The Things I Love Will Kill Me Yet

Escape. Lust. Revenge. Rob Pierce writes with an understanding of the darkness in the hearts of people who’ve been struck and need to strike back. From gun dealers to murders to the simply self-destructive, The Things I Love Will Kill Me Yet is filled with stories of men and women whose dreams can never take them out of their realities. Praise for THE THINGS I LOVE WILL KILL ME YET: “Pierce’s style is spare and hard-hitting, and The Things I Love Will Kill Me Yet delivers a knockout.” —Sam Wiebe, author of Last of the Independents “Rob Pierce’s stories are like love letters to the damned.” —Mike Miner, author of Prodigal Sons and Hurt Hawks “Noir at its best! Like a violent biker gang, a herd of wild horned animals, or maybe a box of spiders, there’s a stockpile of thrilling peril inside these Rob Pierce short stories.” —Jack Getze, author of the Austin Carr mysteries

A strange trip through the Kentucky countryside with a glue-sniffing, skull-cracking, squirrel-hunting private detective by the name of Neil Chambers… When Chambers is approached by a father who wants to get back his (adult) daughter, he takes the skeptic’s view of the case. But he has no idea the chaotic fever dream that he’s about to stumble into. Vicious rednecks, more vicious rich people, crooked sheriffs—Neil will fight them all. F*** solving the case; this is about survival. Praise for LOVE YOU TO A PULP: “DeWildt stands alone as a wicked wizard of crime fiction. Love You to a Pulp serves up heart and depravity in equal portions. Bold, brash, and completely original.” —Tom Pitts, author of Hustle “Chris DeWildt is the first honest-to-God heir apparent I’ve read to the rural noir master Jim Thompson.” —Joe Clifford, author of Lamentation “DeWildt has a tendency to drag his characters, as well as his avid readers, through the most despicable of circumstances, yet with Love You to a Pulp, that tradition lets a little redemption seep in through the cracks. A balance DeWildt handles like a pro. This book is full of masterful imagery from a provocative author at the top of his game, piled high on a bullet train of violence that demands that once you start watching, you don’t look away.” —Brian Panowich, author of Bull Mountain

Nick Gillis grows marijuana and minds his own business, a policy that pays off in the small Midwest town he calls home. But when he breaks his own rule by helping out a girl at a bar, it’s enough to put him on the radar of the most dangerous man he knows. It’s truly a case of no good deed going unpunished as Nick’s debt leads him down a dark path littered with psychologically damaged convicts, a crooked chief of police, and one well-trained murder of crows. Praise for the books of CS DeWildt: “…full of masterful imagery from a provocative author at the top of his game, piled high on a bullet train of violence that demands that once you start watching, you don’t look away.” —Brian Panowich, author of Bull Mountain “DeWildt stands alone as a wicked wizard of crime fiction. Love You to a Pulp serves up heart and depravity in equal portions. Bold, brash, and completely original.” —Tom Pitts, author of Hustle “Chris DeWildt is the first honest-to-God heir apparent I’ve read to the rural noir master Jim Thompson.” —Joe Clifford, author of Lamentation and December Boys

In two parts, fathers lament the losses of their daughters. In the novella All The Broken Things a father discovers his daughter has been brutally raped and murdered and enters a labyrinth of excavation only to discover she had as a journalist unearthed the secrete dangerous Magenta Club. As he digs for clues his marriage falls apart and his wife leaves him for a man who tries to destroy her. In Inhabit we are unsure whether the grieving father even had a daughter. Then a young woman turns up on his estate and he is convinced she is Emily returned.

Short crime fiction from the leading writers in the genre. Including work by: John Rector, Stephen D. Rogers, Emily Bay Moore, Copper Smith, Rob Pierce, K.A. Laity, Daniel Vlasaty, Wilson Koewing, Tracy Falenwolfe, Tom Leins, Preston Lang, Alec Cizak, and Jay Butkowski

Being a bad guy isn’t just a way of life. It’s an art. Eddie Ballard is a hitman who loves his job. He is also inexperienced and enjoys making the kind of noise that just isn’t professional. If Eddie wasn’t so good at what he does, He could be the next one put onto a slab. Cecil Marzynski is a quiet, skinny man with eyes that have seen all there is to see in the St. Louis underworld. Cecil is also a hitman, but one that uses a vast network of contacts as his primary weapon. So many important people on both sides of the law owe him favors that some have taken to calling him Marker. Eddie enjoys fast cars, loud guns and louder music. Cecil has been circling the same woman for months, trying to find the perfect angle to approach her without tipping her off that he is wanted for murder in several states. Eddie thinks he knows how to be a tough guy. Cecil has forced some of the toughest criminals to give up everything they held dear. The figure at the top of St. Louis’s biggest organized crime syndicate is known as Pyotr The Greek. Pyotr is the only man with enough power to convince Cecil to take Eddie under his wing and teach him about what it means to be a true professional. Along the way, perhaps Eddie can show Marker a thing or two about savoring the good things in a bad life. Unfortunately for both of them, there is a new threat coming to town that might hit The Greek hard enough to topple his entire family.

An eclectic collection of pulp, grit and noir stories inspired by the Capital Region of New York, a rust-belt crossroads in the shadow of the city that never sleeps. Here’s a trip led by fat slobs in smoky, vomit-stained cabs, heading to the oasis of the strip club on a street lined with rusted out factories, ventilated with beer cans and rocks. No heroes and villains in these pages, just shades of grey and characters making choices between bad and worse. Tales of woe and macabre, the profane and ordinary dance with each other in a building where the forgotten stay, passing their street whispers like bottles from the bottom shelf.

You want heartfelt sensitive stories about the mid-life crisis of a middle-class white guy? How about ironic tales of suburban marriages where the love has faded? Yeah, if that’s what you want, pick up some other book, because Crooked Roads, Alec Cizak’s first short story collection, is not for you. This book is about real humans in the real streets of cities and small towns. People who are messed up, people at the edge of things—at the edge of sanity, at the edge of morality, at the edge of legality. Criminals, the homeless, the depraved, the perverted, and just normal folk at the end of their rope. Go ahead, pick it up, give it a read. We dare you. Praise for CROOKED ROADS: “With fists pounding against cliché and convention, Alec Cizak creates prose that is bold…and bloody.” —David Cranmer, author of Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles, and publisher of Beat To a Pulp Books