A Therapeutic Death, J.B. Stevens’s collection of short crime stories, is an outstanding volume. Stevens blends mystery, comedy, true crime, and noir masterfully. Furthermore, he mixes micro-fiction with longer works in an uncommonly skillful manner. The volume opens with “To Keep A Secret,” an Appalachian noir piece. It is reminiscent of the best David Joy […]

Misdeeds is a collection of crime fiction from A.S. Coomer. It contains the previously-unpublished novella, Dellie’s Ditch, as well as five short stories: The Goddamn Amazon Here, The Fixer, Trail Magic (Good Intentions), Buffalo Nickel Hat, and the Pushcart Nominated More Rust than Nickel. While these five short stories have appeared in print, in one […]

Desperation. Violence. Broken homes and broken hearts. Fathers, junkies, and thieves. In this gritty new collection, one bad choice begets another, and redemption is a twisted mirage. An ex-addict takes a detour with his young son and comes face-to-face with an old drug dealer and an unsettled debt. A down-on-his-luck gambler visits his estranged sister […]

Coal Black is unfiltered mountain crime. Set in the hills of eastern Kentucky, these tales lay bare the dark realities of the region. Sometimes the backdrop is the opiod epidemic and all the human detritus that comes with it. Other times it’s poachers or petty thieves who take center stage, people whose wild desperation invite […]

Meet Kraj—pronounced krai—a low-level errand boy and hitman masquerading as a bouncer for Tricky Ricky Gutierrez, nefarious owner of the Twist, a club in upstate Elmira NY. A place that has both a LGBTQIA night and a cowboy country night, this cockeyed corner bar in northern Appalachia supports Ricky’s illegal schemes, and serves as a […]

Society is a tough place to live. Daily, it seems, a huge thumb presses down on us. What happens when someone pushes back, flips off the gigantic, karmic oppressor? Or simply caves in and decides to wallow in the gutter? Desperate Times Call is a collection of stories about people on society’s fringes and margins. […]