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There was a time when paperback racks were full of men’s adventure series. Next to the Louis L’Amours, one could find the adventures of The Executioner, the Destroyer, the Death Merchant, and many more action heroes that were hell-bent on bringing America back from the brink. That time was the 1970s & ’80s. A bygone era filled with wide-eyed innocence and mustaches.
Those stories are back! The new quarterly magazine Blood & Tacos is bringing back the action, the fun, and the adventure. Also, the mustaches.
In each issue of Blood & Tacos, some of today’s hottest crime writers will choose an era and create a new pulp hero and deliver a brand-new adventure. Each issue will include 5-6 stories featuring action-packed mayhem written in the style of that bygone era. The stories might not always be politically correct, but whether satire or homage, they will deliver on every page. Fast and fun, action and adventure, Blood & Tacos.
Featuring stories by Gary Phillips (“The Silencer Strikes”, with a nod to Holloway House), Matthew C. Funk, Johnny Shaw, Cameron Ashley and other talented writers.
If the stories weren’t enough, Blood & Tacos will also feature fine pulpy art, reviews of some of the fine (and not so fine) novels from the same period, and maybe even a recipe or two.
So enjoy this serving of Blood & Tacos. And remember, if it’s too cheesy, it’s a quesadilla.
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Blood & Tacos is the brainchild of Johnny Shaw, screenwriter and author of the novel Dove Season: A Jimmy Veeder Fiasco. When he’s not writing or teaching, he is usually in an undisclosed warzone working as the demolitions expert in the mercenary group, The Bushmasters. He also enjoys badminton. His website can be found at Johnnyshaw.net. Or follow him on Twitter at @BloodandTacos.
Blood & Tacos is published by Creative Guy Publishing, the company that brought you such fine books as Amityville House of Pancakes (Vols 1-3), Stays Crunchy in Milk, Installing Linux on a Dead Badger, Brine, and many others with odd titles but excellent stories.
February 29, 2012
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With murder, mayhem and hot sex, Kitty-Kitty, Bang-Bang is a wickedly delicious sequel to The Kat Trap.
It was her cutthroat ambition and ruthlessness that got Katrina — or Kat for short, out of the hood and on top of her game. Once a murderer on a seductive prowl with two missions in mind — satisfying her insatiable libido and killing unsuspecting marks — Katrina has lain down her guns. Having once used her alluring charm and exotic beauty to lure men to their deaths, Katrina has had a change of heart.
She’s settled for a simpler life and traveling, partying, and shopping have become her only guilty pleasures. In addition, she’s avoiding relationships and men like the plague. For her, life couldn’t be any sweeter — at least that’s what she wants to believe.
But, when drama rears its ugly head, Katrina returns with a vengeance. There’s the issue of confronting her ex-friend who she learned had slept with an old boyfriend. Then there are her three aunts — who are angry with how she treated her mother. And now she has to face her family, her demons, and the woman behind them — reopening old wounds, trying to mend new ones. Ultimately Kat has a new mission: to find the man behind her mother’s death and serve him up a dish of her own justice the only way she knows how — with a bullet to his head.
Kitty-Kitty, Bang-Bang: A Novel (Zane Presents) by Cairo
Strebor Books
November 1, 2011 Paperback
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In this sexy, raw debut novel, a vivacious young murderess seduces her unsuspecting victims to their own deaths. . . .
Katrina is a self-proclaimed hood goddess. With her razor-sharp attitude, alluring charm, and exotic beauty, she is willing to do whatever it takes to climb — or kill — her way out of the hood. With two bodies already on her hands by the age of twenty, she gets the opportunity of a lifetime when a mysterious man invites her to be the first female killer on his multimillion-dollar team of professional assassins.
Kat tempts her victims with her irresistible charm, but she cannot resist the rush that satisfies her hungry libido with each murder and makes her crave more and more power. Disturbingly witty and devilishly enticing, The Kat Trap lures readers into a deliciously cutthroat criminal world of money, glamour, and ultimate self-destruction.
The Kat Trap: A Novel (Zane Presents) by Cairo
Strebor Books
July 26, 2011
Mass Market Paperback
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February 6, 2012
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Perfect Crime Books
January 23, 2012
Paperback
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December 11, 2011
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Up Jumped the Devil (Darryl Billups Mystery) by Blair S. Walker
A five-year veteran of the Baltimore Herald’s police beat, Darryl Billups is one of the paper’s top reporters. He earned the distinction the hard way, combining a nose for news, innate writing ability, and the timeless art of persuasion. Never one to shy away from the dangers of the job, he has chronicled the trajectories of some of Baltimore’s most compelling — and lethal — characters. So when an anonymous source tips him off to a domestic terrorist plot to bomb the NAACP’s national headquarters, Darryl knows this story could be the biggest of his career. But what he soon comes to realize is that though his dogged pursuit of the truth may make his name, it could also cost him his life. Complicating matters is Darryl’s deepening affection for Yolanda and Jamal, a young mother and son he has taken under his wing to shield them from domestic abuse. As a veteran journalist, he knows better than to insert himself into a story, but sometimes it just can’t be helped. Up Jumped the Devil weaves a thrilling mixture of suspense, romance, and comedy, expertly juggled by a memorable new hero for fans of contemporary detective fiction.
