Tough 2: Crime Stories

Literature & Fiction

Pluck, Thomas

Bracken, Michael

KOLAKOWSKI, NICK

SOLDAN, WILLIAM R.

Welsh-Huggins, Andrew

Rowland, C.A.

Mattilla, Matt

Smith, Rob McClure

Short Stories & Anthologies

Redneck Press

A centuries-old battle between ninja and samurai over a stolen sword... enter 'Rage Cage' Reeves! Taught to fight by his war hero grandfather, Reeves comes home to find Grandpa Butch embroiled in a centuries-old battle over a treasured Japanese sword. Together they team up with Tara the hot-rodding ambulance driver and a secretive member of a samurai warrior brotherhood to take on a powerful clan of ninja and yakuza bent on sparking a third world war. From the heroics of the Devil's Brigade in World War II and the brutal underground fight scene of Tokyo to the American heartland, BLADE OF DISHONOR pits battle-hardened cage fighters against cunning shadow warriors in a thrilling adventure story that's part Kurosawa and part Tarantino ... with a ton of Pluck!

Blade of Dishonor

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Thrillers & Suspense

Goombah Gumbo Press

"Good stories for a good cause. You can't go wrong." Bill Crider, Mystery Scene Magazine 41 writers. One cause. We've rallied a platoon of crime, western, thriller, fantasy, noir, horror and transgressive authors to support PROTECT's important work: lobbying for legislation that protects children from physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. Powerful stories from George Pelecanos, Andrew Vachss, Joe R. Lansdale, Charles de Lint, Ken Bruen, Chet Williamson, James Reasoner, Charlie Stella, Michael A. Black, Wayne Dundee, Roxane Gay, Ray Banks, Tony Black, Les Edgerton and 16 more, with 100% of proceeds going to PROTECT. PROTECTORS includes a foreword by rock critic Dave Marsh, and fiction by Patti Abbott, Ian Ayris, Ray Banks, Nigel Bird, Michael A. Black, Tony Black, R. Thomas Brown, Ken Bruen, Bill Cameron, Jen Conley, Charles de Lint, Wayne D. Dundee, Chad Eagleton, Les Edgerton, Andrew Fader, Matthew C. Funk, Roxane Gay, Edward A. Grainger, Glenn G. Gray, Jane Hammons, Amber Keller, Joe R. Lansdale, Frank Larnerd, Gary Lovisi, Mike Miner, Zak Mucha, Dan O'Shea, George Pelecanos, Thomas Pluck, Richard Prosch, Keith Rawson, James Reasoner, Todd Robinson, Johnny Shaw, Gerald So, Josh Stallings, Charlie Stella, Andrew Vachss, Steve Weddle, Dave White, and Chet Williamson. Among PROTECT's victories are the Protect Our Children Act of 2008, which mandated that the Justice Department change course and design a new national nerve center for law enforcement to wage a war on child exploitation, the Hero to Hero program, which employs disabled veterans in the battle against child abuse, and Alicia's Law. Join the fight, with 41 stories by top writers. Be a Protector!

Protectors: Stories to Benefit Protect

Williamson, Chet

Dundee, Wayne D.

Black, Michael A.

PELECANOS, GEORGE.P

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Pile your hair high, shine your leather jacket, pop the switchblade, and turn on the devil's music! Get ready to roar down the desolate American highway with eight tales of hoods, hot rods, and hellcats!"The 1950s are recreated one more time, but here it's with a savage, razor-honed edge you'll never find in Grease, Happy Days, or American Graffiti," from the introduction by the legendary Mick Farren.Hoods, Hot Rods, and Hellcats features brand new fiction from Eric Beetner, Chad Eagleton, Christopher Grant, Matthew Funk, David James Keaton, Nik Korpon, Heath Lowrance, and Thomas Pluck.

