It’s 1947, and Billie Dixon has just talked herself into a new job. As the distribution agent for Hollywood’s shoddiest movie studio, she travels to rural Arkansas peddling B-grade Westerns to poor theaters. When she meets Amberly Henshaw, the unhappy wife of a preacher on a crusade against the evils of motion pictures, she senses an immediate attraction. Billie knows it’s crazy to get involved with Amberly, but she tells herself it will just be a quick fling. Once Amberly’s fanatical husband finds out about their affair, however, Billie Dixon finds herself in a spiral of betrayal and murder…

No Tomorrow

Hinkson, Jake

Literature & Fiction

New Pulp Press

A small Baptist church in Arkansas should be easy pickings for a natural born con man like Geoffrey Webb. But after talking himself into a cushy job as a youth minister, he becomes obsessed with the preacher’s teenage daughter. When their relationship is discovered by a corrupt local sheriff named Doolittle Norris, Webb’s easy life begins to fall apart. Backed by a family of psychotic hillbillies, Sheriff Norris forces Webb into a deadly scheme to embezzle money from the church. What the Norris clan doesn’t understand is that Geoffrey Webb is more dangerous than he looks, and he has brutal plans of his own.

Hell on Church Street

When Elliot Stilling killed himself, he thought his troubles were over. Then the ER doctors revived him. It’s infatuation at first sight when he meets his nurse, Felicia Vogan, a strange young woman with a weakness for sad sacks and losers. After she helps Elliot escape from the hospital, she takes him back to her place. He’s happy to go with her, even when she leads him straight to a gang planning a million dollar heist. Does Felicia just want Elliot to protect her from the outfit’s psychotic leader, Stan the Man? Or is Elliot being set up to take the hard fall? One thing’s for sure: if he’s going to survive this long night of deceit and murder, Elliot will have to finally face himself and his own dark past.

The Posthumous Man

BEAT to a PULP

Ellie Bennett is an ex-corrections officer who has just served a year inside Eastgate Penitentiary for assaulting a prisoner. She’s only been out for a day when she accepts a strange job offer from the head of a Christian political advocacy group. He wants her to track down a missing ex-con named Alexis. Although no one knows where Alexis has gone, it seems like everyone in Arkansas is looking for her—from a rich televangelist running for Congress to the governor’s dirty tricks man. When Bennett finds the troubled young woman, she has to decide whether to hand her over to the highest bidder or help her escape from the most powerful men in the state. * * * * * “Keep an eye on Jake Hinkson. He's taking the notion of the sacred and the profane to an entirely new level in noir.” —Lou Boxer, co-founder of NoirCon “The Big Ugly is a jolt to complacency, a spur to the psyche -- a novel that starts simply enough, but expands and suddenly consumes the reader. Jake Hinkson is a master at creating, not characters, but people -- and then putting them through Hell.” —Steve Weddle, author of Country Hardball “Jake Hinkson is a thunderhead on the horizon of crime fiction, and you can take The Big Ugly as confirmation that this storm isn't going to blow over any time soon. Batten down the hatches, take shelter and prepare for nasty weather. My favorite kind.” —Jedidiah Ayres, author of Peckerwood

The Big Ugly

With his debut novel, Hell on Church Street, Jake Hinkson became known for combining religious fundamentalism with dark crime fiction. In his first story collection, The Deepening Shade, desperate characters grasp for moments of grace: A lesbian couple running a homeless shelter try to save a young woman controlled by a self-proclaimed prophet. A stripper commits a terrible crime to protect her sister from going to jail. A Pentecostal snake-handler avenges his daughter’s murder only to find himself tormented by his own unbelief. An alcoholic cop, drunk on duty, attempts to stop Dick Cheney from robbing a gas station. In these stories and more, which range from the heartbreakingly tragic to the bizarrely funny, characters struggle violently with each other, and with themselves. "Jake Hinkson is the kind of storyteller who picks the reader up by the ankles and shakes their heart out through their throat. The Deepening Shade is the best short story collection I've read in years." Benjamin Whitmer, author of Pike and Cry Father "Collectively, these stories are a feat of black magic conjured by a master wordsmith and storyteller intimate with both the dark side and the resiliency of humanity." Eric Rickstad, author of Reap and The Silent Girls

The Deepening Shade

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

A dark vision of American religion and politics, Dry County is a portrait of a man willing to do anything to hold on to his power―including murder. Richard Weatherford is a successful small-town preacher in the Arkansas Ozarks. He’s a proud husband and father of five, and has worked hard to grow his loyal flock with strong sermons and smart community outreach. But while Weatherford is a man of influence and power―including a big force in local politics―he’s also a man with secrets. In the lead up to the 2016 presidential election, Weatherford’s world is threatened when he’s blackmailed by a former lover. Collecting the money the blackmailer demands will be a nearly impossible feat, especially over Easter weekend, when all eyes are on him. So Weatherford will have to turn to the darkest corners of their small town in a desperate attempt to keep his world from falling apart. Exploring a divided country and a cracked façade through the alternating perspectives of Weatherford, his wife, his lover, and other town residents, Dry County is a powerful story about how far some will go to keep hold of all they know―and all that others think them to be.

