A tsunami-sized crime wave of hardboiled noir from some of the most enduring names in crime fiction, outside of the New York Five. This is the biggest, most robust issue of Switchblade yet. An all-star lineup, brimming with hard luck tales from some of the best outlaw fiction storytellers in print. Court Merrigan and Rob Pierce are in this issue. Indianapolis crime writer, and managing editor of Pulp Modern, Alec Cizak, has a story in this issue. Switchblade usual suspects Preston Lang, Jack Bates, Robb T. White, Rick Risemberg, and Lisa Douglass, are back and sharper than ever. New prospects Tom Andes, Tony Genova, E.F. Sweetman, David Rachels, Danny Sophabmisay, Chris McGinley, Timothy Friend, and Tom Barlow, have been jumped in to the fold. Sharp and deadly, quick and dirty; it’s the fast action gutter mag that fits into your back pocket. Featuring the soul-searing poetry of Lisa Douglass.

Switchblade (Switchblade Volume One)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Rachels, David

Cizak, Alec

Merrigan, Court

White, Robb T.

Douglass, Lisa

McGinley, Chris

Friend, Timothy

Sophabmisay, Danny

Andes, Tom

Mystery

Caledonia Press

Coal Black is unfiltered mountain crime. Set in the hills of eastern Kentucky, these tales lay bare the dark realities of the region. Sometimes the backdrop is the opioid epidemic and all the human detritus and bloodshed that comes with it. Other times it's poachers or petty thieves who take center stage, people whose wild desperation invite danger everywhere they go. High in the hills the action takes place, alongside the rarely seen animals who hunt up there, and sometimes alongside the "haints" and spirits of popular folklore. The stories are full of action, twists and turns, and characters on both sides of the law who navigate the treacherous, often violent terrain that spares so few. Coal Black is a collection of gritty crime stories--cleverly drawn tales with sometimes savage surprise endings. Praise for COAL BLACK: "Chris McGinley's aptly named Coal Black grabs the reader by the shirt collar and doesn't turn loose. These stories are as dark as the coal that is no longer in the mountains McGinley writes about, channeling the haints of Donald Ray Pollock and Frank Bill while speaking in a hard-edged voice that is undoubtedly the author's own. These are tough tales about tough people and I can't imagine someone picking up this book and not being impressed. I know I was." --Charles Dodd White, author of In the House of Wilderness "Mesmerizing and intense, the stories in Coal Black are a treat to read, every honed sentence reminding us that we're in excellent hands as we travel into the darkness of haunting crime and equally haunted countryside. This collection rocks." --Rusty Barnes, author of The Ridgerunner and The Last Danger "Brutal yet beautiful, sparse but with moments of lush emotional resonance, Chris McGinley's debut collection of short fiction, Coal Black, heralds a new and necessary voice in crime fiction. The prose is so sharp that it begs to be read slowly, to linger with the reader, as McGinley's stories explore the effects of a lost industry and the devastation of opioids in rural Appalachia. Rarely have I come across a debut so assured. This is a book that deserves an audience, and stories that deserve to be remembered." --E.A. Aymar, author of Unrepentant "These stories offer some of the best rural noir you'll ever read. They are a pitch-black journey into the heart of America." --Nick Kolakowski, author of Maxine Unleashes Doomsday "Oh. My. God. Have y'all read Chris McGinley's Coal Black: Stories? If not, hasten to them. This shit is brilliant, this shit is real. It launches with 'Hellbenders' and doesn't slow down. Lord, this is great story telling. It's Appalachians trying to survive, trying to get past the mines. If that means drugs, so be it. As McGinley writes in 'These Hills, ' 'All this shit around us. Drugs, poverty, sickness. The forest is the only good thing left around here.' Beautifully written stories; this is a stunning collection." --Rob Peirce, author of Tommy Shakes "Artfully crafted crime and horror set in Appalachia's mountains--with prose that hits like Thor. McGinley mines the veins of early American bedrock writers like Irving, Poe and Hawthorne. His tales burn hot and dark." --Jesse "Heels" Rawlins, crime writer and editor at The Flash Fiction Offensive

Coal Black: Stories

Literature & Fiction

Short Stories & Anthologies

Shotgun Honey

Read tomorrow's best-selling authors today in the first and best multi-genre pulp fiction journal. Since 2011, Pulp Modern has offered a wide variety of fiction from authors who have gone on to write some of today's most compelling novels.

Pulp Modern: Volume Two, Issue Three

Bracken, Michael

Ward, Cynthia

Rogers, Stephen D.

Rutherford, Scotch

Prentice, J. A.

Dade, Thomas

Lane, Doug

Uncle B. Publications

Genre Fiction

Shotgun Honey Books

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Books by McGinley, Chris