It’s the first time Lou Crasher discovers a corpse. What hurts is the woman, Trix Rockland, was a friend. His instinct screams for him to back out of the apartment and call the law. But Lou being Lou, he hops into investigation mode. Naturally, that’s when the rookie cop with the hair trigger happens on the scene. Lou now stands over a dead body and has some explaining to do. Satisfied with the onsite interview carried out by detective Tanaka, an Asian cop who’s more than easy on the eyes, Crasher is free to go—temporarily. It’s not long before the hot detective makes Lou an offer he should refuse—but maybe he can’t. CEO George Lux of Come Get Some Records recently signed Trix to a record deal, which should be cause for celebration. But not in Lou’s mind—Lux is shady. The entire band is on Lou’s suspect list including a hot-tempered ex-boyfriend, and a steroid swilling, Rottweiler owning freelance drummer with a small man’s complex. Trix’s daughter Jill, who happens to be Lou’s drums student, is devastated by the loss of her mother. But the yarns she spins Lou’s way make the rocker turned P.I. dizzier than three fingers of the eighteen-year-old Macallan he drinks. Few P.I.’s work completely alone and Lou is no different. Lou’s half-brother Jake, the mysterious grizzled (brawler) of few words, gives Lou a hand where he needs it, and Landlady, Violet Wiggins continues to offer priceless wisdom to Lou. The obstacles mount for Lou. In addition to a vicious Rottweiler named Killer, a Napoleonic psychotic freelance drummer, an ex-boyfriend of the deceased with a short fuse, a bass player who’s obsession over the singer is off the charts, two ex-military thugs, and a mysterious woman who’s presence raises the hair on Lou’s neck all threaten to stop Crasher from doing what he needs to do. But if Lou’s sandwich making is uninterrupted and his cocktail swilling is in check, he’s a hard man to beat. The only problem is Lou needs time and time is running out! Praise for DRUMS, GUNS ’N’ MONEY: “Drums, Guns ’n’ Money is a jazzy up tempo mystery that kicks like a snare roll. Jonathan Brown brings his musicality to this down and dirty crime story. Loved it!” —SA Cosby, bestselling author of Razorblade Tears “The appropriately named Lou Crasher in Mr. Brown’s Drums, Guns ’n’ Money is an adroitly percussive unlicensed private eye who knows the staccato rhythms of the city as he moves and grooves through its warrens to get to the real. The tempo is terse, and the pace of the narrative propels the reader to keep turning the pages. A winner.” —Gary Phillips, author of One-Shot Harry “Drums, Guns ’n’ Money doubles as a knowing travelogue illuminating the private corners of the sometimes trashy, always intriguing L.A. music scene. But the main attractions here are Lou Crasher, an amateur sleuth you won’t forget, and a propulsive, wise-cracking mystery that twists and turns around a backbeat that never quits. Like his drummer hero, Jonathan Brown can flat out rock and roll.” —Howard Michael Gould, novelist, television writer, screenwriter, director, playwright, and author of the Charlie Waldo series “Good crime fiction shines in the darkness. Brown’s excellent work sets the sky on fire. Read it to see the new wave of crime writers at its best!” —Terrence McCauley, award-winning, bestselling author of The Wandering Man

Provides song histories, set lists, show reviews and statistics, and biographies of the band members.

“Mr. Dynamite, “Soul Brother No. 1,” “The Godfather of Soul,” deadbeat dad, convicted spousal abuser… James Brown was all those things and so much more. Yet it can’t be denied his music impacted a generation of fans and influenced a grip of musicians who came after him—from David Bowie, Janelle Monae to Usher just to name three. In the tradition then of previous Down & Out Books anthologies such as Murder-A-Go-Go’s: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of the Go-Go’s and Trouble in the Heartland: Crime Fiction Based on the Songs of Bruce Springsteen, this all-original set of fourteen stories follows in that stead. The idea expressed to the writers was not literal interpretations of any given song by Mr. Brown. Rather to use that title or lyric and the ofttimes edginess behind such efforts as “King Heroin” and “The Payback,” or the fun in “Make it Funky,” as a prompt, a starting point for the story the contributor wanted to tell. Covers the Godfather of Soul did of others’ songs could have also been tapped. While the majority of stories in the collection are prose, there is a comics style one and more than one of the text versions have an illustration or two to accompany the story. The collection includes stories by six-time Bram Stoker Award winner Lisa Morton; Anthony, Barry and Macavity Awards winner James Ziskin; Jim Fusilli, former Rock & Pop critic for the Wall Street Journal; and HBO Max Doom Patrol staff writer and comics creator Ezra Claytan Daniels. Other contributors include Shamus Award winner Gar Anthony Haywood; Mysti Berry, five-time Derringer and Golden Derringer Award winner John M. Floyd; Lise McClendon, writer of the Bennett Sisters mysteries; cultural critic and short story writer Michael Gonzales; novelist and former Miami Vice showrunner and writer-producer on Hill Street Blues Robert Ward; Fabrice Sapolsky, comics creator of FairSquare Comics’ Intertwined and Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man Noir; filmmaker and pioneer of Hip Hop horror Jeff Carroll; crime fiction novelist and Dark Yonder editor Katy Munger; and hardboiled novelist and co-producer on Snowfall, Gary Phillips.

