Books published by Down & Out Books

Upon being released after three years of incarceration in a psychiatric facility, former narcotics detective and unlicensed PI Trevor Galloway has no idea how to begin picking up the pieces of his shattered life. Having lost the woman he loved and exacting revenge upon those responsible, he is irreparably broken, heavily medicated, and unemployable.When former Secret Service agent Nick Van Metre knocks on Trevor Galloway’s door, the last thing he expected was a job offer. However when the head of Metal Security hands Galloway a stack of photos and asks for his assistance with investigating a series of threats against a controversial presidential candidate, the former detective is stunned.Galloway initially takes the case, but eventually has to question his own sanity after he reports an encounter with intruders who seem to have left no trace in his home. When Nick Van Metre turns up dead and an attack is carried out against Dennis Hackney, the former detective with a history of extreme violence becomes the focal point of multiple investigations.Galloway pulls clues from photos and searches for answers while dodging bullets in Pittsburgh and Savannah.Get set for a mystery told at a breakneck pace, with each of the chapters being linked to photograph in roll of film.Look for the hints. Watch for the signs. Trevor Galloway doesn’t trust himself. Can you trust him?The answers won’t be revealed until the final photo is flipped.Praise for FORGIVENESS DIES:“Is someone setting Trevor Galloway up, or is his own mind deceiving him? Forgiveness Dies puts a uniquely fascinating protagonist—a detective who can’t trust his own perceptions—into a complex political thriller, and the result is propulsive. Hensley starts with a punch, and accelerates from there.” —Joseph Finder, New York Times bestselling author of Judgment and The Switch“Inventive storytelling meets propulsive action in this wild thrill ride from J.J. Hensley, who brings real-life experiences to the page and delivers an authentic tale of double-crosses and dirty dealings. Don’t worry if you haven’t stepped into Trevor Galloway’s shadowy world yet…start right here, and you’ll soon want to read them all!” —Daniel Palmer, USA Today bestselling author of Stolen and Saving Meghan“A snapshot of humanity in perfect focus. Edgy, furiously paced, raw. From the whip-smart dialogue to the deeply flawed characters, Hensley has a voice that will stay with you long after the final exposure.” —K.J. Howe, author of The Freedom Broker and Skyjack“Forgiveness Dies is a non-stop, gut churning thriller that you’ll read in one sitting. Hensley has conceived a brilliant but almost fatally flawed protagonist in Trevor Galloway, a man so tormented by his past that in the battle for truth and justice he’s forced to fight enemies that are dangerously real, and some that only real to him. J.J. Hensley is one of the best thriller writers out there, and he sits at the top of my must-read list.” —Mark Pryor, author of the Hugo Marston series“With Trevor Galloway, the tortured, likable protagonist of J.J. Hensley’s Forgiveness Dies, Hensley has created a character destined to remain with the reader long after the last page is turned. Not only that, but readers will find themselves inextricably pulled into a tight plot that bears a brutally close, and necessary, resemblance to today’s America. Read this book, and you’ll want to read everything else Hensley has written.” —E.A. Aymar, author of The Unrepentant