Hoods, Hot Rods, and Hellcats

Keaton, David James

Beetner, Eric

Korpon, Nik

Grant, Christopher

Lowrance, Heath

Eagleton, Chad

Funk, Matthew

A centuries-old battle between ninja and samurai over a stolen sword… enter ‘Rage Cage’ Reeves!  Taught to fight by his war hero grandfather, Reeves comes home to find Grandpa Butch embroiled in a centuries-old battle over a treasured Japanese sword. Together they team up with Tara the hot-rodding ambulance driver and a secretive member of a samurai warrior brotherhood to take on a powerful clan of ninja and yakuza bent on sparking a third world war.  From the heroics of the Devil’s Brigade in World War II and the brutal underground fight scene of Tokyo to the American heartland, BLADE OF DISHONOR pits battle-hardened cage fighters against cunning shadow warriors in a thrilling adventure story that’s part Kurosawa and part Tarantino … with a ton of Pluck!  “The rush his writing supplies is addictive.” –CRIMINAL ELEMENT  “There’s a reason so many brilliant writers cut their teeth on the pulps, and this book both honors that tradition and expands it. You want interwoven plots running parallel between WWII and Right Now? You want violence mixed with romance? You want sacrifice, courage, and honor? Truth-based fable? Or maybe you just want hardcore-clean writing delivered at warp speed. Look no further—it’s all here.” -Andrew Vachss, author of Urban Renewal, Aftershock, and the Burke series  “There’s a reason so many brilliant writers cut their teeth on the pulps, and this book both honors that tradition and expands it. You want interwoven plots running parallel between WWII and Right Now? You want violence mixed with romance? You want sacrifice, courage, and honor? Truth-based fable? Or maybe you just want hardcore-clean writing delivered at warp speed. Look no further—it’s all here.” –Andrew Vachss, author of Urban Renewal, Aftershock, and the Burke series  "The Raiders of the Lost Ark of pulp paperbacks.” -Scott Montgomery, MysteryPeople

Blade of Dishonor: Omnibus Edition

Action & Adventure

Createspace Independent Pub

It's another issue of the multi award-wining crime fiction mag, THUGLIT! Filled with EIGHT brand new stories of crime and criminals that will bring you straight to the edge. Dig the nasty, kittens. It ain't gonna be pretty. IT'S GONNA BE THUGLIT!!! In This Issue of Thuglit: ANIMAL CONTROL by Don LaPlant THE LAST TIME WE SAW BEARS IN LAKE CASTOR by Eryk Pruitt THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT by J. David Jaggers MOMMA'S BOY by Mike Miner THE LAST DETAIL by Thomas Pluck OUR MAN JULIAN by Nikki Dolson BRUIN by Brandon Patterson CLEAN-UP ON AISLE 3 by Adam Howe

THUGLIT Issue Nineteen

Dolson, Nikki

Pruitt, Eryk

Howe, Adam

Miner, Mike

Patterson, Brandon

Dave Jaggers

LaPlant, Don

Mystery

55 Stories to benefit Protect, the political lobby of the National Association to Protect Children, whose victories include the Circle of Trust act and the HERO Corps, which hires wounded veterans to assist law enforcement in hunting online predators.  Contributors include Andrew Vachss, Joyce Carol Oates, Harlan Ellison®, David Morrell, Laird Barron, Linda Rodriguez, Charles de Lint, Hilary Davidson, Joe R. Lansdale, Joelle Charbonneau, Reed Farrel Coleman, SJ Rozan, and Alison Arngrim. 600 pages of fiction of all genres, poems and art, essays and memoirs, to fund one cause: to protect children from abuse and exploitation of all kinds. 100% of proceeds goes to PROTECT.   Table of Contents: When!? by Linda Sarah The Questions by Alison Arngrim City Water by Allison Glasgow Black and White and Red All Over by David Morrell Silvia Reyes by P.J. Ward Plan B by Andrew Vachss Gatekeeper by Richard Prosch The Night Watch by Susan Schorn One Night in Brownsville by Gary Phillips Silverfish by S.J. Rozan Parental Guidance by Scott Adlerberg Superhero, With Crooked Nails by Rachael Acks Angel by Terrence McCauley Mr. Nance by Linda Rodriguez Something I Said by Bracken MacLeod El Puente by Rios de la Luz Mesquite by Graham Wynd Level 5 by C.R. Jahn On the Road to La Grange by Karina Cooper Reprisals: Enmity by John A. Curley The Whistler in the Graveyard by Chad Eagleton (illustration by Dyer Wilk) Solar Highway by S.A. Solomon Jibber Jabber by Reed Farrel Coleman Doll: A Poem by Jyl Anais Ion (illustrations by Jyl Anais Ion) Doggone Justice by Joe R. Lansdale The Occurrence of the Black Mirror by Teel James Glenn Sister Cecilia by Hilary Davidson Croatoan by Harlan Ellison® Little Howl on the Prairie by Thomas Pluck Things Held Dear by Neliza Drew 49 Foot Woman Straps It On by Laird Barron Moon Over the Midwest by Elizabeth Amber Love Sixth Floor by Albert Tucher Adamsville by Clare Toohey Point of View by Will Graham High Meadow Storm by Wayne Dundee Out of Context by Joelle Charbonneau Lone by Alex Segura (illustrations by Dennis Calero) Love and Valour on ‘the Victorian Titanic’ by Gill Hoffs Just Pretend by Martyn Waites The New Heroes of the Old Fairgrounds by K.L. Pereira When the Hammer Comes Down by Josh Stallings Stretching Fifteen by Angel Luis Colón Bounty by Jerry Bloomfield The Light-Bringer by Laura K. Curtis Hercules and the Spawn of the Titans by Michael A. Black How to Paint Your Dragon by Andrew D’Apice Don’t Fear the Ripper by Holly West Two Views by Tim Daly A Hundred Pearls by Errick Nunnally Snapshots by Christopher Irvin Deceit by Joyce Carol Oates The Perfect Weapon by Zak Mucha Freak by Charles de Lint An Open Letter to the Children of the Secret by Dionysios Dionou Behavior is Truth by Gwyndyn T. Alexander Pigeons for Protect! by Linda Sarah

