The Abrum Files

After his sister and mother are murdered by human traffickers, Bishop Rider, a former medic and police officer, spends the remainder of his life hunting not only the men who took his family from him, but every person like them. He is joined by many partners throughout his war. But when Jeramiah Abrum, the son of one of the men who murders Rider’s mother and sister, seeks out Rider to make amends for what his father set into motion all those years ago, a new level of retribution is born. But one man can only stand for so long against such darkness, and though Bishop Rider’s story unfolds within the pages of A Better Kind Of Hate, The Big Machine Eats, All Of Them To Burn, Brand New Dark, and Old Man Rider, all stories end, and Bishop Rider, he’s no exception, succumbing to the cancer within him. Which brings us to The Abrum Files and the question of what happens to those we leave behind. Jeramiah, now on his own, finds himself facing two choices; retreat from the life of murder and retribution he’s been a part of for years or pick up where he and Rider left off and using methods he’d kept in check while Rider was alive, attempt to end what he and Rider together could not. He will finish the work. Critical Acclaim for THE ABRUM FILES: “The Abrum Files is more than just a collection. It’s a statement. The mission continues. The guilty must face their fate. Love and Blood are both spilled across the pages.” —S.A. Cosby, bestselling author of All The Sinners Bleed and Razorblade Tears “If Andrew Vachss threw out his keyboard and somehow learned how to write on a chainsaw, then you get an idea of how Beau Johnson tells a tale. I don’t know if Grindhouse Noir is even a thing, but if it is, Johnson is the king.” —Todd Robinson, author of The Hard Bounce and Rough Trade “Dark, bloody, and full of Hell, The Abrum Files is line after line of pure, uncut, chainsaw noir. I loved it!” —Paul J. Garth, author of The Low White Plain “Violent though it may be, I'm chalking The Abrum Files up as one of my feel-good books of the year. In a world where this seems increasingly doubtful, we are reminded in these stories, time and again, that actions still have consequences. It’s not simply enjoyable fiction, it’s arguably vital. Beau Johnson is the poet laureate of vengeance and righteous anger.” —C. Matthew Smith, author of Twentymile “Beau Johnson’s newest novel, The Abrum Files, is chock-full of Old Testament-style justice and picks up right where his Bishop Rider series left off. Jeramiah Abrum is one bad good dude!” —Eli Cranor, author of the Edgar Award-winning Don’t Know Tough and Ozark Dogs “With every book, Beau Johnson continues to deliver the hardest-core noir out there. Call it Chainsaw Noir: funny, dark and bloody, but with a moral heart beating beneath it all.” —Nick Kolakowski, author of Love & Bullets and Payback Is Forever “With The Abrum Files: A Bishop Rider Book, Johnson makes you feel dirty, deranged and evokes a visceral reaction with each and every story. It runs the gamut of emotions—sorrow, remorse and elation—all the while knowing that you’re in the steady hands of Johnson’s pristine prose. This will make fans of Bishop Rider very happy.” —Steve Stred, author of Mastodon, Father of Lies, and Churn the Soil “The Abrum Files is Beau Johnson doing what he does best: demonstrating his innate understanding of the power of crime fiction—that once you crack through a sternum and scrape away the muck and the grime you find the truest aspects of humanity beating underneath.” —Rob Hart, author of The Warehouse and The Paradox Hotel “Beau Johnson is back, baby, and more ruthless than ever. More kills, more pain, more satisfyingly gruesome tidbits to whet your appetite for justice. The Abrum Files showcases Johnson’s razor-sharp wit and brass-knuckle skills for storytelling, each brief story giving the exact amount to keep reader’s turning pages. Whether Bishop Rider lives or not, I’m happy as long as Johnson is setting pen to paper.” —Laurel Hightower, author of Crossroads and Below “Equal parts terrifying, horrifying, exhilarating, and relentless, The Abrum Files is a roller coaster ride into the cavernous recesses of the worst of mankind. No one writes more viscerally about violence and its emotional toll than Beau Johnson, and his latest is another brutal dose of righteous vengeance that will leave you ragged and begging for more.” —James D.F. Hannah, author of the Henry Malone thriller series

