Bøker utgitt av Down & Out Books

When Karl, the schizophrenic, ex-GI with post traumatic issues shows up on Duffy's caseload talking about governmental conspiracy predictions Duff takes it in stride. When Karl's terrorist predictions start coming true and he prattles on about the motives of defense contractors, security firms and the profits of war, Duff begins to pay attention. But when Duff suffers his own traumatic brain injury getting knocked out in the ring, Karl doesn't look so crazy any more. With his own sanity on the line Duffy, Al and Karl travel across the country to foil the terrorists at the Notre Dame football opener and the Columbine-type massacre. Oh yeah, and in the meantime there s that evil basset hound puppymill to deal with. Step into the ring for round three and join Duffy, Al the basset hound, that collection of lovable drunks, the Fearsome Foursome for their greatest adventure yet. Pull up a bar stool, crack a cold Schlitz, let Elvis light up the jukebox and get ready for the most therapeutic social worker moonlighting as a pro boxer. When Duffy hears the bell everyone should keep their guard up. Praise for OUT COLD: "Out Cold floored me with a quick one two of the serious and seriously funny. Schreck's unique blending of the absurd and the sublime along with his rather oddball cast of characters makes Out Cold a great read." -Reed Farrel Coleman, two-time Shamus Award winning author of Empty Ever After "Out Cold is a fast, funny, rip-roaring read, and Shreck's wit and humor shines through on every page. But what I love most about Schreck's creation, Duffy Dombrowski, is the decency and dignity with which he treats the unforgettable cast of loonies, addicts, and criminals who parade through his office. I haven't cared this much about a protagonist in a good long while. Duffy is real hero and a true original." -Blake Crouch, author of Abandon "Tom Schreck will knock you to the mat with a sucker punch of laughs. Out Cold is an expert one-two combination of humor and humanity." -Mario Acevedo, author of Jailbait Zombie

"In hindsight I think we should have stayed in Boston." "Thought you always wanted to be Mr. Hollywood." >Los Angeles, California Titanic Productions has moved to Hollywood but the producer's problems don't stop with the cost of location services. When McNulty finds a runaway girl hiding at the Hollywood Boulevard location during a night shoot it brings back memories of his life in Crag View Orphanage. He takes the girl under his wing but after somebody breaks into the compound looking for her she runs away again. Between the drug cartel that wants her back and a hitman who wants her dead, McNulty must try and find her again before California wildfires race towards her hiding place. Praise for the books by Colin Campbell: "Very real. And very good." -Lee Child "There's nothing soft about Campbell's writing. If you enjoy your crime fiction hard-boiled, the Jim Grant series is a must read." -Bruce Robert Coffin, author of the Detective Byron series "A cop with a sharp eye, keen mind, and a lion's heart." -Reed Farrel Coleman "Campbell writes smart, rollercoaster tales with unstoppable forward momentum and thrilling authenticity." -Nick Petrie "Grim and gritty and packed with action." -Kirkus Review "The pages fly like the bullets, fistfights and one-liners that make this one of my favourite books of the year. Top stuff!" -Matt Hilton "An excellent story well told. A mixture of The Choirboys meets Harry Bosch." -Michael Jecks "Sets up immediately and maintains a breakneck pace throughout. Its smart structure and unrelenting suspense will please Lee Child fans." -Library Journal Review "This is police procedural close-up and personal. A strong debut with enough gritty realism to make your eyes water, and a few savage laughs along the way." -Reginald Hill

