New in the Down & Out Bookstore This Month
THE ORIGINS OF BENJAMIN HACKETT by Gerald M. O'Connor.
All families have secrets. Most go untold…
In the summer of ’96, Benjamin Hackett has come of age, technically. And in the midst of the celebratory hangover, his world is whipped out from under his feet. His parents have finally shared their lifelong secret with him; he’s adopted.
At the age of eighteen, the boy still has some growing up to do, and with the help of JJ, his loquacious consigliore and bodyguard, he embarks on an adventure that’ll put to bed a lifetime of lies.
Over the course of five days, they find themselves caught up in the darker side of Cork. But when they sweep through the misfits blocking their way and finally discover the truth of it … now that’s the greatest shock of all.
The Origins of Benjamin Hackett is a tender tale of heartache and displacement told through a wry and courageous voice. Set in Ireland, it’s a timely reminder that the world hasn’t moved on just as fast as we fancy. Now, in this emotionally charged story, Gerald O’Connor explores conditioned guilt and its consequences in a country still hiding from the sins of its past.
SWANN'S LAKE OF DESPAIR, a Henry Swann Mystery by Charles Salzberg.
When rare photos‚ a scandalous diary‚ and a beautiful woman all go missing at once‚ the stage is set for three challenging cases for Henry Swann.
It begins with an offer to partner up with his slovenly‚ unreliable frenemy‚ Goldblatt. The disbarred lawyer-turned-“facilitator” would provide the leads and muscle‚ while Swann would do all the fancy footwork. A lost diary by a free-loving Jazz Age flapper is worth enough to someone that Swann takes a beat down on an abandoned boardwalk. Pilfered photos of Marilyn Monroe propel him deep into the past of an alcoholic shutterbug‚ his wife; and he’s hired to search for a lonely writer’s runaway girlfriend.
The cases converge and collide in a finale that lifts the curtain on crucial‚ deadly facts of life for everyone — including Swann himself.
LEON’S LEGACY, a prequel to the Wiley crime series by Lono Waiwaiole.
The three novels in Waiwaiole’s dark and dangerous Wiley series chronicle the tragic twists and turns in the lives of two old friends after those lives have completely gone off the rails in Portland, Oregon.
In Leon's Legacy, Waiwaiole goes back to where it all began — back when Wiley and Leon were high school kids pursuing the state basketball championship. Unfortunately, it was also the year that the crack gangs from California began to sink their talons into Portland’s inner city, a juxtaposition that threatens not only their hoop quest but also their lives. An inner-city high school teacher and basketball coach when this actually occurred in Portland, Waiwaiole has a wealth of first-hand exposure to this story and the writing chops to deliver it convincingly.
HARDWAY by Hector Acosta. Published by Shotgun Honey, an imprint of Down & Out Books.
Fifteen-year old Spencer loves professional wrestling. It’s the reason why he, along with his older brother Billy, started their very own wrestling promotion in their Dallas apartment complex. The fact it puts Spencer closer to Tori, Billy’s girlfriend and the only girl either boy knows who can take a chair shot to the head, doesn’t hurt.
It isn’t long before RBWL — The Royal Brooks Wrestling League — have a rival in Woodland Terrace, a nearby apartment complex with their own wrestling promotion run by Eddie Tornado, an unhinged teenager with a connection to Tori and a hard-on to see Spencer and Billy fail.
When Spencer breaks into Eddie’s home and steals a gym bag he believes holds Woodland Terrace’s championship belt, the feud between teenagers and promotions escalates. Before long, Spencer will find the world of professional wrestling can be more real and dangerous than anything seen on television.
SWANN'S WAY OUT, a Henry Swann Mystery by Charles Salzberg.
A friendly poker game leads Henry Swann out to Hollywood where he tries to find the man, Rusty Jacobs, responsible for embezzling $1,000,000 from his client, and then bring back the dough. Swann finds Jacobs, but the mercurial wannabe film producer is involved in a “surefire” movie project aimed at the growing Christian market. And the money? Well, it seems to have vanished into thin air.
At the same time, thanks to his irrepressible partner, Goldblatt, Swann finds himself knee-deep in the New York City art world, as he tries to get justice for another client who’s possibly been defrauded on the purchase of a valuable painting that may or may not be a fake.
As if this isn’t enough to keep him busy, in the midst of these two troubling cases, Swann finds that the teenage son whom he hasn’t seen in a dozen years has run away from his grandparent’s Minnesota home and, chasing after a girl, has possibly become involved with a cult. And so, a guilt-ridden Swann has to take time out from his paying cases to find his son.
ENVY THE DEAD, the third and final entry in the Hitman with a Soul trilogy by Robert J. Randisi.
Sangster doesn’t seem to be able to escape his past as a hit man, no matter how hard he tries. And now it’s his friend, Father Patrick, dragging him back into the life. When the head of a faded Mafia Family in Philadelphia sends the top hit man in the business, Frankie Trigger, to New Orleans to kill the Patrick, the priest goes to the only person he can think of for help … Sangster.
Can the former #1 hit man overcome the present #1 hit man and save his friend, while continuing to hold on to his newfound soul?
From February 1st through February 14th, PINE BOX FOR A PIN-UP by Frank De Blase can be purchased for just 99¢ on 
And from February 15th through February 28th, the first Henry Swann mystery, SWANN'S LAST SONG by Charles Salzberg, is just 99¢ on 
I’m a tattoo artist, have been for 21 years now. That’s near half my life. Tattooing is one of those things that is more than what it is. It marks you, gets down in your DNA, becomes as much a part of you as the hours of ink you wind up sinking into your skin. You live one of the few artistic lives that can actually pay most of your bills, most of the time, but it is a continual war of commerce against creativity. You make art but you make it on demand for people who mostly act as if they don’t appreciate what they are getting. It is a lifestyle that rewards talent and hustle over hard work and skill, and so you become very good at working people and making flashes of inspiration into instant art that connects with people. You can be a bad artist with mediocre skill at tattooing and maintain a large, happy clientele simply by being entertaining.
Down & Out Books is featuring BAD BOY BOOGIE, a Jay Desmarteaux crime thriller by Thomas Pluck. This book is scheduled to be published in March 2017.
Shotgun Honey, a new short fiction imprint of Down & Out Books, caters to a crime fiction community who are looking for consumable stories with unique contemporary voices, ranging from neo-noir to literary crime. We are not looking for stories outside the crime genre at this time, though will consider genre mashups that are focused on crime.
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