Seventy-five years following the internment of Americans of Japanese ancestry, an elderly Nisei hires Ava Rome to find out how his best friend, a Japanese-American Buddhist priest, died in the Tule Lake Internment Camp. In the course of her investigation she uncovers another cold case, the rape and murder of a Japanese-American teenager on the eve of the Pearl Harbor attack. Was the same person responsible for both crimes? Ava suspects so. She travels to the Tule Lake site in Northern California where an attack on her life proves that the cold cases are deadly hot. Other people close to the case are murdered on orders from a powerful individual, whose reach stretches from Hawaii to halfway across the continental United States, and who will kill to keep the past secret. Returning to Honolulu, Ava experiences a devastating act of betrayal before solving the murders and revealing a seven decades-long history of evil. Praise for SPLINTERED LOYALTY: “What happened decades ago that WH Global will kill to cover up? Former Army MP Ava Rome is determined to find out. A non-stop thriller with a strong back story of people caught up in the World War II internment of Americans of Japanese descent in Hawaii.” —Terry Shames, Macavity Award-winning author of the Samuel Craddock mysteries “Splintered Loyalty is an exhilarating plunge into a dark past. Mark Troy’s heroine, Ava Rome, is tough, talented and tenacious and riveting to watch! Bravo!” —Matt Coyle, author of the Shamus, Anthony and Lefty Award-winning Rick Cahill crime series “Long one of my favorite short-story writers, Mark Troy proves himself equally deft as a novelist. Splintered Loyalty, the latest in the Ava Rome private eye series, finds Rome digging deep into the past to investigate the death of a Buddhist priest during WWII. The tension slowly builds as Rome uncovers long-hidden secrets that lead to an explosive conclusion. I highly recommend Splintered Loyalty.” —Michael Bracken, Anthony-, Edgar-, and Shamus-Award nominee “Ava Rome is a great protagonist—hard-boiled and humane—who tackles historical injustice with style in this multifaceted thriller. A gripping and satisfying read.” —Tom Mead, author of Death and the Conjuror “Mark Troy’s Splintered Loyalty is one part Cold Case Files mixed with two parts Magnum, PI. Ava Rome is sexy, tough and enjoys a good vodka (or three.) If I’m ever in trouble in Honolulu, she’s my first phone call.” —Tim O’Mara, author of the Raymond Donne series “Ultra-tough protector of the weak, Ava Rome works out of the island of Oahu where during World War II, a Japanese priest died in an incarceration camp. Ava promises to look into how the man died 77 years before. She doesn’t know what to expect, but it isn’t exactly what she finds, nor is it what she anticipates being of such current importance. Author Mark Troy surprises his readers and makes a true heroine of his smart and powerful protagonist.” —G. Miki Hayden, teaching Writing the Thriller and Writing the Mystery at Writer’s Digest University online

This inspiring book, Lawyers, Guns, and Money by Carol X. Vinzant, recounts the heroic efforts of Tom McDermott, a lawyer and victim of the infamous Colin Ferguson rampage on the Long Island Railroad, to take on the gun industry. He is among the leaders of an innovative and promising strategy to circumvent the NRA's political power and courts constrained by interpretations of the Second Amendment. Through civil action he hits the gun companies where it hurts most: the bottom line. Making insurance difficult for manufacturers to get, he has helped reduce the number of cheap hand guns, "Saturday Night Specials," often used in crime. This is a riveting account of tragedy turned into action, and how the law can be used to defend victims rather than enrich corporations.

The Sixties were a time of great cultural upheaval, when long-established social norms were challenged and everything changed: from music to fashion to social mores. And the Leave It to Beaver households in Middle America didn’t know what to make of it all. In the midst of this, private eyes tried to understand and bridge the generational divide while providing their clients with legal and extra-legal detecting services. From old-school private eyes with their flat-tops, off-the-rack suits, and well-worn brogues to the new breed of private eyes with their shoulder-length hair, bell-bottoms, and hemp sandals, the shamuses in More Groovy Gumshoes—a follow-up to the far-out original Groovy Gumshoes—take readers on another rollicking romp through the Sixties. Contributors include: Michael Chandos, Wil A. Emerson, Jeff Esterholm, John M. Floyd, Nils Gilbertson, Wendy Harrison, Dave H. Hendrickson, gay toltl kinman, Lynn Maples, Jarrett Mazza, John McFetridge, Robert Petyo, Graham Powell, Bev Vincent, Joseph S. Walker, and Stacy Woodson.

The explosion of the industrial revolution and the rise of imperialism in the second half of the nineteenth century served to dramatically increase the supply and demand for weapons on a global scale. No longer could arms manufacturers in industrialized nations subsist by supplying their own states' arsenals, causing them to seek markets beyond their own borders. Challenging the traditional view of arms dealers as agents of their own countries, Jonathan Grant asserts that these firms pursued their own economic interests while convincing their homeland governments that weapons sales delivered national prestige and could influence foreign countries. Industrial and banking interests often worked counter to diplomatic interests as arms sales could potentially provide nonindustrial states with the means to resist imperialism or pursue their own imperial ambitions. It was not mere coincidence that the only African country not conquered by Europeans, Ethiopia, purchased weapons from Italy prior to an attempted Italian invasion. From the rise of Remington and Winchester during the American Civil War, to the German firm Krupp's negotiations with the Russian government, to an intense military modernization contest between Chile and Argentina, Grant vividly chronicles how an arms trade led to an all-out arms race, and ultimately to war.

Faith. Fairness. Fortitude. And Football. Every time he confessed his sins, young seminarian Vince Lombardi sought forgiveness for the one he just couldn’t stop committing—playing football. Football was more than a game to Lombardi. It was life. And the values it took to succeed—“perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication, and respect for authority”—were ones he lived by and inspired in others. Considered one of the best coaches of all time, whatever the sport, Lombardi was uncompromising in his expectations of himself and his players, both on the field and off. Sidelined and underestimated throughout his life because of his Italian heritage, Vince Lombardi took a brave stance against homophobia and racism. In a country and a sport divided by race the oft-quoted “Pope of Green Bay” had zero tolerance for bigotry and showed his players, fans, and other teams and coaches that character is what counts.