beautiful. George Williams is one of the finest minds and writers of our generation." -Eric Miles Williamson

May, lonely caretaker and small-time weed dealer, has spent years trying to hunker down and hide from her damaged past. As a destructive nor'easter takes aim at her sleepy island home of Folly, May tries to hunker down once more after the island is evacuated. But death is in the air - not just from the storm, but from others on the island driven by darker demons - and May finds that this time, there's nowhere to hide. Praise for MAY: "Every page has a lovely line, something to savor, even as the story uneasily slips under your skin. There's beauty in the violence in this novella about loneliness and the lengths people go to free themselves from its grasp. You read May and imagine Marietta Miles sitting at the edge of the abyss, peering into it and scribbling into her notebook." -E.A. Aymar, author of You're As Good As Dead "Marietta Miles is a unique voice in modern noir, a writer of such dark scenes that only the power of her words can provide the light that releases the reader into a world where hope remains. Showcasing a Southern sensibility that reminds at times of Flannery O'Connor, Miles continually reveals further breadth (and depths) to her characters. A book of dark charms, May adds to the staggeringly beautiful intoxication delivered by last year's Route 12." -Rob Pierce, author of Uncle Dust and With The Right Enemies "May will haunt you long after you close the cover. Its every page is fraught with peril. Its every word oozes with tragedy You know it's coming, but you won't dare look away, lest you miss one of the freshest, most scintillating voices in Southern crime fiction." -Eryk Pruitt, author of Dirtbags and What We Reckon "May is gripping and yet poignant. May Cosby and the people around her struggle against the present and the past, trying to piece together a life that's worth living. Set along the fragile Folly Island of North Carolina as a frightening storm approaches, May looks back upon her choices and does her best to come to terms with them. Extremely atmospheric and at times heart-wrenching, May is a story of choosing to leave the wreckage of the past and search for hope in the future." -Jen Conley, author of Cannibals "Marietta Miles's May is an unfiltered, provocative deep-dive into the bleak life of an extraordinarily complex woman. Utterly engrossing and relentlessly heartbreaking, Miles's sharp, powerful storytelling will have you rooting for May fiercely right up until the very end." -Jennifer Hillier, author of Creep, Freak, and Wonderland

Jon Catlett, a misanthropic literary obsessive, is facing the loss of the only thing in the world he loves; his used bookstore, a haven for fellow weirdos, outcasts, misunderstood geniuses and malcontents. Jon has several other problems, the least of which are his love affair with a bi-polar femme fatale heiress to a thriving northern steel company or the exponentially growing opiate habit he has developed. When Jon, during a deal gone wrong, accidentally kills a fellow drug addict, getting away with murder turns out to be the least of his worries. The steps he and Paul, the obsessive-compulsive manager of Jon's store, must take to cover up the killing result in the two cornering Louisville's blossoming heroin trade. From West End gangbangers to dirty cops and crusading narcotics detectives, Jon and his unstable partner in crime must dilute their morals and thicken their skin if they are to have any hope of surviving the lucrative but deadly life they've stumbled upon. Praise for THE COST OF DOING BUSINESS: "Poetic, down trodden and nihilistic, Jonathan Ashley treads through parts of the human psyche that others fear for one black tar mind-f**k-ride of a novel." -Frank Bill, author of Crimes in Southern Indiana and Donnybrook "Ashley breaks our hearts, he breaks all the rules and, most importantly, he breaks our expectations of what a simple crime story can be. He shatters it, in fact, leaving readers craving another deadly taste-much like the lost souls in this chilling, amazing story." -Patrick Wensink, author of Broken Piano for President "We live in a capitalistic society, yes, but nobody said doing business is easy or even enjoyable. Jonathan Ashley makes this point quite well in The Cost of Doing Business. Of course when the business is the heroin trade, the stakes are life and death, but is the suspicion, the betrayal, the plotting and scheming, all that different than what goes on in the corporate world? Louisville bookstore owner Jon Catlett leaves his used volumes of Yeats behind to get into the drug trade and make some real money, and the result is blood-filled mayhem. He never loses his sense of literate irony, though, taking us through a fast, unpredictable novel with equal parts darkness and humor. A very confident debut." -Scott Adlerberg, author of Spiders and Flies

Angel Luis Colón invites you on a short tour of the world as a literary mix tape to that strange Goth girl with the lazy eye who still wants nothing to do with you; no matter how good that fedora looks on your head. So what's in store for your brain? Follow three major moments in the life of gambling addict and mafia muscle Sean Clarke as he goes from soft-hearted kid to full-blown bastard to broken old man. Thrill at the short-lived and incredibly violent courtship, marriage, and honeymoon of Hank and Annie. The set of the country's most popular trash TV talk show is appropriately trashier than what makes the air. Beards make absolutely terrible trophies. Sometimes you'll crawl through the fire and smoke for a chance at a semi-decent score and a way out of working in a place called "Meat City". All that along with even more violence, revenge, Lee Van Cleef, light sex crimes, and cannibals than you can shake a stick at!

