“From Ridge to Norristown: A Few Days Away” by Tony Knighton

I counted out nine one hundred-dollar bills onto the desktop and took the pistol and ammunition. I considered suggesting that he give up the business for a while…. I drove through Philadelphia, onto Ridge Avenue and headed west. The antenna farm was visible above the horizon for a stretch, long lines drawn against the gray […]

“Death Takes a Byline: the Interview” by D.S. Lliteras

The below was excerpted from Death Takes a Byline (Book One, Chapters 1-3) by D.S. Lliteras (Rainbow Ridge Books, 2020; Copyright © 2020 by D. S. Lliteras). She reached into a canvas bag that hung from her shoulder, pulled out a notepad, and studied him. He walked as if he was being followed; he was afraid […]

“The World Out There: from the Book Purgatory” by John Talbird

It has been a week since the first murders…. he looks slowly around the store, dark, still, and empty. Usually, William parks near the back of the lot in the Westabout strip mall so customers can have spaces closer to the door. In his four years of managing Book Purgatory, he has waged a never-ending […]

“Night Shoot” by Nat Segaloff

Sad news to report. Little Steffi Batchelder is dead….A beam of sunlight struck her and she turned into ash. From the book Hollywood and Venal by Nat Segaloff, illustrated by Thomas Warming. Text © 2020 Nat Segaloff; Illustrations ©2020 Thomas Warming; from BearManor Media. Sometimes you have to lie in order to get to the […]

“Bakersfield: Kern River, June 13” by Pierre Ouellette

The following is excerpted from Bakersfield: a Crime Novel by Pierre Ouellette (Jorvik Press, 2018). “You ever meet Hitchcock?” “Yep.” “I hear he hates cops. That right?” “Wouldn’t know. Never asked him.” “What about Bogart? Is he really an asshole?” “Hard to say. He didn’t talk much.” “I bet he drove a Cord or something […]

“I Detest All My Sins” [Excerpt] by Lanny Larcinese

Bill Conlon lay on his belly in the yard of Graterford prison. His head rested on a crooked arm; his right hand clutched a rosary fashioned from raisins strung on thread from an unwound sock. Thirty yards away, Mikey Osborne lay on his back—moaning, gripping his throat with both hands, tightly knitted fingers failing to […]

“The Movie Makers” [Excerpt] by Gary Phillips

For what the mark wanted—needed, in fact—Rachel reflected as she went through her yoga exercises, was vindication. Having reached a certain age and income level in this dog-eat-dog business, his psyche still needed boosting. “Don’t get me wrong,” Mikka Bolarus had said to Rachel one evening after a narcotics anonymous meeting as they sipped quite […]

“Nightfall” [excerpt] by David Goodis

It was one of those hot sticky nights that makes Manhattan show its age. There was something dreary and stagnant in the way all this syrupy heat refused to budge. It was anything but a night for labor, and Vanning stood up and walked away from the tilted drawing board. He brushed past a large […]

“You Don’t Pencil” [excerpt] by Jim Nisbet

PROLOGUE Greece, 1927 Trocar reached for the chartigeias. None. None again. Turned the other way, Trocar peeled off a page of insulation, another, and another. Three doubled make six. Six leaves; moist, damp, porous, unreliable, but leaves. Always three. Three make six. Superior—supreme—to none. No storebought, which is two-ply, ever, and expensive. Default, then, to […]

“End of the Line” [excerpt] by Bert and Dolores Hitchens

Like a silver eel the streamliner rose from the flats of the dusky desert, skirting the toes of the wrinkled hills, sweeping upward into the clear green twilight in the pass. Thunder followed it under the ground and a wind rushed outward at its passing. Lizards and cactus owls and a few jackrabbits froze at […]