Protectors 2: Heroes

ELLISON, HARLAN

Mucha, Zak

MORRELL, DAVID

Coleman, Reed Farrel

Davidson, Hilary

LANSDALE, Joe R.

Charbonneau, Joëlle

Segura, Alex

De Lint, Charles

Barron, Laird

Cooper, Karina

Vachss, Andrew

OATES,JOYCE CAROL

Rodriguez, Linda

Toohey, Clare

Curtis, Laura K.

Elizabeth Amber Love

Jay Desmarteaux raised a whole lot of hell in New Jersey after he was released from prison after 25 years for the murder of a rapist bully at his school. Now he’s on the run in his home state of Louisiana, where he traces his roots to an evil family tree that’s grown large and lush, watered with the blood of the innocent. Jay’s hunt for his parents will take him to the doors of stately plantation homes built by the enslaved, through the deadly and gorgeous heart of the bayou, to his greatest nightmare—a cell in the infamous state prison, where his only escape is the wildest show in the South—the Angola Prison Rodeo.\nScarred and shell-shocked, Jay Desmarteaux faces his deadliest adversaries yet: the demons within himself and the brutality wrought by his privileged ancestors. The Boy from County Hell is coming home...\nPraise for THE BOY FROM COUNTY HELL:\n“Thomas Pluck’s The Boy From County Hellis raucous and rollicking, just like The Pogues song it adapts its name from. There are echoes of James Lee Burke, Barry Gifford, and Joe R. Lansdale, but Pluck’s book burns hot and bright with its own indomitable punk spirit. Joyous, wild, dark fun.” —William Boyle, author of City of Margins, A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself, The Lonely Witness, and Gravesend\n“Blistering, violent, and written with Technicolor flourishes that are Pluck’s unmistakable signature.The Boy from County Hell is a hell of a book.” —Laird Barron, author of Swift to Chase\n“Pluck has crafted a hard-charging thriller that stomps the pedal from page one and never lets up. Crackling with exciting characters and language that pops off the page, The Boy From County Hellis a mad tale of rage, retribution, and no small helping of heart and soul. I loved it.” —Bill Loehfelm, author of the Maureen Coughlin series\n“Wow. The Boy from County Hell by Thomas Pluck is as wild as a night in a cage with an amorous monkey. So smart and tense and relentless. Pluck decides on his premise, and stays true to it until the rowdy end, but the real star here is his control of style, both hardboiled and poetic at the same time. Impressed.” —Joe R. Lansdale\n“The Boy from County Hell is a harrowing and at times deeply philosophical journey through the heart of rage. Thomas Pluck is our trustworthy tour guide through that undiscovered country. With deft prose and an eye towards redemption and revelation Pluck accomplishes an amazing feat. We find ourselves feeling sympathy for the boy from county Hell” —SA. Cosby, New York Times bestselling author of Razorblade Tears