The world has never been perfect. The world has never been all bad. But there has always been evil and men who drink of it. This ends now. Enter Bishop Rider and people like him who have had enough and are willing to embrace what most will not. The world will never be perfect. The world will never be all bad. It’s the middle we must embrace. This, a better kind of hate. Praise for A BETTER KIND OF HATE: “Hard hitting stories of lives on the razor’s edge.” —Paul D. Brazill, author of Too Many Crooks, A Case of Noir, Guns of Brixton, The Last Laughand Kill Me Quick! “Beau Johnson is a lawless writer. Several—but not all—of the stories in his collection, A Better Kind of Hate, feature his renegade cop alter ego Bishop Rider, a battered and bruised, world-weary hero forced to operate outside a corrupt system to find justice. And that’s just what these stories have in common: justice, in all its muted, corrupt glory. Whether showcasing Rider or another flawed hero, Johnson operates in shades of gray, where sometimes all it takes is for a bad man to kill a worse one. A stark and sobering reality, and a stellar debut.” —Joe Clifford, author of the Jay Porter Thriller Series “Beau’s ability to strike at the heart of human emotion is both unnerving, uncanny, and unique. It allows him to wring tears from the darkest recesses of the human experience. A dark chameleon who slides from twisted villain to damaged innocent like a well-tuned master of fiction. A how-to on the craft of short fiction.” —Tom Pitts, author of Hustle and American Static “A Better Kind of Hate will haunt you like a specter. An uneasy collection, Beau Johnson crafts each story with masterful precision and an icy cold edge. Each page, each word, escalates the tension, ratchets the foreboding . Dripping with psychological terror, nerve racking suspense and characters unhinged, A Better Kind of Hate is an offering of patience, plans, and revenge. Johnson’s talent is spectacular and terrifying.” —Marietta Miles, author of Route 12 “Beau Johnson writes from that place inside us all that is nothing but brutal honesty and grit. And while most people avoid this place, Beau milks it for every word he can.” —Ryan Sayles, author of the Richard Dean Buckner series

Bishop Rider Lives! And for a dead man, he’s been busy. His story and the parts of it yet to be told being what populates Brand New Dark. Unseen moments pulled from between the pages of A Better Kind of Hate, The Big Machine Eats, and All of Them to Burn. Twenty-five new tales that bridge what came before and expand upon what can only come after. Come, see what happened in-between. Come, see how he made them burn. Praise for BRAND NEW DARK: “You want it darker? Then strap in for a ride with Brand New Dark, but keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle (while everyone else loses theirs). Beau Johnson masterfully crafts sharp, incisive short fiction, and Bishop Rider is the perfect vehicle for his mix of gallows humor and righteous anger. Brand New Dark is an intoxicating blend of violence and bone-deep humanity that lingers with you long after the final page.” —James D.F. Hannah, Shamus Award-winning author of the Henry Malone novels “Brand New Dark is an utterly terrifying, high-octane mix of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher and a Nicolas Winding Refn production, powered by a voice that’s unique to crime fiction. It’s a mega-dose of the darkest in human nature…and murderously inventive.” —Nick Kolakowski, author of Rattlesnake Rodeo and Boise Longpig Hunting Club “Do you like stories about bad guys being torn apart in new and ever-innovative ways? Then boy has Beau Johnson got the books for you. But Beau does more than just tell tales of unbridled violence, he delivers them with a wit and humour that keeps you smiling, when really your stomach should be doing flips.” —Paul Heatley, author of Cutthroat and Just Like Jesus “For years now, the long chain of American vigilante anti-heroes has had a welcome addition in Beau Johnson’s Bishop Rider…but Rider will go places and do things that would have caused Mack Bolan, the Punisher, or Jack Reacher to hesitate. But rather than play into the horror of violence, or offer up ‘violence-porn,’ Johnson is keenly aware of the disquieting effect of his stories, and his concise, calculated prose shows a skilled writer who understands exactly how far to push the reader. Brand New Dark is a powerful mix of vengeance, violence, and razor-sharp writing by one of crime fiction’s most daring short story writers.” —E.A. Aymar, author of The Unrepentant and They’re Gone (written under E.A. Barres) “Johnson doesn’t play nice. When it comes to ultraviolence, he’s doing for crime what Barker did for horror. Brand New Dark will slap you in the mouth.” —Laird Barron, author of Worse Angels “We’ve been gifted with the return of revenge seeking anti-hero Bishop Rider, told in Johnson’s inimitable style of bite-sized brutality. Dark, bloody, and righteously gruesome, Brand New Dark satisfies the itch for beautifully written crime fiction, where the violence is seen from the corners of our eyes and over our shoulders as Johnson’s relentless pacing propels us forward to a fate we can’t look away from, no matter the cost.” —Laurel Hightower, author of Crossroads “Beau Johnson is like an alchemist. He melds dark violent narratives with searing heartbreaking fragility. A Brand New Dark is the same old Beau. Fearless, poetic and brutal.” —S.A. Cosby author of Blacktop Wasteland and Razorblade Tears “Are these stories violent? Yes. Are they dark? Yes. Is Brand New Dark a well-written, page-turning collection of vigilante justice crime fiction at its finest? Hell yes. Nobody gives the bad guys a taste of their own medicine like the master of the genre, Beau Johnson.” —Jennifer Hillier, Thriller Award-winning author of Jar of Hearts “Bishop Rider works—and works extremely well—only because he’s in the capable hands of Beau Johnson. In the midst of Rider’s pursuit for revenge, Johnson never forgets how important Rider’s humanity is, both to the character and to the readers as well. The unflinching violence, limb dislocations and evilness of men never veers into parody, and neither does Rider. And fans of Bishop’s previous tales will be delighted to fill more of his details through Johnson’s fractured but never confusing style of storytelling.” —Hector Acosta, author of Hardway