It starts as a mission to honor a fallen comrade. It becomes a mission for justice.On a personal journey to return an heirloom to the father of his former colleague and lover, Jim Grant isn't sure what to expect in the dusty flatlands of Texas. He isn't expecting trouble from the local cowboys, but trouble is what he gets. With instincts honed from years as a covert operator, Grant is a small town's last hope against an army of good old boys and a violent kingpin who has everything to lose. And if he manages to keep his boots above ground he may just be able to lay to rest the memory of a soldier who died too soon.Praise for the books by Colin Campbell:"Very real. And very good." -Lee ChildThe Resurrection Man 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. The Resurrection Man series is a blast." -Nick Petrie"Grim and gritty and packed with action and crackling dialogue." -Kirkus Review, for Jamaica Plain"Action packed. Tough-as-nails. 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"Campbell's wry maverick Grant never fails to entertain." -Kirkus Review, for Montecito Heights"Sets up immediately and maintains a breakneck pace throughout. Its smart structure and unrelenting suspense will please Lee Child fans." -Library Journal Review"Harkens back to the gritty action series of the 70s and 80s, with a stylish noir voice." -Kirkus Reviews, for Adobe Flats"Crackerjack entertainment: taut, gritty and full of devilish twists." -Kirkus Reviews, for Snake Pass"Hard-hitting action and Grant's dry wit make this a rollicking good time." -Library Journal Review"Campbell's Beacon Hill is a great tale of violence and intrigue, stretching across the Atlantic and back again. In it, Jim Grant proves he is the real deal." -Reed Farrel ColemanThe UK Crime Novels"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, for Through the Ruins of Midnight"An excellent story well told. A mixture of The Choirboys meets Harry Bosch." -Michael Jecks"Campbell's 30 years as a Yorkshire policeman infuse this unusual procedural with grim reality and the harsh humor that helps keep the coppers sane." -Kirkus Review, for Blue Knight White Cross"Every detail feels authentic, and Campbell's dark, muscular prose suggests the best pulp writers of the '50s." -Kirkus Review, for Northern Ex

Some have called Gary Waid’s unconventional Dancing Bear a self-incriminating, self-flagellant, self-abusive paean to the underbelly of American moral decadence. But if you’d like to read mostly-true stories about marijuana smuggling or federal prison, or even running from the law, this is the book for you.Not since Portnoy’s Complaint has there been such a sad-sack confession. And Waid won’t let you stop laughing until the last page.

Joe Ricker writes with a voice reminiscent of Jim Thompson and Raymond Carver. This collection of stories is set in the darkest corners of New England, where the damaged American underbelly emerges. The characters in these stories will challenge every notion you have of right and wrong, and you'll quickly realize that you've probably passed some of the characters in these stories on the streets. Be glad you kept walking. Walkin' After Midnight is a searing and poignant representation of the shadowy side of humanity, the part of our culture that we don't want to believe exists. But it does, and the author that Esquire referred to as "A man of letters who's gentle in the way that only the toughest of hard-asses can be" has brought it to your doorstep. Praise for WALKIN' AFTER MIDNIGHT: "Joe Ricker is a hard-boiled poet in the tradition of Charles Bukowski. He writes of lonely, scarred men, damaged women, and of haunted places we all know. These shorts are served straight up with no chaser. Like the best of noir, it's about people with few options and often no way out. Highly recommended."-Ace Atkins, New York Times bestselling author of The Forsaken and The Redeemers "Tough yet lyrical, bristling with hard-won wisdom, these stories knock you out of any comfort zone you may have found and into the red. Ricker knows people, violence and landscape. He knows truth, too. And these stories beat their fists like drums."-Tom Franklin, New York Times bestselling author of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter "Joe Ricker's stories are like windows with ragged blinds twisted open to reveal the lives that go on all around us, in spite of us, and sometimes are us. His characters are dark, desperate, and fascinatingly vivid. Read Ricker and have your eyes opened."-Gerry Boyle, international bestselling author of Once Burned, a Jack McMorrow mystery "Walkin' after Midnight crackles with danger, and this noir collection of short stories announces Joe Ricker as a provocative new talent. His plots swerve and startle as characters emerge from smoky bars, carrying grudges into frozen landscapes. Ricker's style is a turns gritty, raw, and surprisingly tender, while his prose goes down like fine whiskey."-Carla Norton, New York Times bestselling author of Perfect Victim "Ricker writes literary noir. His stories are records of murder and deceit, acts committed by individuals with such considerable damage, and/or in such dire straits, that the actions they commit seem to them logical, and perhaps inevitable. Ricker does not celebrate violence and/or amorality; his fiction talks of such things in carefully crafted, measured prose, and the calm, relentless focus of his narratorial voice presents his characters, their actions and their pasts, without judgment, so that we readers may apply our own. In this manner, his writing becomes highly moral; it asks us to look at actions and decisions that are alien to many of us, and to find empathy where we might otherwise be inclined to turn away." -Christopher Coake, PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize

This is the book of the expanding man.What’s the end result of a crazy scheme to match some of music history’s most evocative and memorable songs with twelve of today’s most entertaining writers?You’re looking at it.With this collection there’s no need to chase the dragon, tour the Southland in a traveling minstrel show, or drink Scotch whiskey all night long. You’ve already bought the dream.Covering every game in the Grammy-winning catalog of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker—collectively celebrated as Steely Dan—these compulsively readable stories will stagger the mind of ramblers, wild gamblers, and—of course—the winners in the world.From the suburban streets of Annandale to the mystical spheres of Lhasa…from the shine of your Japan to the sparkle of your China…from Sunset Boulevard to Camarillo and from Scarsdale to Brooklyn … put these twelve masters of crime fiction behind the wheel, and come along for a ride you won’t soon forget.Like a Sunday in T.J., it’s cheap, but it’s not free.

Pulp According to David Goodis starts with six characteristics of 1950s pulp noir that fascinated mass-market readers, making them wish they were the protagonist, and yet feel relief that they were not. His thrillers are set in motion by suppressed guilt, sexual frustrations, explosions of violence, and the inaccessible nature of intimacy. Extremely valuable is a gangster-infested urban setting. Uniquely, Goodis saw a still-vibrant community solidarity down there. Another contribution was sympathy for the gang boss, doomed by his very success. He dramatizes all this in the stark language of the Philadelphia's "streets of no return." The book delineates the noir profundity of the author's work in the context of Franz Kafka's narratives. Goodis' precise sense of place, and painful insights about the indomitability of fate, parallel Kafka's. Both writers mix realism, the disorienting, and the dreamlike; both dwell on obsession and entrapment; both describe the protagonist's degeneration. Tragically, belief in obligations, especially family ones, keep independence out of reach. Other elements covered in this critical analysis of Goodis's work include his Hollywood script-writing career; his use of Freud, Arthur Miller, Faulkner and Hemingway; his obsession with incest; and his "noble loser's" indomitable perseverance. Praise for PULP ACCORDING TO DAVID GOODIS: "This was a fascinating read. [Gertzman] appears as an expert not only on Goodis's body of work but on the pulp era of fiction in general, mid-twentieth-century American history, Philadelphia history, literary analysis, and a litany of other subjects. The book is stylishly written and well designed for reaching a broader, nonacademic audience interested in the pulp's history, role in American culture, and meaning. Frankly, the crime fiction community needs more books like this!" -Chris Rhatigan, editor, publisher, and writer of hard-boiled and noir literature "Jay Gertzman is one of those rare maverick critics with the courage to explore the dark alleys of American literature, and to report back with commendable honesty about what he has found. His book Pulp According to David Goodis is a perfect match of critic to author, and it belongs in the collections of universities hoping to be regarded as major." -Michael Perkins, author of Evil Companions, Dark Matter, and The Secret Record: Modern Erotic Literature "The most comprehensive Goodis study yet. Gertzman culls the files, brings everything together and then some. Not only essential reading for all Goodis obsessives but an excellent introduction to one of noir's greatest writers." -Woody Haut, author Pulp Culture: Hard-boiled Fiction and the Cold War, Heartbreak and Vine, and Neon Noir: Contemporary American Crime Fiction

From a host of bestselling and award-winning authors come the stories from the darkest corners of their imaginations featuring one of the most abhorrent acts of mankind; cannibalism! Throughout history, human beings have feasted on human flesh. Whether it was to survive starvation or to horrify their enemies or to satisfy their own deranged urges, people have eaten other people for centuries. Skin & Bones features stories by Patricia Abbott, Charles Ardai, Lawrence Block, Joe Clifford, Angel Luis Colón, Bill Crider, Glenn Gray, Tim Hall, Rob Hart, Tess Makovesky, Terrence McCauley, Marietta Miles, Richie Narvaez, Stuart Neville, Thomas Pluck, Ryan Sayles, S.A. Solomon, Jason Starr, Liam Sweeny, Dave Zeltserman, and Dana C. Kabel.