Wilson thought he had acquired freedom from being a gritty, gruesome criminal when a car accident puts him back in the crosshairs. This time, dirty cops use him as bait, telling him the only way to stay out of cuffs is to put someone worse in them. Knowing that justice isn’t blind in the city, Wilson picks a fight with the Russian mob to lure both the corrupt cops and brutal robbers into a trap, scavenging once again for his freedom. Full of gory conflict, this latest in the Wilson Mystery series offers nonstop action and savage violence.From BooklistWilson, the Mob enforcer who appeared in Darwin’s Nightmare (2008) and Grinder (2009), is not a happy man. No surprise there—he’s always been a bit of a glass-half-empty kind of guy—but this time he has got a good reason. Some crooked cops are using him as a lure to nab some very bad people, and Wilson can think of only one way out of the predicament: to pit the cops and their prey against each other, letting them take each other out. Sounds like a good plan, but can he pull it off and somehow manage to stay alive? Knowles’ novels echo writers who have come before him—Richard Stark, for example, or Jim Thompson—but they’re not imitations. Wilson isn’t Stark’s Parker, and the author’s bare-bones prose doesn’t sound like Thompson’s. And the setting certainly freshens up the proceedings, too: you don’t see a lot of noirish crime dramas set in Hamilton, Ontario. For noir fans, a must-read. --David Pitt Review"Gunfights and well-choreographed scenes of carnage abound . . . This is pure, visceral action." —Publishers Weekly"There's nothing prissy, genteel, or insincere in Mike Knowles' work — prose so spare it flirts with cruelty, that cuts scalpel-clean and just as precise, and crackles with the kind of talent and energy that not only makes it difficult to put down, but that sends you frantically looking for his next book. Hard-boiled, hard-edged, hard-core, but never once crossing into parody or pastiche. There is power here, and Knowles knows how to use it." —Greg Rucka, author, the Atticus Kodiak crime fiction series"Think Canadian crime fiction is soft? Mike Knowles proves otherwise, in this tense, terse, bloody-knuckled thriller. Knowles doesn't do nice—and his antihero, Wilson, makes Mike Hammer look like a well-adjusted pacifist. A kick in the nuts with steel-toed boots." —Sean Chercover, author, Trigger City and Big City, Bad Blood"Knowles’s prose is appropriately terse and utilitarian, enhancing the grinder’s menace. Wilson is a bad guy you can root for, because the other bad guys – not to mention the cops – are so much worse . . . Wilson’s raw brutality draws readers in, and the book’s frenetic pace is enough to keep them hooked until the bloody climax." —Quill & Quire"[Knowles] is a good atmospheric writer and he has the lingo down." —Globe and Mail"In Plain Sight comes at you like a tsunami—hard, relentless, fast. Knowles is exploring invigorating new pathways in Canadian thriller-noir writing." —Hamilton Spectator Views: 5
Infamous poet Lord Byron comes to life with incendiary brilliance in this spellbinding blend of gothic imagination and documented fact. Wandering in the mountains of Greece, the supreme sensualist is drawn to the beauty of a mysterious fugitive slave; soon he is utterly entranced, and his fate is sealed. He embarks on a life of adventure even his genius could not have foreseen; chosen to enjoy powers beyond those any vampire has ever known, Byron traverses the centuries and enters a dark, intoxicating world of long-lost secrets, ancient arts and scorching excesses of evil. But Byron's gift is also his torment: an all-consuming thirst that withers life at the root, damning all those he loves.With its impeccable scholarship and breathtaking storytelling, THE VAMPYRE is a wonderful combination of fact and fantasy. Views: 5
It's Christmastime -- the day after Cheated By Death ended. Jeff and Maggie spend Christmas dinner with Maggie's family, who are not receptive to her new significant other. It'll be a Christmas to remember . . . but who wants to? Views: 5
Shock Totem Publication presents issue #3, their biggest yet, nearly 50% bigger than the first two! It features previously unpublished stories from the likes of John Skipp, Tim Leider, S. Clayton Rhodes, Steven Pirie, and eight others, plus one poem. Also conversations with D. Harlan Wilson and Count Lyle of the band Ghoultown, nonfiction from Mercedes M. Yardley, and much more Views: 5