Sharp Knives & Loud Guns is the brand-new collection of Paignton Noir Case Files from cult crime writer Tom Leins, featuring the novelettes Slug Bait, Smut Loop and Sweating Blood. Traumatised and brutalised after a grisly encounter with a warped sex killer, Slug Bait finds cut-price private investigator Joe Rey licking his wounds at a decrepit caravan park on the cliff path high above Paignton. Violence has a way of finding Rey, however, and an altercation involving local amusement arcade tycoon Raymond Coody sees him dragged back into town-where his name is now on all of the wrong people's lips. Rey's reckless disregard for his own safety quickly wins Coody's trust, but his new associate harbours some dark secrets, and things are about to get very bloody, very quickly. Joe Rey has been hired by so many queasy middle-aged men in his time, an assignment from Frank 'The Wank' Farris barely registers. In Smut Loop Rey is forced to get reacquainted with Cherry, a middle-aged sex worker who has more unsavoury connections than he does. When she proposes an elaborate blackmail scheme, Rey is suckered in, but the job quickly spirals out of control-and they are forced to perform an unhinged job for an extremely powerful man. Rey is out of luck, and out of his depth. With friends like this, who needs enemies? After a series of violent misadventures, Joe Rey has blood on his hands and murder on his mind. Now working as a security guard at Paignton Cliffs Caravan Park, Rey finds himself dogged by unhinged cop Carver, who is desperate to know where the bodies are buried. When a sinister figure from Rey's past re-emerges, determined to force him to participate in a sick new game, Rey is forced to confront his past-if he still wants to have a future. As the temperature rises, so does the body-count, and Rey finds himself Sweating Blood. Will he see it through to the bitter end, or has his luck finally run out? Praise for SHARP KNIVES & LOUD GUNS: "Imagine Jim Thompson and Edward Lee had a baby and that baby did a bunch of steroids and meth. That's what Tom Leins' powerful pulp is like. Nobody, and I mean nobody, writes like Leins. He is the master of his own genre." -Andy Rausch, author of American Trash and Bloody Sheets "For hammer-to-face smashing, nothing could be better than Sharp Knives & Loud Guns. Viciously brutal and wickedly funny, to my mind this is the best Tom Leins book yet." -Rob Pierce, author of the Uncle Dust trilogy

Three Stories. Three Eras. Three Crimes. A 1960s mob fixer is drawn into a Vegas fix that might just put the fix on him. Dead Chinese immigrants wash up on the beaches of 1889 Seattle and one government official refuses to look the other way. An Italian ex-galley slave, sometime thief, and full-time rogue masterminds a one-of-its kind jail break in 1581 Constantinople. Praise for SUICIDE BLONDE: "Brian Thornton's trio of historical novellas-Suicide Blonde-affirms his status as a star of the genre. A true wordsmith, Thornton paints rich, evocative portraits of early 1960s Las Vegas mobsters, nineteenth-century Pacific Northwest racial strife, and sixteenth-century Venetian maritime adventures. These novellas brim with characters full of life and personality, and the storytelling transports the reader to fascinating-and dangerous-times. Top-drawer stuff." -James W. Ziskin, Anthony and Macavity Award-winning author of the Ellie Stone mysteries "Evoking Dashiell Hammett and Phillip Kerr, Suicide Blonde conjures a world of pulp adventure and hardboiled grit. From the Vegas Strip to the Mediterranean, this trio of historical crime tales surges with period precision and Black Mask-worthy thrills. Thornton delivers." -Sam Wiebe, award-winning author of Invisible Dead and Last of the Independents "A trio of tales that span the globe and the centuries, each one told with a historian's eye for detail and a storyteller's gift for pacing. Suicide Blonde is not to be missed." -Renee Patrick, Anthony and Macavity Award-nominated author of Design For Dying and Script For Scandal

In between gigs as a Hollywood movie Teamster, self-proclaimed sailing bum Mike Millek moonlights as a freelance, armed chauffeur to the stars. When Mike arrives one night to pick up his deadbeat client, rap music producer Pays Lee, at his private jet Mike finds him freshly murdered with a satchel full of cash. Mike makes the critical decision to take what is owed him before reporting anything to the police. More money than he ever expected, this turns out to be Mike's biggest payday in his life, but not without consequences. Opening this Pandora's box not only costs him his best friend's life and leads him down a road of deception with his newly found love Molly, but thrusts them both into a dangerous conspiracy entrenched in the sordid underbelly of the Hollywood power elite. Praise for BELOW THE LINE: "If Michael Connolly were an ex-Hollywood agent who knew the cream of show biz and the sour milk of its lowlifes like he knows the back of his brass-knuckled hand, he might have created Mike Millek and his foot-to-the-floor dark ride, Below the Line. Set along the seams of the real movie business-as its street-savvy author Jankowski has lived and savored it-with an A-list casting call of characters so real they're scary, Mike Millek is as hardboiled as a shark in hot water and his Los Angeles is a City of Angles. So if you take your java noir with a double shot of espresso, take just one bite of Below the Line and it will reel you in...hook, line and sinker!" -Rupert Holmes, multiple Edgar and Tony-winning author, creator of the AMC-TV series Remember WENN, and author of Where the Truth Lies "Batten down the hatches for a hard-boiled storm. Below the Line is an impressive debut, a suspenseful Nautical Noir on the fringe of Hollywood's dream factory. Taut, vivid tough-guy pulp in the tradition of John D. MacDonald and Mickey Spillane." -John Shepphird, Shamus Award-winning author "Babes, boats and betrayal! Steve Jankowski's thrilling debut crime novel jets through the gritty sets of Hollywood to the deadly Pacific in a riveting tale worthy of Travis McGee." -Lawrence Maddox, author of Fast Bang Booze

John Headston took a bad step 12 years ago, and it cost him his freedom and his career. But now that he's been pardoned, and has reopened his Headstone Detective Agency, he's ready to start again. But into his office walks the woman who was the reason he lost it all, and she wants to use him again. She wants him to find out who's trying to kill her wealthy, older husband. Will Headston risk it all again, or will he realize the folly of that action and turn her down?

