MULHOLLAND BOOKS April 30th, 2013 If you haven’t read the first 2 books in the Charlie Hardie trilogy by Mr. Swierczynski, stop reading right now. Do not pass go, don’t collect shit. If you have read them, then proceed by all means but I’m warning you now. I gotta give up a little to do this review proper. In the first book Fun and Games, you meet Charlie Hardie and the Accident People. Hardie in a previous life was a consultant for the Philadelphia police known as Unkillable Chuck. His partner was killed by Albanian gangsters and Hardie while wounded, blames himself. He leaves his wife and child behind and goes into self-imposed exile,...

The Lords of Salem Rob Zombie with B.K. Evenson Grand Central Pub date: March 12th, 2013 I’ve been hearing about this one for a while now. Rob Zombie has a new film coming out called The Lords of Salem and this is the tie-in novel to go along with it. Unlike most tie-in novels, this one is actually written by Rob Zombie with an assist from B.K. Evenson. The novel opens in 1692 with the citizens of Salem, Massachusetts executing a coven of witches. One of the witches, Margaret Morgan vows revenge before dying bloody. Heidi Hawthorne is a 37 year old DJ for a Salem, Massachusetts rock station. She is newly sober and dealing with depression....

Hard Case Crime Pub date: April 2nd, 2013 Harlan Ellison is best known for his science fiction and fantasy stories. But way back in 1957 before he was a blip on anyone’s radar, he wrote Web of the City. He wrote it under some interesting circumstances as well. He was on Fort Benning Georgia undergoing Army Ranger training. At the end of the day, he would take his typewriter and endure the abuse of Drill Instructors and fellow soldiers while sitting on a toilet with a board across his lap. To me that is impressive. Drill Instructors are not known for their intellectual nature. Ellison knew the subject matter well. He previously spent 10...

Snubnose Press March 7th 2013 I’m guessing most of you reading this have not heard of Josh Stallings and that’s a motherfucking shame. He is the creator of Moses McGuire who is the protagonist of 2 books you most likely have not read, Beautiful, Naked and Dead and Out There Bad. McGuire is a suicidal ex-con, former marine, strip club bouncer who is the descendant of Viking warriors. He gets involved with strippers, the Russian Mafia, human traffickers, and Israeli assassins to name a few. Oh yeah, now I got your attention. Now you want to go read Josh Stallings. Well you should. Charlie Huston recommends him. That was good enough for me....

New Pulp Press Pub date: March 20, 2013 Every once in a while a book will land in my lap and I know I’m about to get my ass kicked. It might me the title or maybe the cover but I know a beating is coming down the pike. The Rapist was one of those books. From the striking cover image to the title itself, I knew I was about to get punched and kicked by a skilled opponent. The rapist is the story of Truman Ferris Pinter. Truman has been convicted of a rape and murder. He is on death row, writing his last words, as the hours count down before his execution. Truman is highly intelligent, he went to Princeton. He comes from a good background and...

The Crime Factory Fierce Bitches is a 74 page Molotov cocktail. That may seem short to you. It did to me at first but I was blown away just the same. It burns hot and fast. The book is the bastard son of Sam Peckinpah and Jim Thompson. It is an expanded version of Jedidah Ayres short story that first appeared in Thuglit. Politoburg is a small Mexican village just across the border. It’s where American crime boss Harlan Polito dumps his pet thugs and psychos after using them for jobs. He tells them it’s a vacation. It’s more like a prison. The story is broken up into 3 sections told in different points of view. The sections are called...

Farrar, Straus and Giroux Pub date: May 5th, 2013 The cover of this book grabbed me, a fist smashing a face and I knew I had to read it. The library came through. It was on the new release shelf. I read it in 2 days. It would have gone quicker if real life didn’t interfere. Ok, the Donnybrook of the title refers to this backwoods bare knuckle fight that takes place over a 3 day weekend on a rural farm in southern Indiana. 20 men enter a ring and fight til only one man is left standing. This happens 6 times. The spectators bet, drink, do drugs and eat BBQ. The final fight consists of the winners of the 6 previous fights. They fight until one...

New Pulp Press Pub date: April 1st, 2009 Sometimes you pick up a book and it starts slow. You wonder if it’s worth finishing. You put it down for a minute. You think about it. You remember that even though it was starting slow, you knew something was there. So you pick it back up and you roll through. Before you know it the story takes off and you thank Christ you pushed on. This is the story of Boulder Colorado police officer Chuck Johnson. Late on a rainy night while driving home, Johnson loses control of his car and crashes into a truck. Johnson survives but with serious brain damage. At first the damage doesn’t seem all that bad, all...

Lee-The Lee Marvin Anthology Crime Factory Publications Pub date: March 3rd, 2013 Lee Marvin looms large. Lee Marvin was no John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. Lee Marvin was different. There is a scene in the film he did with Charles Bronson called Death Hunt. This scene doesn’t appear in every print of the movie but I know it’s out there. Marvin is pulling guns out of a trunk. He grabs a pump shotgun and he works the action on it. Between the expression on his face and the natural way he handled the weapon, to me, this scene perfectly shows why Marvin was different from the rest. If you have seen what I’m talking about or can at least picture...

Crown publishing Pub date: Feb 19th, 2013 As I write this Whitey’s lawyers are trying to convince a judge that Whitey basically had a license to kill granted to him by high level members of the U.S. government. You need to know before I go any further, this story is not over. This book ends before the best part has even started which is the trial, scheduled for June 2013. Whitey Bulger is a legend. He was a Irish mob boss from Boston, Mass known for having made a deal with the FBI. In a nutshell, the deal said he could do whatever he wanted in exchange for information on other criminals. He killed at least 20 people personally and made...