A hellish prison workshop. A profiteering methadone clinic. A hotel where the suicidal check in to check out, only to find a terrible reason to live. Inhabiting these and other grim settings in A Loud Humming Sound Came from Above are the unlucky, the sociopathic, the delusional, and those who see reality with crippling clarity. Written in the same genre-bending, hallucinatory style that distinguished the author's novel Ports of Hell, the 12 stories collected here are a disquieting tour down the dark alleys and mean streets of modern life, where pulp fiction collides with the everyday world in a way that’s absurd yet all too real.

A Loud Humming Sound Came From Above

Literature & Fiction

Johnny Strike

Contemporary

Rudos and Rubes

Like a hardboiled, noir-ish version of A Confederacy of Dunces,  Michael A. Lucas’ Devil Born Without Horns is a picaresque tale of a jobless misfit. But, where medievalist Ignatius J. Reilly is a crude, pompous, ultimately lovable buffoon, film geek James Pichaske is another matter altogether. After getting a degree in film theory, the erudite James weighs his employment options, which are grim at best. Finally opting for grunt work in order to protect his creative muse, he lands a job as a deliveryman at Nimbus, a high-end furniture store. He quickly discovers that there’s a lot more to Nimbus than sofas and chairs  a discovery that leads him down a road of crime, drugs, and disillusionment. This smartly paced and wickedly funny satire marks the debut of an exciting new voice in crime fiction.

Devil Born Without Horns

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Michael A. Lucas

Mystery

<p>From <i>Ivanhoe</i> onward, the Order of the Knights Templar has been a favorite subject of novelists. Though it makes for great reading, little of what has been written is factual. The truth, however, is equally compelling as the fiction. In this book, one of his most elusive titles, G. Legman turned his far-ranging scholarship and acute analysis to the history and trial of the Knights Templar. Charged with heresy, sacrilege, blasphemy, and sexual perversion, the Templars were arrested, tried, and burned at the stake, bringing about their official end in 1312. Whether the suppression of the Order was justified and whether the Templars were guilty or innocent are questions that continue to fascinate anyone interested in the development of Western civilization. Drawing from the actual depositions and confessions of the Templars, and probing far deeper than just the religious, financial, or political issues, Legman offers a searching analysis of the effects of suppressing normal sexuality. </p>

The Guilt of the Templars

History

Gershon Legman

Europe

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