Cut Loose All Those Who Drag You Down by Ross Klavan The story of what turns out to be a very, very bad night. A crooked reporter who fronts for the mob and who's been married eight times is minding his own business at home when he gets a sudden visit from his oldest friend, a disgraced and defrocked shrink. The man is in deep trouble. He needs a place to hide. The problem is, he refuses to admit to exactly what's wrong and so there begins a heated, drunken, drug-fueled discussion that runs through failed marriages, divorces, mistresses, murders, suicides, police raids that went wrong, meetings with strange women in the desert, a child with killing on his mind and more. When it's finished, the answer to what's wrong becomes horribly clear...and somebody is going to pay with his life. Beaned by Tim O'Mara Hours after successfully transporting smuggled maple syrup from Missouri to New York City, and picking up a truckload of maple-syrup related products for the return trip, Aggie and his new partners decide it's more important to help take down a sex-trafficking ring based out of Manhattan. Taking care of business first-trading the maple-syrup products for high-end coffee beans and distributing the new cargo-Aggie takes off for The Big Apple. His mission: help take down the billionaire who's funding the trafficking of under-aged children for the pleasure of other rich folks. His trip takes him to Manhattan's toney Upper East Side to a final confrontation in the US Virgin Islands. The Fifth Column by Charles Salzberg Several months after the shock of Pearl Harbor thrusts America into the war, Jake Harper, a young Connecticut reporter, gets his dream job on a New York City Newspaper. Returning to the city of his birth, Jake meets a young boy who's been bullied and savagely beaten in a schoolyard by a bunch of young toughs wearing Brown shirts and railing against Jews. Jake, who smells a possible story, suspects the resurgence of the German-American Bund on the Upper East Side. As he digs deeper, he begins to suspect that the supposedly disbanded Bund is alive and well and making plans to sabotage the American war effort.

A forty-year-old self-cutting workaholic abandons everything she knows for a stripper with a death wish. Both lives change, only one ends. Scar Tissue is a psychological noir novel that stunningly brings to life a world others dare not dream of. This is a vivid and memorable portrayal of desire as seen through the eyes of two women with dark hearts and very different goals who cross paths at critical moments in their lives. The power of their hopes and despair, their weaknesses and strengths is a testament to the yearning that resides inside all of us. Praise for Scar Tissue "This persuasive and dizzying novel grabs you and doesn't let go. It is sexy, disturbing and relentless. What it says about human nature will keep you up at night. It's also constantly entertaining and unnervingly passionate. Scar Tissue is amazing and weird in all the best ways." -Fred Leebron, author of Six Figures, Out West, and Welcome to Christiania "Scar Tissue?\ has all that we've come to expect from Jeff Hess's crime fiction-sweat-soaked Florida settings, uncompromising authenticity, and wild plots with hairpin turns-but adds yet another layer of ground-in grit. Hess's new protagonists, Dylan and Abby, are damaged goods-selfish, yet sympathetic, slick cons, but also lost souls-and, most importantly, complicated women who are written and treated by Hess as such. In his latest, Hess spills just as much blood as in his previous novels, but it's in the scars still healing where the real story lies." -Steph Post, author of Miraculum, Lightwood, Walk in the Fire, and Holding Smoke "This gritty novel is the redheaded stepchild of Martyrs mated with Thelma and Louise-layers of darkness, vengeance, and chaos wrapped tightly together into a ball of sinuous fury." -Richard Thomas, author of Disintegration and Breaker (Thriller Award nominee)

