Our Featured 99¢ Crime Novels for August

We're featuring two of our ebook crime novels this month for 99¢ …

From August 1st through August 15th, Lono Waiwaiole's highly regarded debut crime novel WILEY'S LAMENT can be purchased for just 99¢ on Kindle, Nook, and Kobo.

Wiley is a man who's drifting through the remains of his torn-up life like a ghost, playing poker to make ends meet but always on the edge of the abyss, not quite sure whether his minimal efforts at life are worth the trouble.

When the estranged daughter he hasn't spoken to in a year turns up gutted with a sharp knife in a cheap motel room, Wiley's solitary life spins out of control and a violent showdown with both the killer and with his own bloody conscience becomes inevitable. He stalks the nasty underside of Portland's sex industry, jumping at every shadow and taking two steps back for every forward stride. But Wiley is determined to do this one thing right, perhaps to make amends to his lost daughter, or maybe to make peace with his own battered soul. 

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And from August 16th through August 31st, TRANQUILITY DENIED, the first book in the Jonathan Brooks series by A.C. Frieden, will be available for 99¢ on Kindle, Nook, and Kobo.

Hotshot maritime lawyer Jonathan Brooks may finally be in over his head. He can't find evidence that his client's ship was rammed by a U.S. Navy vessel — evidence he needs to win his trial and help his client escape bankruptcy. But after Jonathan's courtroom tactics expose a Navy captain lying under oath, the case takes a series of shocking turns, dredging up haunting memories of Jonathan's deceased brother.

He soon realizes that the trial masks a vastly more sinister plot veiled by the shadowy past of the Cold War. To uncover it, he's forced to risk everything — and everyone — he holds dear. Lives and corporate empires hang in the balance as he embarks on a hunt for the truth, which will lead him through the sultry alleys of New Orleans to remote Scandinavian villages, and deep into Moscow's dark corridors of power. 

New on the Down & Out Bookshelf This Month

THE SHORT LIST, the second Bricks and Cam Job by Frank Zafiro and Eric Beetner

When Bricks and Cam strike out on their own in the aftermath of their bloody showdown with the Giordano family, not everything goes as planned. Boring, straight jobs aren't satisfying, and their first successful solo hit is a messy one. Worse yet, someone has revenge on their mind.

Before they know what is happening, Cam is kidnapped and Bricks is attacked by an old enemy.

Cam uses his wits as he struggles to escape his captors while Bricks frantically searches for her partner in crime. Both hack away at the mystery of who is bent upon vengeance against them. There is a short list in play, and both Cam and Bricks are on it.

But they're not going to stand still and take being attacked. Not by anyone. They're going to fight back. They're making a list of their own, and it's even shorter than the one they're on …

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TRIPLE SHOT, Three Crime Novellas by Ross Klavan, Tim O'Mara, and Charles Salzberg

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.

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BEWARE THE SHILL, the third and final book in the Shill Trilogy by John Shepphird

Life can turn on a dime against the jagged cliffs of California's Central Coast …

Bruised, battered, but determined, Jane Innes must navigate a tangled web of deception, depravity and murder, and turn the tables on cunning swindlers.

Using the art of deception, this out-of-work actress embarks on a daring caper — her last chance to take down a deadly adversary.

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MAMA TRIED, Crime Fiction Inspired By Outlaw Country Music, edited by James R. Tuck

Outlaws.

It's what makes the best of country music and crime fiction. Sometimes it's hardened criminals: murders, thieves, and convicts, sometimes it's just a poor fool driven to the edge by hard times, hard drinking, or a hard lover.

In this collection you will find stories from the best voices in crime fiction inspired by the best voices in outlaw country music. Stories with:

• An off-books mercenary trying to save a trucker's delivery from a beautiful thief.
• An ex-con dealing with small town prejudice...and armed robbery.
• Outlaw newlyweds running from a tri-county drug lord.
• A young girl seeking solace in the company of dogs bred to fight that she never found in family.
• A wife discovering the other woman is not what she thought.
• A writer finding out what prison is really like.

Stories by J.L. Abramo, Trey R. Barker, Eric Beetner, Levi Black, Michael Bunker, Delilah Dawson, Les Edgerton, Christa Faust, Tommy Hancock, Grant Jerkins, Ken Lizzi, Riley Miller, James A. Moore, Bobby Nash, Mel Odom, Eryk Pruitt, Jay Requard, Charles R. Rutledge and Ryan Sayles.

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TREACHEROUS by Gary Phillips

Treacherous: Grifters, Ruffians and Killers are the collected short stories of Chester Himes award winner Gary Phillips. In this collection you’ll find double crossers getting crossed up, two-bit hucksters looking to make that one last con, revolutionaries on the run, dying hitmen with explosive secrets and zombies lusting for cocaine.

(This is a new, updated trade paperback of an ebook first published by Down & Out Books in 2014.)

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CRIMESPREE MAGAZINE ISSUE 63

Crimespree Magazine Issue 63 features an interview of Timothy Hallinan by Jon Jordan. Plus you get interviews of Frank De Blase by Jon Jordan, Nadine Nettmann by Erica Ruth Neubauer, Alex Grecian by Kate Malmon, April Henry by Crimespree, and Frank DiMatteo by Dave Wahlman. 

