The summer before I entered fifth grade, my mother penned a handwritten note giving her permission for me to check-out adult books from the library. The public library was a recent addition to our small town and constructed inside the new middle school consolidating the county’s disbanded junior highs. Mom wasn’t sure what protocols these […]
Benny loved a good Singles’ Night, perhaps more than any of the actual singles there. He’d wear a colourful tee, something that complemented his eyes; then he’d artfully tousle his hair until it looked stylish but still in need of a woman’s guiding touch. He was going for competent partner vibes rather than sorry sap. […]
The guy in the car behind me laid on his horn. I could have made the turn, but the lady coming would have had to slow down a bit and I thought I’d let her coast through this small part of her day. The guy behind me had other ideas and hit the horn again. […]
We are please to announce the second book in The Mountaineer Mysteries, The Mountain Mystic by Russell W. Johnson. We hope you’ll enjoy it as much as you did The Moonshine Messiah. What to Expect inside… Since succeeding her dearly departed husband, Bill, to become Jasper County’s first female sheriff, Mary Beth Cain has closed […]
The move came after breakfast, while the prisoners were waiting for the Sheriff’s van to take them to court. Always a hold-up. If not the van then paperwork, or the prisoners themselves needing piss breaks or pussy plugs or some piece of vital correspondence they’d left in their cell. You could make enemies by making […]
A rude medley of street sounds enters the diner with each customer. “Hey.” Black running shoes and faded jeans, topped by a windbreaker and baseball cap, the barest hint of what I know is a Glock pressing against the material of her sweatshirt. She sits, pretends to read the menu. “Hi,” I say, snapshots of […]
The locals called it Suicide Bridge because of all the jumpers. He liked the Monongatawny Bridge anyway for its stone trusses and the old-growth pine forest on the riverbanks. This jumper was middle-aged. Sad-looking. Well, she would be. But this was sadness etched into a face over decades. A body broken by years of hard […]
Two years in the making, we are pleased to release Burning Down the House: Crime Fiction Incited by the Songs of the Talking Heads, a charity anthology to help fight climate change. Happy Earth Day! About the Book Twelve of today’s most innovative crime fiction authors bring the songs of the Talking Heads to life […]
Smitty and me had a big score planned on Friday. We’re spending Wednesday afternoon nursing beers at The Seven Mile House on Old Bayshore. Just passing time, trying to keep from getting too edgy. Smitty tended to be a little quick on the trigger. He had a habit of throwing a little lead around. Said […]
Ol’ buzzard smell the carrion rot, ol’ possum climb the tree, I’ll find your body in the night, I’ll put my gun to thee. I was a young man when I left Grant County to fight the Germans. I saw enough death to last ten lifetimes. But, somehow, when I got back, I wanted just […]
We are thrilled to release Bad Makes Bad by Ilyn Welch, the follow up to her debut novel Signs of Pain featuring Cherry Orozco. About the Book Cherry Orozco keeps slapping women—in her dreams. And she’s a sleep-deprived mess. Free group therapy at a neighborhood mental-health center steers her to confront issues of past and […]
My life is a set of routines and obligations. Which doesn’t give me much time to think for myself. The week before Christmas, I drove Winston’s silver Cadillac DeVille downtown to buy presents for his office staff and his mother. I’ll have to wrap them and sign his name on the card. I stopped by […]
