News — 2021

48 HOURS TO KILL by Andrew Bourelle Published by Crooked Lane Books If Ethan Lockhart was given the chance to do his life over, he would. In a heartbeat. As a young man trying to prove himself to the world, he took a job at a strip club owned by a shady individual known as “Shark”. Getting involved with Shark and his goons lands Ethan in jail for a short time and to reward Ethan for his silence/loyalty-Shark tells him he’ll look after his sister while he’s behind bars. But she goes missing. And then she’s declared dead. Ethan has...

  COME WITH ME by Ronald Malfi Publisher: Titan Come With Me by Ronald Malfi is a perfectly paced, page-turning, supernatural thriller that immediately draws the reader into an intimate shared space with the narrator of the story, Aaron Decker. Aaron’s wife, Allison invites her husband to come with her on an errand and he turns her down. Later that day, she is a victim of a mass shooting at a mall. Stricken with grief and the overwhelming loss he has suffered, Aaron finds comfort in immersing himself in memories the couple shared over the course of the marriage. Going...

EDGE OF DARK WATER by Joe R. Lansdale After reading THE BOTTOMS by Joe R. Lansdale, I had a sneaking suspicion he was using his stories to break my heart and after just finishing EDGE OF DARK WATER, this suspicion has been confirmed. Joe R. Lansdale is indeed trying to break my heart. He’s coming after my soul. He’s weaseling into my life and stealing retail space on my bookshelf. Proof:   The thing is, I have fully surrendered. I’m allowing it. Game on. Take everything. EDGE OF DARK WATER is the story of some kids growing up as best...

  RAZORBLADE TEARS by S. A. Cosby    “Folks like to talk about revenge like it’s a righteous thing but it’s just hate in a nicer suit.” -S.A. Cosby Nearly one year to the day that I finished BLACKTOP WASTELAND, one of my favorite novels of 2020, I turned the final page of S.A. Cosby’s magnificent follow up, RAZORBLADE TEARS, and even though it’s only July I can confidently declare that the results are the same. This will no doubt be one of my favorite reads of the year. The setup for this crime novel is familiar, but with a...

  MAGGIE OF MY HEART by Alyson Faye Set in post-war England in the 1940s, Maggie of My Heart harkens back to the classic black and white film noirs of the era and, like all good noirs, boasts a killer femme fatale in Maggie, a young woman whose past life of abuse at the hands of a former lover comes back to haunt her. Working as an escort in the seedy bars of London, Maggie finds herself falling for a charming conman named Johnny. Their relationship sours as Johnny becomes increasingly violent and unpredictable, and Maggie finds an out via...