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Hidden in Plain View (Darryl Billups Mysteries) by Blair S. Walker
In the second installment of Blair S. Walker‘s Darryl Billups series, the intrepid reporter has left his blue-collar Baltimore roots for a new gig in New York. But life in the big city isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Luckily for Darryl, the Baltimore Herald is only too happy to welcome its star reporter back home, as are Darryl’s girlfriend Yolanda and her young son Jamal. Darryl is promoted to editor, but before long is itching to return to his former crime beat. He gets his chance when the nude bodies of African-American professionals begin turning up around town, their faces ominously marked with Confederate-flag decals. At a loss for suspects, homicide detective Phillip Gardner calls on his old friend Darryl for help unraveling the case. Darryl eagerly reconnects with Baltimore’s seedy underbelly and is soon hot on the trail of a killer who will transform his notions about gender, race, and the workings of the criminal mind. To break this story, Darryl must learn to look at the world in a totally different way — or become the killer’s most high-profile victim yet!
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Don’t Believe Your Lying Eyes (A Darryl Billups Mystery) by Blair S. Walker
Don’t Believe Your Lying Eyes is the third outing for intrepid African-American newspaper reporter Darryl Billups, whose previous escapades found him foiling a domestic terrorism plot and unmasking a cunning serial killer. In what just may be his biggest story yet, Darryl is called to cover a multiple homicide at a Baltimore storage facility. Authorities suspect the carnage is somehow linked to the contents of storage unit 25, where a young woman’s mummified body — clad in bloodstained lingerie and opulent platinum-and-diamond jewelry — was recently discovered. The fact that someone was willing to risk the lives of five innocent people following the corpse’s discovery tells Darryl that he’s on to something big — and that’s before the body mysteriously disappears from the medical examiner’s office. Determined to find the truth, he joins forces with a hard-nosed female detective. Together they uncover a decades-old rivalry that reaches the highest levels of Baltimore politics. Novelist Blair S. Walker has been praised by USA Today for his “keen knack for entertaining,” and Don’t Believe Your Lying Eyes doesn’t disappoint!
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September 11, 2011
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Ask anyone who knows Nettie Parker, and they’ll say that she’s an amazing, mystical woman…what else would you call someone who receives supernatural signs sent just to them? And being able to live longer than anyone else? That alone is pretty amazing! Nettie’s been through many hardships in her life, and she’s learned first-hand that prejudice can be a multi-headed dragon. but her courage and determination show others that differences in skin color or in physical abilities don’t matter. In fact, as Nettie and her fighter-pilot husband both get caught up in World War II, survival becomes what matters most-not just for them, but also for the eight Jewish refugee children she comes to care for. Now Nettie faces her toughest struggle yet: uncovering the mystery of her supernatural signs and the purpose of her unusually long life. Do the strange statues that suddenly appear in her backyard point to any clues? Halley, Nettie’s young friend, plays detective as she re-visits Nettie’s past, a journey that takes the reader from South Carolina to England and back again. Can Halley put all the pieces together and solve the puzzle?
Nettie Parker’s Backyard is the story of a mystical, wonderful African-American Gullah woman and the supernatural signs she receives, which guide her to care for eight Jewish child refugees in WWII London. The special bonds they form are so strong, nothing can break them: neither time nor distance, proving love is the greatest force of all in a surprise twist ending. Important themes of anti-bullying and tolerance toward all, regardless of race, religion or physical challenges are woven into this historical-fiction mystery, and contains something to which every child, ages 9-13, can relate.
Bullying has become a global problem for today’s youth, and hate-crime rates continue to skyrocket. The characters in my book have little in common: they are from various countries, cultures and religious backgrounds…yet it all works! My book inspires the reader to see that what matters is the “core” of each person, and that acceptance of others and their differences truly means enriching themselves.
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August 13, 2011
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Smart, gorgeous, and too tough for her own good, bail recovery agent and single mom Evangeline Crawford moved to the burbs for a quiet life. Fortunately, it’s not turning out that way…
Angel has to admit she’s feeling restless. The only excitement in her new life is her schoolgirl crush on the town’s new pastor, Justus-too-Hot-to-be-Holy Morgan. But a fateful encounter and a job gone wrong at Club Night Candy in underground Atlanta is about to change all that… Soon, Angel’s trying to save her divazilla twin sister from her big mouth and a scandalous murder charge, and probing a church cover-up–with none other than Justus by her side. But Angel has one more pressing concern: will Bella be ready for kindergarten? Only time will tell for this bad girl gone good whose days are once again far from boring–and hopefully far from numbered…
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