Two Shrimp Tacos and a .22 Ruger

Two Shrimp Tacos and a .22 Ruger

Author: Adam Meyer

Publisher: Down & Out Books

Published: 2022-10-01

Total Pages: 43

ISBN-13:

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If someone attacked the love of your life, how far would you go for payback? Private investigator Coleman Perkins is the kind of man who tries to do the right thing. His years of committing petty crimes and being locked up in juvenile prison are over. These days, he does his best to help people like Burt Glaser, the ex-cop who took him under his wing and helped him get on the straight and narrow. All Cole really wants is to do his job, find a good woman and start a family. It’s a life he might’ve had--except for Max Delaney. Years ago, Delaney attacked Cole’s pregnant ex-girlfriend. After that, Cole lost the woman he loved. And he’s been dreaming of revenge ever since. Now Delaney’s out of prison. Burning with rage, Cole makes a late-night visit to a very special taco truck, where he gets a .22 Ruger. That’s not a lot of firepower, but it should be more than enough to do what Cole has in mind--take down Delaney once and for all. First, however, he’s got to find him. When Cole ties the ex-con to a robbery at a high-end department store, he’s got two choices: go back to his law-abiding life and forget about Max Delaney. Or make him pay for what he’s done. Cole won’t walk away. He can’t, not after he starts looking into this new crime and meets the prime witness, a store clerk named Julia. She’s as beautiful as she is vulnerable, and for the first time in years, Cole finds some part of himself coming alive. Maybe it’s just desire. Or maybe it’s hope. As Cole connects with Julia, he quickly finds himself falling for her, and dreaming of the life they could have together. All he has to do is take care of Max Delaney. But as Cole soon discovers, he may not be the only one looking for payback.


A Handful of Chicles and a Custom Nine

A Handful of Chicles and a Custom Nine

Author: C.W. Blackwell

Publisher: Down & Out Books

Published: 2022-09-01

Total Pages: 37

ISBN-13:

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Richie Angeles had it all: a cakewalk job wrenching on classic cars for a Chicago loan shark by day, and a side-hustle running high-stakes repo jobs by night. But when a fling with the boss's wife, Gina, goes awry, Richie finds himself the target of every low-life goon and hustler in the city. With his options dwindling and a bounty on his head, Richie and Gina must find allies in the seedy Chicago underworld in order to survive. But good allies are hard to find—and the ones that seem loyal may only be looking for an easy double-cross. With the infamous Mr. Rosko at his heels, and a trail of blood from Chinatown to the Indiana border, Richie must make a choice to keep running or confront the boss himself. Will he be able to run the gauntlet and kill Rosko and his inner circle, or will the many hands of the Chicago criminal world get their hands on Richie first?


Mickey Finn Vol. 4

Mickey Finn Vol. 4

Author: Michael Bracken

Publisher: Down & Out Books

Published: 2023-12-11

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13:

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Mickey Finn: 21st Century Noir, Volume 4, the fourth entry of the hard-hitting anthology series, is another crime-fiction cocktail that will again knock readers into a literary stupor. Contributors push hard against the boundaries of crime fiction, driving their work into places short crime fiction doesn’t often go, into a world where the mean streets seem gentrified by comparison and happy endings are the exception rather than the rule. And they do all this in contemporary settings, bringing noir into the 21st century. Like any good cocktail, Mickey Finn is a heady mix of ingredients that packs a punch, and when you’ve finished reading every story, you’ll know that you’ve been “slipped a Mickey.” The nineteen contributors, including some of today’s most respected short-story writers and new writers making their mark on the genre, include: Ann Aptaker, Trey R. Barker, Michael Bracken, John M. Floyd, Nils Gilbertson, David Hagerty, James A. Hearn, Hugh Lessig, Sean McCluskey, Adam Meyer, Gabe Morran, Alan Orloff, Josh Pachter, Stephen D. Rogers, Bev Vincent, Joseph S. Walker, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Sam Wiebe, and Stacy Woodson.


Two Tofu Tacos, a Taurus TX22, a Taycan, and a Ton of Trouble

Two Tofu Tacos, a Taurus TX22, a Taycan, and a Ton of Trouble

Author: Alan Orloff

Publisher: Down & Out Books

Published: 2022-07-01

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13:

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Blackmail is such an ugly word. Even uglier when it’s happening to you, especially when you don’t know who’s behind it, and defense lawyer Jefferson Bell doesn’t have a clue. Disgruntled client? Current mistress? One of a handful of pissed-off ex-mistresses? An opportunistic co-worker? A team of blackmailers looking for a big payday? If the truth comes out, however, it will destroy his career and cause the end of Bell’s marriage. And he can’t let that happen, not after all the hard work he’d put in, not after all sacrifices he’d endured over the years. So following the advice of a friend, Bell visits a multi-purpose taco truck and procures what he needs to bring the extortionist down, and hard. Now he just has to find him. Or her. Or them. With the help of his buddy and former client Rags Richland, Bell follows the trail through Chicago. When the blackmailer sets up an exchange, Bell attempts to seize the opportunity and spring a trap. But things go sideways, and Bell is no closer to learning his tormentor’s identity. To complicate matters, Bell’s situation has attracted the attention of the managing partner at his law firm, who gives Bell an ultimatum: fix things and make sure there’s no blowback on the firm. The ultimatum comes with a veiled part: Or else. The more Bell searches, the more things come unraveled, and the more his desperation grows. And keeps growing, right up to the snapping point. Then blows right past it.