Darkness is an attribute most of us rally against. It can consume. It can achieve. But if we so choose, it can also be held at bay. Enter Bishop Rider and the evil he’s chosen to obliterate since his family is taken from him. Operating outside the law, circumventing a system beyond repair, Bishop stalks this darkness the only way he knows how. Not only because these men deserve what he’s become, but because of a message he attempted to create has come back to haunt him, now, after all these years. It’s this story, along with other, unconnected tales that populate All of them to Burn. Come, meet Rider for the first time. Come, meet Rider for the last time. Come, watch the darkness burn. Praise for ALL OF THEM TO BURN: “Beau Johnson has done to his fiction what street thugs do to their victims: he holds it down and beats it for all its worth. I mean that in a good way. No, in a great way. Few authors are out there stamping their words onto the page the way Beau does. He’s equal parts slick, hammering, poetic and caustic. His talent is to be admired; his words are to be read.” —Ryan Sayles, author of the Richard Dean Buckner mysteries “Beau Johnson delivers another collection of masterfully written tales. Compelling and smart, these wild stories are full of twisted characters and seedy scenes. Greed. Anger. Revenge. Perhaps, justice. We are taken down a dark path, catching up with old favorites like Bishop Rider and John Batista along the way. We watch as the stories and characters connect and engage, bringing every thread together. The third in his series of connected shorts may be Beau Johnson’s best, yet.” —Marietta Miles, author of May and After the Storm “All of Them to Burn is a Molotov cocktail of classic crime fiction, but one with a sharp modern twist.” —Paul D. Brazill, author of Last Year’s Man and A Case of Noir “Beau Johnson’s stories are hard tales of revenge and sorrow. Nothing can prepare you for the darkness in these stories and nothing can make you turn away once you start reading. All of Them to Burn is an excellent collection.” —Nikki Dolson, author of All Things Violent “These chilling short stories—many featuring the return of the mythic-like hero, Bishop Rider—drop us into the darkest depths of human suffering and ruin. Beau Johnson can spin the most brutal of tales with raw emotion, savage honesty, and fierce humor. A standout collection from a seasoned storyteller.” —Sarah M. Chen, author of Cleaning Up Finn “All of Them to Burn is fast, sharp, violent, and gory. There’s something visceral at the core of Johnson’s work that simultaneously reflects the best and worst of humanity, and it shines in this collection. Come for the blood and viciousness and stay for the electric dialogue and outstanding last lines. I promise it’s all equally fun.” —Gabino Iglesias, author of Coyote Songs

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