Bøker av Alec Cizak

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THE FUTURE F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, There are no second acts in American lives. Sadly, for most Americans occupying that thinnest strip of land between poverty and the grave, rarely does America afford so much as a first act or even prologue. Nobody's Coming Home introduces readers to several such doomed citizens from Lake County, Indiana. Their immutable characteristics differ. Their fates do not. Born under the heels of Uncle Sam's cruelest boots, they will struggle for a peek at daylight. Some might call these characters low lives. Some might call them losers. To dismiss them as beneath anyone else is to miss the beauty of the fight, the desire to sneak up and snatch the tiniest piece of the dying American Dream. Alec Cizak returns to the fictional towns of Haggard, Lublin, and Pawpaw Grove for brief, graphic exercises in contemporary noir. These stories do not offer safety. They offer the truth. They offer the last honest examination of how bad decisions aren't so much made as they are imposed. "Nobody's Coming Home is a valentine to the Raymonds: Chandler and Carver. Minimalist, unsentimental, unflinching, character rich, this book is a must for anyone who loves crime stories, or just good writing." -Chelsea CainNew York Times Bestseller "Cizak's prose is sharper than a blade held against your neck-he will give you the dreadful truth, and you will keep coming back for more." -Matt PhillipsAuthor of Countdown, Know Me from Smoke, and A Good Rush of Blood

Texas. The early 1950s. Jack Laramie, independent private investigator, travels the vast republic towing his home, a horse trailer, behind a sweet DeSoto, finding adventure and intrigue in every town he encounters. Five novellas and novelettes featuring David Cranmer's The Drifter Detective are collected together in one volume for the first time. Uncle B. Publications, LLC, has bound these exciting tales in the first of two volumes for your permanent library. This is pulp fiction at its finest--sharp prose and sharper action. Here's what critics have said about the series: "...simple, straightforward, meat-and-potatoes storytelling" - Silver Screen Videos "This prose is easy to read and flows quite well. It feels dark and despondent and definitely country noir-ish" - David Wilde " Plenty of interesting twists to this fast read. Worth the time" - Sam B. Wagner "Great sense of time and place" - Col Bury " Loved the Texas locations and all the details. I want to read more" - Michael Monson

It's summer, 2016. Chelsea Farmer has awoken from one nightmare into another. Once a call girl with no control over her life, she's lost even more control, becoming another statistic in the opioid epidemic eating America from the inside out. Shacking up with a woman she may or may not be in love with, and three men unaware of just how useless they've become, she participates in home invasions to steal material goods that can be traded for pills or, even better, heroin. In between hits, the gang finds other ways to scrape together money, such as getting paid to march in a protest-turned-riot against presidential candidate Donald Trump. As the habit increases, calls for more crimes to feed it, the boys get increasingly violent with the victims of their home invasions. How long will it be before they actually kill a homeowner who refuses to cooperate? Chelsea must decide whether or not she's willing to hang around and find out. Praise for BREAKING GLASS: "Alec Cizak hits streets we don't want to live on and he hits them hard. For a writer as good as Cizak, that isn't enough. Breaking Glass is the story of an addict who stumbles into a chance at recovery only to have her past come back on her. Can she redeem herself while maintaining her newfound peaceful self? This book raises brutal questions and gives the answers it must." -Rob Pierce "Alec Cizak continues to tap into the bleakness of modern life that he did with Down on the Street. Breaking Glass is so dark and troubling it will make you cry for mercy as he joins Poe and Lovecraft in finding new ways to disturb you." -David Nemeth "In addition to containing the single best death scene-ever, in the history of writing-Alec Cizak's Breaking Glass paints a condemnation and a begrudging acceptance of our post-PC culture, told through the eyes of Chelsea Farmer, a millennial dope fiend. Part Tom Sawyer and part Alex from A Clockwork Orange, Chelsea takes us on a tour of an America where hardcore violence and sickening sexual predation are givens; yet subliminal microaggressions end careers and the definition of rape is as elusive and fluid as a spoon-cooked tab of oxycontin. I was hooked." -Grant Jerkins "Alec Cizak's writing is clean, full of dark humor and pulpy edge; all of which highlights his fast dialogue and faster plot. His expert use of language allows him to build believable, interesting characters and create realistic, though bleak, situations. Manifesto Destination and Down on the Street solidify his position next to the greatest writers of hard-boiled fiction. Every story he creates is thrilling and compelling." -Marietta Miles

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

Elmore Johnson has only got two friends, the bottle of Jim Beam in his coat pocket and a revolver named Lorraine. He worked for the Indianapolis Police Department until they booted him for exposing dirty cops. Now he makes a meager living snapping seedy photos. But when Elmore shoots pictures of the daughter of a wealthy CEO making cheap porn, the girl ends up dead. As the bodies pile up, Elmore finds himself trapped in the heart of a bizarre conspiracy until he discovers the horrifying truth about a place called Manifesto Destination. Alec Cizak's Manifesto Destination will take you back to dystopian 1998 Indianapolis where everyone-the cops, big business, and even the little guy-is dirty and only looking out for themselves. His writing is boiled rock hard and keeps you turning one noir-infested page after another until you find yourself as paranoid as Elmore Johnson. Praise for MANIFESTO DESTINATION: "Alec Cizak finds the naked truth on the printed page. An artist with no fear and thankfully no moral center." -David Cranmer, editor of Beat To a Pulp "The city of Indianapolis like you haven't seen it before (at least not yet), seasoned with a splash of noir, a dash of dystopia and almost but not quite hard-boiled. More like Eggs Benedict-though that breakfast was originally invented as a hangover cure, and this might cause one. Alec Cizak's heady mixture of sci-fi and P.I., bad cops and Big Brothers, is a dark, funny read, full of twists and a barely controlled rage at the state of our corporate nation. And by nudging his detective story into a disturbing but recognizable future, the author paints this concoction with an extra layer of despair, as we realize his Phil Dickian satire of manipulation is not just familiar, but also inevitable. Best read with Charlie Parker in the background (the hero probably wore out his 'Charlie Parker With Strings' tape, but it weaves the perfect soundtrack). Jazzy and weird, the whole thing is probably a thinly-veiled threat, but I had too much fun to heed any warnings. See you at the Magic Carpet before they tear it down." -David James Keaton, author of Fish Bites Cop: Stories To Bash Authorities

Times are tough. Lester Banks, a cab driver in Indianapolis, can't pay his bills and is about to get kicked out onto the streets. His neighbor, a gorgeous young college student named Chelsea, is also on the verge of homelessness. He convinces her to become an escort under his guidance and protection. Their financial situation looks like it might improve until some dirty cops step in, demanding their cut. Lester makes a tragic decision to solve his own problems. Then the situation gets worse, more than he could ever have imagined.