On the surface, a small, remote island in the Pacific Northwest looks quaint and placid. However, trouble brews deep below the water when the island is rocked by an unexpected, brief and violent earthquake, and Jamie Michael's husband, Larry, who has dementia, goes missing. Det. Sgt. Rob Rimmler along with Search & Rescue deploy forces. They scour the grounds and neighborhood only to find a widening gorge on Jamie's property-a heavily wooded, five-acre rural country plot. After giving up the search for Larry, three months later, Rimmler begins to track Jamie's every movement-appearing wherever she ends up whether in town or while alone at home. One night, he admits he suspects her. Now, she must prove her innocence or end up indicted on murder charges. Sometimes when you think all seems lost, it usually is. Praise for WHEN YOU LEAVE ME: "A twisty mystery about love, betrayal, and obsession. In a small town, everyone's a murder suspect. The ending packs a punch and remains in the reader's mind long after turning the final page. Thriller aficionados will devour this story." -Robert Dugoni, New York Times bestselling author of the Tracy Crosswhite series "A cup of hot coffee at my side, I dove into Susan Wingate's When You Leave Me. The coffee was cold when I reached for a sip, so enthralled I was by the storyline. Artfully constructed, melodic, and insightful, When You Leave Me is not just a complex, captivating mystery-it's a poignant reminder to never take love for granted." -Christopher Rosow, author of the bestselling False Assurances and the Ben Porter thriller series "Susan Wingate grabs you from the very first sentence of When You Leave Me and never lets you go. This thriller is a roller coaster ride of tension and suspense, delivered in punchy, elegant prose and with dialogue that provides a window into the personalities of the author's characters. You're going to love this one." -Joseph Badal, award-winning author of The Carnevale Conspiracy "What Susan Wingate does best in When You Leave Me, as in her previous novels, is to make human pain palpable to the reader. In this newest offering, threads of pain run through every page. On San Juan Island off the coast of Washington, a husband with dementia goes missing. Then a foot in a sneaker washes ashore amidst a rash of such grotesque discoveries. Thus begins, for Jamie Michaels, the missing man's wife, a tormented journey as she claws her way through a sea turgid with grief, guilt, and fear. Is Jamie responsible for her husband's fate? The police seem to think so, and so does she. But that, in the end, isn't the question. The real questions, as every person knows who has ever cared for a loved one with dementia, are how long must this punishment last? And how can I possibly survive it?" -Randall Silvis, author of the critically acclaimed Ryan DeMarco mystery series

After twenty-five years in prison for murdering a couple of cheerleaders, a quarterback, and the class president, "Hackin'" Howard Rheinhart gets discharged. His case is assigned to Schlitz-drinking, Elvis-loving social worker and pro boxer Duffy Dombrowski. Soon, local high-school VIPs start showing up dead and Howard is nowhere to be found. Duffy throws himself into Howard's defense while juggling a few problems of his own―like a huge upcoming boxing match, a new hormonal girlfriend, the unsolicited devotion of a goofy karate kid, and the ongoing misadventures of Al, Duffy's basset hound. Praise for TKO: "Fresh, intense and funny, Schreck's second mystery to feature unrepentant Elvis fan and dog lover Duffy Dombrowski packs a knockout punch." -Publishers Weekly "Refreshingly iconoclastic." -Kirkus Reviews "TKO is fast-paced, authentic, and funny as hell. Social worker and journeyman boxer Duffy Dombrowski is a workingman's hero, and I want him in my corner!" -Sean Chercover, author of Trinity Game "Not for the faint of heart, I doesn't let up. No holds barred, insightful characterization makes this series a stand-out." -Mystery Reader "No sophomore slump here. I am now really excited about the planned continuation of this series. Hand me another Schlitz, would you." -Book Bitch