Matthew David Brozik delivers a short story called “Making Partner.” Todd Robinson talks about life after ThugLit, and Crimespree celebrates Soho Crimes 25th birthday. 

Seth Harwood writes about shoes, Patti Abbott talks Detroit, and Rick Ollerman talks about Gary Shulze. 

And the usual suspects are included for your enjoyment: Craig McDonald, Chris Holm and Kristi Belcamino. Book Reviews, DVD Reviews and Crimespree on Comics are served aplenty. 

And Coming in September …

BLOOD ON THE BAYOU: Bouchercon Anthology 2016, edited by Greg Herren

BLOOD ON THE BAYOU is published in conjunction with Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, which is being held in New Orleans in 2016. As with the convention itself, the anthology spreads a broad canopy across a wide variety of crime writers from across the country and around the world — including both veteran writers and the brightest up-and-coming talents in the field. These stories range from the light-hearted and fun to the darker side of crime, just as New Orleans and the bayou country can show both to the unsuspecting.

All participants contributed their efforts to support our charity — the New Orleans Public Libraries — and by extension readers and writers everywhere. ALL PROFITS GO TO THE LIBRARY.

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THE DAMP FEDORA by Kate Pilarcik

"Original, distinctive, and quirky, there's something legendary about Absolutely*Kate's writing. 'Writing' doesn't fully describe the evocative prose, it sings off the page with the sultriness of a Hollywood starlet and raps with the cool of the Rat Pack. I can't decide if she carries her pen in a holster on her stockinged thigh or in a violin case alongside her Tommy gun." — Matt Hilton, author of Joe Hunter thrillers

Our Featured Authors: Frank Zafiro and Eric Beetner Discuss the Collaborative Process

In a continuing series of features from our authors, Frank Zafiro and Eric Beetner discuss the collaborative process.

Frank: Eric, you’ve done some collaboration before we got together for the Cam and Bricks Job series. How’d that first time happen?

Eric: My first collaboration was with a writer named JB Kohl which resulted in a book called One Too Many Blows To The Head and eventually two more novels. Well, three if you count the one unpublished book. She and I found each other online back when I was running the social media for the Film Noir Foundation. She asked to link to our page on her author site and I checked it out. Her only novel at the time was called The Deputy’s Widow and it sounded like my kind of book so I bought it. I really enjoyed it and wrote to tell her so and sent her a short story of mine. She was the one who asked me to co-write which I was leery of at first, but it turned out to be great fun and a painless experience.

One thing that I think helped is that we don’t write in the same room together. In fact, we’ve never met formally. Everything we do is via email. And — what a coincidence — the same goes for you and I, Frank.

So I’ll ask you, do you prefer collaborating rather anonymously? Does it give you the freedom to still feel ownership over your part of the books? And I know we’re not opposed to meeting, but do you think it will jinx us?

Continue reading …

Down & Out Authors on the Net

J.L. Abramo

• Takes an in-depth look at his hometown in an article titled "Brooklyn Ease".

• Joins Greg Barth on Authors on the Air.

Jen Conley

• Alex Segura of The Big Thrill talks with the author of CANNIBALS: Stories from the Edge of the Pine Barrens.

Jack Getze

• Congratulations to the author of BIG SHOES for his David Award nomination for Best Mystery of 2015!

Richard Godwin

• Pens an essay on "Outlaws and Big Business, the Enduring Nature of the Wild West and the Frontier in the Novels of James Lee Burke" on Crimespree Magazine.

Dana King

• Talks about writing the private eye in a post on AshEdit — News About Books & Writers.

• New Mystery Reader Magazine interviews the author of Shamus Award-nominated Nick Forte mystery THE MAN IN THE WINDOW.

Ken Lizzi

• Writes in his blog about his short story "Copperhead Road", which will appear in MAMA TRIED: Crime Fiction Inspired by Outlaw Country Music edited by James R. Tuck.

Terrence McCauley

• Shares his "Top Ten List of What I Learned As A Writer" on The Librarian Talks.

Liam Sweeney

• Posts a flash fiction story, "Last Night at Mesca's", on Out of the Gutter: Pulp Fiction & More.

Art Taylor

• Appears on North Carolina Bookwatch to talk about MURDER UNDER THE OAKS: Bouchercon Anthology 2015.

Frank Zafiro and Eric Beetner

• Gef Fox interviews the authors of the Bricks and Cam series for Wag the Fox.

Now Open! The Down & Out Bookstore!

The Down & Out Bookstore is open for business!

Don't let our cozy exterior fool you; behind that door are some of the most edgy, hard-boiled crime novels being published today.

Right now we're just getting started building inventory, but over the next few months, we'll be adding all our existing titles to its shelves. And we're planning on offering signed copies and special bundles that will be available exclusively from us.

Check it out and let us know what you'd like to see on our shelves.

(The image above was adapted from one Designed by Freepik. Our use of it requires us to acknowledge its source.)