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 …
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.