Rain May and her mum escape their old inner-city life for a dream house in the country. But there are more than a few suprises in store - like discovering a platypus or the fun of fridge poetry and phenomenally bright eleven-year-old, Captain Daniel, who lives next door. Together these unlikely friends adventure where no one has gone before. Views: 5
Science Fiction. 78967 words long. Views: 5
A jaded young reporter conducts a subtly life-changing interview. A short story based on close friends. Views: 5
From BooklistJust across the Rio Grande from El Paso sits Juárez, Mexico, a city so overtaken with the violence of drug trafficking that its leading citizens—police, politicians, even the drug lords—find it safer to live in El Paso. Bowden, critically acclaimed author of Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing (2009), details the forces that have led to Mexico’s place in the multinational drug business. Hundreds of millions of dollars flow into Juárez each week, and the violence and corruption that follow yield 200 to 300 murders each year. Bowden laments the silence on both sides of the border that permits the slaughter that goes mostly unnoted and unreported. Behind the numbers, he details the lives lost or destroyed: a reporter fleeing for his life with his young son, a beautiful woman gang-raped, a killer for the cartels who is now being hunted. He chronicles a town that has been the site of numerous mass graves of victims and of monuments to fallen police that bear hit lists from the cartels. A stark, haunting look at the impact of drug trafficking on a town and its people. --Vanessa Bush Product DescriptionCiudad Juárez lies just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. A once-thriving border town, it now resembles a failed state. Infamously known as the place where women disappear, its murder rate exceeds that of Baghdad. Last year 1,607 people were killed—a number that is on pace to increase in 2009.In Murder City, Charles Bowden—one of the few journalists who has spent extended periods of time in Juárez—has written an extraordinary account of what happens when a city disintegrates. Interweaving stories of its inhabitants—a raped beauty queen, a repentant hitman, a journalist fleeing for his life—with a broader meditation on the town’s descent into anarchy, Bowden reveals how Juárez’s culture of violence will not only worsen, but inevitably spread north.Heartbreaking, disturbing, and unforgettable, Murder City establishes Bowden as one of our leading writers working at the height of his powers. Views: 5
Love is a gift, and not everyone is lucky enough to receive it. Or maybe the lucky ones are those who never find it. This is not your average love story, this is a life story. Your teenage years aren't supposed to be complicated. But, sometimes they are. What happens when you're attracted to the new stranger in town. Do you just fall in love and live happily-ever-after? Do you follow through on your feelings, even though you know you shouldn't? From the very first night, Arianna meets Skylar she experiences this indescribable deep connection that she's never felt before. She's terrified and excited all at the same time. She wants to act on these feelings, but she can't, no matter how much she wants to. Things are just too complicated! Moving from a big city to a small town is never easy, especially for a teenager who had it all. So when Skylar's family has to leave New York for Gulfport Florida, he's not very happy. But maybe things aren't going to be so bad?! Skylar has never been in love before, but he thinks he just may have fallen in love with the girl who caught his eye on his very first night in his new hometown. Even though he's sure she feels the same connection, she keeps resisting because of her misplaced loyalty. Will love conquer all? Or is that just another fabricated lie that people tell you as a child?** Views: 5
World-renowned fantasist Ray Bradbury has on several occasions stepped outside the arenas of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. An unabashed romantic, his first novel in 1957 was basically a love letter to his childhood. (For those who want to undertake an even more evocative look at the dark side of youth, five years later the author would write the chilling classic Something Wicked This Way Come s.) Dandelion Wine takes us into the summer of 1928, and to all the wondrous and magical events in the life of a 12-year-old Midwestern boy named Douglas Spaulding. This tender, openly affectionate story of a young man’s voyage of discovery is certainly more mainstream than exotic. No walking dead or spaceships to Mars here. Yet those who wish to experience the unique magic of early Bradbury as a prose stylist should find Dandelion Wine most refreshing. Views: 5
