by Jake Hinkson
“Dinner with Friends” appeared online at A Twist of Noir.
“Casual Encounter” appeared in Noir Riot.
“The Theologians” appeared in All Due Respect Issue Three.
Thanks
This collection assembles short fiction written over the course of almost twenty years. In that time, many people helped these stories take shape and find their way into various publications and online venues. As such, I owe many folks a long warm hug. Since—as doubtless many of them already know—I am not a hugger, this written thanks will have to do.
In the Creative Writing program of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, I would like to thank my first readers: David Jauss, Monica Bergers, Charlie Green, and Jeremy Morphis.
In the Creative Writing program of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, I need to thank Karen Bender, Wendy Brenner, Clyde Edgerton, Rebecca Lee, and Robert Siegel.
Any thanks extended to the people of UNCW would be incomplete without acknowledging the friendship—and very often the forbearance—of Hannah Dela Cruz Abrams, Patrick Culliton, Chris McSween, and Jay Varner.
A big thanks goes to Christopher Grant at A Twist Of Noir, who published my first crime stories online.
At Beat To A Pulp, I need to thank David Cranmer and Elaine Ash.
At Crime Factory, I need to thank Keith Rawson, Andrew Nette, Cameron Ashley, and Liam Jose.
At Fires On The Plain and Noir Riot, a great thanks to Cullen Gallagher.
At Noir Riot and NoirCon, a big thank you to the great Lou Boxer.
Finally, a huge thanks to Chris Rhatigan and Mike Monson at All Due Respect. You guys are the best.
Other Titles from All Due Respect
Tussinland
By Mike Monson
Addicted to cough syrup, television and Sugar Frosted Flakes, Paul Dunn is living in a state of torpor while staying at his mother's house after the humiliating ending of his third marriage. His inertia is broken when he becomes the chief suspect in the murders of his soon-to-be ex-wife and her new lover. Set in the town of Modesto, deep in California's Central Valley, Tussinland is about sex drugs, addiction, smart phones, Facebook and the internet, digital cable, anti-government militias, reality TV, fundamentalist homophobic Christians, families, 12-step groups, pornography, marriage, death, disease, and love. So noir it hurts.
“Tussinland is a fast trip to the dark side--a world of broken people and desperate dreams. It's violent and propulsive, but in the end it's also strangely—and surprisingly—touching.”—Jake Hinkson, author of Hell on Church Street and The Big Ugly
“Mike Monson is in elite company with Jason Starr and Les Edgerton as one of the best pure, unfiltered noir writers alive, and Tussinland is his best novel yet.”—Craig T. McNeely, editor of pulp fiction magazine Dark Corners
Prodigal Sons
By Mike Miner
Matthew Flanagan is living the American dream. A plum job at an ad agency. A hot wife. A beautiful home in Southern California. But something is eating him up inside and a nasty drinking habit is about to cost him everything. After his life finally collapses around him, Matthew disappears to Vegas with a girl he barely knows. When word reaches the Flanagan clan back in Connecticut, Matthew's brothers Mark and Luke are sent on a mission to find their brother and bring him home. It's a longer and darker journey than either of them planned on. At turns funny and moving, Prodigal Sons is a hard-boiled American odyssey. A family saga with the heart of a crime novel.
“The work of an extravagantly talented writer, Prodigal Sons is one of the best debut novels I have ever read.”—Sterling Watson, author of Suitcase City, Fighting in the Shade, and Sweet Dream Baby.
“Miner’s wicked electric chair humor calls to mind the best of Elmore Leonard and Charles Willeford.”—Patrick Michael Finn, author of From the Darkness Right Under Our Feet and A Martyr for Suzy Kosasovich.
Revenge Is A Redhead
By Phil Beloin Jr.
Rich Brown is out of cash and luck when he finds stripper Cherry Pop. Like so many before him, Rich falls for the redhead, but all he can afford is a quick peep show.
But soon Rich has bigger problems than lack of love and money when he stumbles into a homeless shelter that’s really a front for a bunch of shady dealings. He crosses paths with Cherry Pop again, and to survive the night, the duo have claw their way out of all kinds of mayhem.
Trashy, funny, and filled with pure pulp action, Revenge is a Redhead is the ideal to kill time before you die.
“Revenge is a Redhead, is a perfect example of the so-called New Pulp: a long story that could easily have appeared in Black Mask, Argosy or one of the other pulp magazines that dominated newsracks in the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s. It is colorful, lurid and violent, coupling a sinister and cynical world view with a transgressive type of justice that is meted out vigilante-style by the book’s first-person protagonist.”—William E. Wallace, Pulp Hack Confessions