My Bad Tequila

My Bad Tequila

Author: Rico Austin

Publisher:

Published: 2024-07-02

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781961978225

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One Man's Epic Journey across two continents and four countries with fifty years of adventure. But,1986 changed everything forever.


Black-Jewish Relations in African American and Jewish American Fiction

Black-Jewish Relations in African American and Jewish American Fiction

Author: Adam Meyer

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 9780810842182

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Including 410 entries-drawn from over 100 years of novels, short stories, plays, and children's and young adult literature-this bibliography demonstrates both the extent and the richness of the fiction which has been written about Black-Jewish relations in America, thus enhancing our view of American ethnic literature as a whole.


Jukes & Tonks

Jukes & Tonks

Author: Trey R. Barker

Publisher: Down & Out Books

Published: 2021-04-19

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13:

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Whether their cover bands play Willie Dixon or Willie Nelson, juke joints and honky-tonks appeal to hard-working men and women looking for a good time. Offering hot music, cheap food, and generous amounts of liquor, jukes and tonks are often a community’s unofficial gathering spot, where Saturday nights are spent committing the sins church leaders rail against the following morning. The stories in Jukes & Tonks introduce you to many sinners and few saints, love begun and love gone wrong, and all manner of unsavory criminal endeavors. What the stories have in common is that they plop you down in worlds where the music pulsating from the compact stage—if there’s a stage at all—provides the backbeat for tales that are unsparing, heartbreaking, twisty, and a few are as dark as the night, and the blinking sign offering live music is an invitation to the unexpected. Contributors include Trey R. Barker, Michael Bracken, Jonathan Brown, S.A. Cosby, John M. Floyd, Debra H. Goldstein, Gar Anthony Haywood, Penny Mickelbury, Gary Phillips, William Dylan Powell, Kimberly B. Richardson, and Stacy Woodson. Praise for JUKES & TONKS: “The world needs more jukes, more tonks, and more fine crime fiction—and this fast-paced playlist from Michael Bracken and Gary Phillips offers all of the above and then some. It’s a #1 hit…with a bullet!” —Josh Pachter, editor of The Great Filling Station Holdup: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Jimmy Buffett “While twists abound and nothing is predictable, one thing is certain: Jukes & Tonks transports the reader to a world where the drinks are cheap, the dancing is close, and the music reigns supreme.” —Holly West, Anthony Award-nominated editor of Murder-a-Go-Go’s: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of The Go-Go’s


Diamonds for the Dead

Diamonds for the Dead

Author: Alan Orloff

Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 073871948X

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Coming home to Reston, Virginia, to bury his estranged father, Josh Handleman gets the shock of his life when he finds out that his thrifty father is actually a wealthy man who collected diamonds, but when Josh tries to locate the gems he discovers they are missing and begins to wonder if his father's death was really an accident or if it was murder.


Rancho Costa Nada

Rancho Costa Nada

Author: Phil Garlington

Publisher: Loompanics Unlimited

Published: 2003-01-01

Total Pages: 126

ISBN-13: 9781559502368

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Rancho Costa Nada outlines the principles for the dirt cheap desert homestead, including transportation, sanitation, food storage, electricity, and much, much more, plus fascinating portraits of the desert homesteaders who are Phil Garlington's neighbours. This book is an American classic, full of ingenuity and good old Yankee know-how, and making do, and living way off the grid, and getting by on your own without kissing anybody's ass, or being a slave to the consumer economy. This is an amazing tale of what can be done on a low-tech scale with good old American free-thinking in these high-tech times.


Light of the Northern Dancers

Light of the Northern Dancers

Author: Robin F. Gainey

Publisher: Untreed Reads

Published: 2017-11-23

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 1945447117

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Fiery aristocrat, Eden Rose, uprooted from her native Scotland, has tended a foundering marriage and failing ranch at the corner of Crazy Woman Creek and the Powder River for a decade. Best friend, backwoods spitfire Maddie True, has her own woes a few miles away: widowed with a passel of young children, and caretaker to her addled father. Abandoned by her husband during the height of Wyoming Territory’s worst drought in history, Eden depends on her inept brother, Aiden, to see her through the coming winter. But when he disappears into the wild Bighorn mountains, she shuns Maddie’s fearful cautions, teaming with enigmatic Lakota holy man, Intah, to find her brother before the wicked snow holds them all hostage. “Light of the Northern Dancers is a powerful novel of a woman’s journey, thought-provoking and unsettling in its authenticity and unflinching honesty.” — Susan Wiggs, NYT Bestselling Romance Author “Half of what happens to us may have reason, the rest is chaos. Robin F. Gainey’s second novel, Light of the Northern Dancers, has this brand of existentialism. It’ real and it doesn’t let go!” — Tom Skerritt, Award Winning Actor, Writer, Director