The Boy from County Hell (Jay Desmarteaux Crime Thriller)

Down & Out Books

When Jay Desmarteaux steps out of from prison after serving twenty-five years for murdering a vicious school bully, he tries to follow his convict mentor’s advice: the best revenge is living well. But questions gnaw at his gut: Where have his folks disappeared to? Why do old friends want him gone? And who wants him dead? Teaming with his high school sweetheart turned legal Valkyrie, a hulking body shop bodybuilder, and a razor-wielding gentleman’s club house mother, Jay will unravel a tangle of deception all the way back to the bayous where he was born. With an iron-fisted police chief on his tail and a ruthless mob captain at his throat, he’ll need his wits, his fists, and his father’s trusty Vietnam war hatchet to hack his way through a toxic jungle of New Jersey corruption that makes the gator-filled swamps of home feel like the shallow end of the kiddie pool. Praise for BAD BOY BOOGIE… “Thomas Pluck has launched himself into the rare category of…must read novels…must re-read…must tell all and sundry about. It is that fine, that compelling. Just tremendous.” —Ken Bruen, author of the Shamus and Macavity Award-winning Jack Taylor mysteries. “Thomas Pluck’s Bad Boy Boogie is a vivid dose of New Jersey noir with heart, soul and muscle.” —Wallace Stroby, author of the Crissa Stone series. “My first Thomas Pluck novel won’t be my last. Bad Boy Boogie is a superb, taut, little thriller that hits all the right notes and sustains its central conceits to the very last page.” —Adrian McKinty, author of the Sean Duffy trilogies. “Tough, tight, and taut, Bad Boy Boogie is a standout. Thomas Pluck is a writer who knows his dark territory inside and out. A damn fine read from start to finish.” —Hilary Davidson, bestselling author of The Damage Done, The Next One to Fall and Evil in All Its Disguises. “Beautiful bad-assery. Full of lyrical longing for a youth unfulfilled and the brutal truth of an adulthood gone dangerously wrong. Brilliant. Thomas Pluck may well be the bastard love child of James Lee Burke and Richard Stark.” —Josh Stallings, author of Anthony and Lefty Award-nominated Young Americans, and the Mo McGuire series. “Thomas Pluck is a crime writer to watch. Steeped in the genre’s grand tradition but with heart and bravado all his own, his writing is lean, smart and irresistibly compelling.” —Megan Abbott, author of You Will Know Me and Queenpin. “Thomas Pluck’s writing is high performance. He doesn’t waste a sentence, a word, or an idea propelling his story forward in a way that drives like he’s behind the wheel of a precision car built by Eddie Bunker and tricked out by Andrew Vachss. Pluck juxtaposes Jay Desmarteaux’s past and present in a way that gives this tough guy protagonist the kind of real flesh and bone—and most of all heart and intention—that other writers can only aspire to.” —Bracken MacLeod, author of Stranded and Mountain Home.

Bad Boy Boogie (Jay Desmarteaux Crime Thriller)

We know a healthy appetite for well-written short stories exists and we want to help make things better. Our goal with Down & Out: The Magazine is to be a little different than other magazines by standing on the shoulders of the giants that have come before us, or at least tiptoe along the arrows in the backs of the pioneers of modern magazine publishing. Each issue will feature a story based on a series character like this issue’s brand-new Moe Prager story by Reed Farrel Coleman. If you’re a fan of Moe, who is now retired, you’ll want to read this fantastic story. We also have new tales by established and well-known writers. This debut issue includes series stories by Eric Beetner, Michael A. Black, Jen Conley, Terrence McCauley, Rick Ollerman, and Thomas Pluck. J. Kingston Pierce, fresh off his former beat from Kirkus Reviews, introduces “Placed in Evidence,” his non-fiction column only to be found here. Finally, we’ll take a bit of the long road as we answer the question of what happened to crime fiction after Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler moved on from the pulps in “A Few Cents a Word.” This issue we re-introduce Frederick Nebel with the first of his Donahue series, “Rough Justice.” This is a fun one. For fans of good writing, good literature, and good crime...welcome.

Down & Out: The Magazine Vol 1, Issue 1

McCauley, Terrence

Ollerman, Rick

Pierce, J. Kingston

Conley, Jen

Nebel, Fredrick

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