Dry County: A Novel

Pegasus Crime

“Jake Hinkson is the Roger Ebert of film noir. His stylish prose bristles with memorable insights and the kind of fun only a true movie lover can bring to the table.” —Ed Gorman, co-founder of Mystery Scene and winner of the Anthony Award for Best Critical Work for The Fine Art of Murder “Newcomers to noir and connoisseurs alike can both revel in Jake Hinkson’s riffs on the subject. He brings to the films a wealth of insight, valuable context, and—most vitally—real passion and a sense of fun. It was a privilege to publish many of these pieces the first time around, and it’s a pleasure to read them again in this smart and savvy collection.” —Eddie Muller, author of Dark City and president of the Film Noir Foundation “If you want to learn more about film noir, read The Blind Alley. Jake Hinkson is like a literary Reed Hadley. His lively, informative essays comprise an essential voice over tour of the characters and foibles of film noir.” —Alan K. Rode, author of Charles McGraw: Film Noir Tough Guy and Sit On The Camera, Pant Like a Tiger: The Life and Films of Michael Curtiz “In The Blind Alley, Jake Hinkson ventures down some of the darkest and most unfamiliar back streets of film noir. A knowledgeable and passionate tour guide, Hinkson illuminates neglected corners with insightful essays on noir’s treatment of subjects from religion to childhood, lesbianism to the “crisis pregnancy.” Incisive profiles of overlooked figures—Norman Foster, Richard Quine, Tom Neal, Mickey Rooney—rescue their contributions from the shadows while revealing lives often more noir than their films. The Blind Alley is especially to be treasured for its loving tributes to women who never quite had the careers they deserved, but who left their indelible mark on noir, among them Peggie Castle, Martha Vickers, and Thelma Ritter. For the noir fan, delving into this collection is like opening a box of extra-dark chocolates.” —Imogen Sara Smith, author of In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond The City “Even though it is hard to believe that there are any dark corners left in the study of classic film noir, Jake Hinkson in The Blind Alley manages to shine light into a few of its more obscure niches with perceptive and entertaining studies of character actors like the redoubtable Art Smith, unrecognized femme fatales like Peggie Castle and Joan Dixon, as well as taking on neglected social issues in noir such as lesbianism and unwanted pregnancy.” —James Ursini, author of The Noir Style and editor of the Film Noir Reader series “Jake Hinkson’s concise, highly readable essays cover the wide waterfront of film noir, offering insightful new perspectives both on monumental films like Double Indemnity and Touch of Evil and overlooked figures such as Peggie Castle and Norman Foster. A must-have collection for every student of this eternally fascinating genre.” —Dave Kehr, author of When Movies Mattered: Reviews From a Transformative Decade

The Blind Alley

Essays & Correspondence

Broken River Books

With his debut novel, Hell on Church Street, Jake Hinkson became known for combining religious fundamentalism with dark crime fiction. In his first story collection, The Deepening Shade, desperate characters grasp for moments of grace: A lesbian couple running a homeless shelter try to save a young woman controlled by a self-proclaimed prophet. A stripper commits a terrible crime to protect her sister from going to jail. A Pentecostal snake-handler avenges his daughter’s murder only to find himself tormented by his own unbelief. An alcoholic cop, drunk on duty, attempts to stop Dick Cheney from robbing a gas station. In these stories and more, which range from the heartbreakingly tragic to the bizarrely funny, characters struggle violently with each other, and with themselves. Praise for THE DEEPENING SHADE: “Jake Hinkson is the kind of storyteller who picks the reader up by the ankles and shakes their heart out through their throat. The Deepening Shade is the best short story collection I’ve read in years.” —Benjamin Whitmer, author of Pike and Cry Father “Collectively, these stories are a feat of black magic conjured by a master wordsmith and storyteller intimate with both the dark side and the resiliency of humanity.” —Eric Rickstad, author of Reap and The Silent Girls

Short Stories & Anthologies

All Due Respect

A stubborn teenager and her estranged uncle descend into the Arkansas underworld to track down her missing fiancé, in a riveting literary noir perfect for fans of Daniel Woodrell and "Mare of Easttown". Up until now, 18-year-old Lily Stevens has always been the perfect daughter of a Pentecostal preacher, but her insular Arkansas congregation is scandalized when Lily announces she’s pregnant with the baby of Peter Cutchin, a young man in the church. When Peter disappears before they can get married, Lily’s life is thrown into even greater turmoil. Everyone in their small town, including Peter’s furious mother, thinks the boy has simply run off and abandoned her, but Lily, furiously headstrong and determined to find the father of her child, refuses to believe it. Help comes in the unlikely form of Allan Woodson, an uncle that her family will not acknowledge but a man who may know where to begin looking for Peter. Their search will lead them out of Lily’s safe world of the church and into the darkest corners of the criminal underworld on the Arkansas/Tennessee border, where neither Allan nor Lily can foresee the unsettling secrets they will uncover.

Find Him

Genre Fiction

Polis Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hinkson, Jake. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hinkson, Jake

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hinkson, Jake. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

No Tomorrow

Hell on Church Street

The Posthumous Man

The Big Ugly

The Posthumous Man

The Deepening Shade

Dry County: A Novel

The Blind Alley

The Deepening Shade

Find Him