"She wasn't pretty but she was ours..." Sandwiched between seedy businesses in the scorching east LA suburb of Glendale, The Damned Lovely dive bar is as scarred as its regulars: ex-cops, misfits and loners. And for Sam Goss, it's a refuge from the promising life he's walked away from, a place to write and a hole to hide in. But when a beautiful and mysterious new patron to the bar turns up murdered, Sam can't stop himself from getting involved. Despite their fleeting interaction, or perhaps because of it, something about her ghost won't let go... Armed with the playbook from the burned-out ex-cops, Sam challenges the police's theory on the killing, butting heads with hardened detectives and asking questions nobody wants to answer. As his obsession takes hold so does his sense of purpose-as if uncovering the truth about the killer might heal some part of his own broken life. But the chase sets him on a collision course with a crooked charity, violent fundamentalists, corrupt cops, brazen embezzlers and someone dangerously close to home-all who want to make sure the truth never comes out. Praise for The Damned Lovely: "The Damned Lovely is the LA crime story born anew, an addictive mystery and a love letter to the careworn and forgotten places of Los Angeles-Los Angeles as it is right now. Adam Frost is a crime writer with a sharp new voice, telling a tale about the one thing everyone in Los Angeles has: desire. Desire for truth, for justice, for love, or maybe just a place to call home. Highly recommended." -Jordan Harper, Edgar Award-winning author of She Rides Shotgun "Frost's crackling debut novel belongs on the shelf right next to Joseph Wambaugh and Michael Connelly. Crisp prose. An intricate plot worthy of Raymond Chandler, packed with scruffy, lovable, and lived-in characters that leap off the page. Frost brings a fresh voice and much-needed new blood to LA crime fiction." -Will Beall, author of L.A. Rex and creator of CBS's Training Day "An unputdownable and suspenseful whodunnit: anchored in the quandary of manifesting destiny in grief and lost opportunity." -Blake Howard, producer and host of the One Heat Minute podcast "Every bourbon-soaked sentence in this endlessly entertaining first novel proves Joseph Wambaugh dipped Adam Frost by his ankle into the L.A. river. Roll over Michael Connelly, tell Raymond Chandler the news." -Adam Novak, author of Rat Park and Take Fountain

Homeland Insecurity is, on one hand, the story of two men accused of taking the lives of three fellow human beings-a fifteen-year-old girl in Mahwah, New Jersey and two young police officers in El Segundo, California. Two men born 8 days apart in 1934. Two men who died 57 days apart in 2017. Crimes that were committed 140 days apart in 1957. At a time when Americans were beginning to feel less and less confident about the safety of their families. One convicted murderer spent nearly fifteen years on death row at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, one-time home of Lindbergh baby kidnapper Bruno Hauptmann and Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, where he continually professed his innocence. The other perpetrator escaped arrest and conviction for more than 45 years. At the same time, this is an account of the hits and misses of the law enforcement agencies and legal institutions which-over the course of nearly five decades-eventually stumbled upon justice. Finally, it is a look at the post-World War II American experience leading up to the murders in 1957, and the profound changes to come after. When Rock & Roll, rebels without a cause, and catchers in the rye burst upon the American scene. When the fear of nuclear annihilation and real-life scary monsters crept into the national consciousness. And when those three murders in 1957, and a growing sense of national insecurity, may have had mutual effect.

Homicide detective Joe Hampton and his wife, Joyce, had planned to move to Clearwater Beach, Florida, once he retired from the Philadelphia Police Department. After Joyce unexpectedly passes away, Joe goes ahead with the move. Once he's settled into the Crimson Conch condominiums, his hopes of starting over are realized-until a series of murders upends his plans for a peaceful retirement. The Gray Detective begins with Joe discovering a body in the channel behind the condominiums after a night of Bingo. When Detectives Carly Truffant and David Sizemore arrive to investigate, Joe gives his account of the discovery. Joe is summoned to the police station days later at the request of prime suspect, Gary Burgess, the condo maintenance man. Burgess admits to having sexual encounters with the victim and other female residents and begs Joe for help. Joe's curiosity pushes him to investigate the matter, prompting Truffant to order him not to interfere. After finding Burgess dead by the condo pool after his release, and later learning of another murder, Joe uncovers a secret circle comprised of residents. Their purpose is not only illegal but deadly. Dark Arrival finds Joe acquiring the position of building manager and meeting Victoria Combes, a tough-talking, no-nonsense woman looking for a condo in the Crimson Conch. Still missing his wife, he finds comfort in their friendship though her manner is gruff. When a pair of residents are murdered, Joe encounters Truffant and Sizemore once more. Joe's exemplary career as a homicide detective persuades them to enlist his services. The arrival of Victoria's daughter provides Joe with a welcome diversion from the difficult investigation. Another murder occurs leading Truffant and Sizemore to conclude that a connection to the other murders exists. What isn't apparent is how close Joe is to the killer. Deadly Separation has Truffant struggling with a divorce and Joe agreeing to help her. Trouble arrives when Sizemore calls and tells Joe that Truffant's soon to be ex-husband has been found dead in a Dunedin townhouse. And worse, Truffant is considered the leading suspect. Truffant's troubles worsen when a woman is murdered and evidence proves she had an affair with her husband. Joe gets sidetracked by the arrival of his former neighbors from Philadelphia. When both are murdered, a man named Rogan Cavanaugh enters the picture. Joe discovers that Cavanaugh could be involved in the murder of his friends-plus the death of Truffant's husband's lover-and the mind game between the two begins.