As if things aren’t bad enough in Penns River, development and funding of a new religious-themed mall grinds to a halt when heavily-armed assassins cut down five leaders of the town’s fledgling drug trade while eating lunch in the food court. The television minister behind the mall has associates not normally associated with a ministry, outside drug gangs may be muscling into town, and the local mob boss could have an angle of his own. The cops have this and all the usual local activity to contend with in a story that extends beyond the borders of Penns River.Praise for RESURRECTION MALL …“Dana King’s Resurrection Mall is a patchwork of desperation from a depressed river town written with genuine style and grit.” ›Reed Farrel Coleman, New York Times bestselling author of What You Break“Another thoughtful, taut, suspense filled novel from one of America’s best new writers, the great Dana King.” ›Adrian McKinty, author of the Sean Duffy trilogies“Resurrection Mall is a brilliant crime novel that deserves to win every award in sight. One of the best of the year.” ›Tim Hallinan, author of the Poke Rafferty, Junior Bender, and Simeon Grist mystery series“Dana King’s Resurrection Mall draws you in from the beginning, like sipping a fine single malt that opens wonderfully in the glass and you have to keep sipping until the end. King has a skillful grasp on character and dialogue, and that, along with his rock-solid police procedure, makes for a gripping, authentic read. I am a big fan of the Penn River series, and I want more.” ›David Swinson, author of The Second Girl“Along with Worst Enemies and Grind Joint, Resurrection Mall elevates Dana King’s masterful Penns River crime series into the best hard-nosed police procedural since TV’s The Wire. Fun, gripping and thought-provoking, this third entry firmly plants ace Detective Ben ’Doc’ Dougherty in the ring with heavyweight crime-stoppers Elvis Cole, Alex Cross and Jack Reacher. All of King’s characters burst with no-nonsense, rural Pennsylvania life, but the author dives deepest into the most realistic and engaging crew of municipal cops I’ve encountered since Joseph Wambaugh. Don’t miss it!” ›Jack Getze, author and Fiction Editor for Spinetingler Magazine“Complex characters, smooth dialogue and a hell of a plot make this one a winner. Rest easy, Ross Macdonald. The torch has been passed.” ›Terrence McCauley, author of Sympathy for the Devil and A Murder of Crows

Shayna Billups left Tommy Ruzzo and Seatown, Florida in smoking ruins before escaping to New Orleans. She's slinging rum drinks at a pirate-themed dive bar when a treasure map grabs her attention. All alone and thirsting for adventure, Shayna follows the clues to North Carolina where she assembles a band of drug-dealing pirates to wage war on a murderous mayor and his blood-thirsty biker gang. As the bodies pile up, Shayna wonders if Ruzzo will find her before she ends up in Davy Jones' Locker.

The three novels in Waiwaiole's dark and dangerous Wiley series chronicle the tragic twists and turns in the lives of two old friends after those lives have completely gone off the rails in Portland, Oregon. In LEON'S LEGACY, Waiwaiole goes back to where it all began - back when Wiley and Leon were high school kids pursuing the state basketball championship. Unfortunately, it was also the year that the crack gangs from California began to sink their talons into Portland's inner city, a juxtaposition that threatens not only their hoop quest but also their lives. An inner-city high school teacher and basketball coach when this actually occurred in Portland, Waiwaiole has a wealth of first-hand exposure to this story and the writing chops to deliver it convincingly. Praise for LEON'S LEGACY "Lono Waiwaiole writes with a command you don't see much anymore. He is the opposite of the winking hard-boil writer of today. He writes authentically and knowingly about America's underclass, the streets and being an outsider. Leon's Legacy is an unexpectedly honest novel about a violent teenage world, peopled with intensely believable characters whose upside down humanity will grab you." -Kent Harrington, author of The Red Jungle and Rat Machine

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.