RIO MATANZA Out Now

Bodie Kendrick had a reputation for being one of the most relentless bounty hunters throughout Arizona and New Mexico.

Doc Turpin, out of Texas, shared similar renown.

When the two of them partnered up to bring in the Harrup-Klegg Gang, it was the end of the trail for the bloodthirsty outlaws who had robbed the New Gleanus bank and then needlessly, mercilessly slaughtered innocents as they shot up the town riding away.

The gunsmoke from that encounter has scarcely cleared, however, before Doc is mysteriously lured away in the middle of the night by a rebelista firebrand known only as Estraleta. Troubled by his new partner's sudden and ill-explained departure, Kendrick pursues the pair in order to try and find out what is going on. His only clue is that they reportedly are bound for the notorious south-of-the-border town called Bordados.

Quicker than the rapid-fire discharge of a Gatling gun, Kendrick finds himself embroiled in a conflict between local rebels fighting to regain their town and a corrupt Rurale official backed by a wolf pack of American desperados who've found haven in Bordados and are hell bent on keeping it. Once again, Kendrick and Doc—along with the savagely beautiful Estraleta and a tormented former Confederate colonel—fight side by side against stacked odds.

But that's never stopped either one of them before …

TOMATO CAN COMEBACK Out Now

Tom Garrick had a heart of gold, a jaw of iron, and heavy artillery in both fists. This orphan from the Windy City returned from the Korean War to battle his way up the welterweight ranks, inspiring speculation about a title bid. Then he slugged it out with a top contender who humiliated him over eleven rounds and cut short his victory march.

Popular opinion was he had been exposed as a lucky pretender. The newspapers dubbed him "Tomato Can" after watching the blood splatter around the ring like tomato juice from a tin can being battered by a tire iron.

Now, for some mysterious reason, 'Tomato Can' Garrick is lacing on the gloves again, hoping for a shot at redemption. He has no promoter, no manager, not even a sparring partner. The only one in his corner is a buddy from the war who has never been inside the boxing game before.

There's a punch-drunk pantheon of bums, brawlers and cutthroat contenders just waiting to pound him into Palookaville ... a lonely war widow with her claws in his heart ... and a regimen of dubious training methods which may do more harm than good to his chances. But Garrick isn't going to go down in history as "the Tomato Can" without a fight.

 

A PECK OF PICKLED WARLOCKS Out Now

She has been lied to her whole life. Her father is trapped in a hostile world, and it's her fault. Her former lover is a warlock who can't be trusted. Her only hope to put things right is a thousand-year-old talisman that once belonged to a handsome warrior who was also the most powerful warlock in all the land . . .

Aren McAllister, the Tongue-Tied Witch, is back in A PECK OF PICKLED WARLOCKS. In this sequel to the critically acclaimed WITCH GOT YOUR TONGUE, Aren searches for a way to rescue her father from the other-worldly realm of the witches' council. From the sandy beaches of the Gulf Coast to the bright lights of Las Vegas to the dangerous depths of an abandoned silver mine, Aren's quest is filled with adventure, romance, and humor. This is an all-new, fast-moving, 61,000 word novel sure to please fans of urban fantasy.

FORT WORTH NIGHTS Out Now

FORT WORTH NIGHTS reprints all the short fiction featuring Cody, the private eye protagonist of New York Times best-selling author James Reasoner's first novel, the cult classic TEXAS WIND. Available for the first time in one place are the acclaimed stories "Dead in Friday", "The Elephant's Graveyard", "The Spanish Blade", "The Safest Place in the World", and "In the Blood". Plus, FORT WORTH NIGHTS marks the first publication anywhere of the first new Cody story in nearly 25 years, a 10,000 word novelette entitled "Assisted Dying". Over 50,000 words in collection.
Ed Gorman calls Cody's first appearance TEXAS WIND "one of the finest private eye novels I've ever read . . . a virtually perfect utterance, a story of a man, an era, and a place". If you haven't made Cody's acquaintance yet, FORT WORTH NIGHTS is the perfect introduction.

OMEGA BLUE Is Out!

Set in the future a step past tomorrow, in a United States that's bleak and hard and crime runs rampant in the streets, there's only on team to call on. Omega Blue, the FBI's premiere hardcases take down crime too big or too dangerous for the average law enforcement agencies.

Tracking down a group of organ jackals dealing in the Red Market (organ harvesting), Slade Wilson goes head-to-head with an Asian gang sporting exo-skeletons and fighting to keep a secret agenda hidden from prying eyes. Equipped with state-of-the-art technology, driven to succeed, Wilson and his team of specialists keep the pedal to the metal as they race toward doomsday.

Also, I'm looking for reviewers for this and can send you an e-version if you're interested.  Click HERE.

Cover Caught My Eye

As a struggling waitress and part-time college student, Rose Strickland's life is stalled in the slow lane. But when her close friend, Axton, disappears, Rose suddenly finds herself serving up more than hot coffee and flapjacks. Now she's hashing it out with sexy bad guys and scrambling to find clues in a race to save Axton before his time runs out.

With her anime-loving bestie, her septuagenarian boss, and a pair of IT wise men along for the ride, Rose discovers political corruption, illegal gambling, and shady corporations. She's gone from zero to sixty and quickly learns when you're speeding down the fast lane, it's easy to crash and burn.

A Little Creepy

Every now and again, I like a little creepy late at night, especially during the winter or when the airconditioner is running low enough to leave a chill in the house -- and when it feels like we're cut off from everyone.  Back when I was growing up in the country, that cut-off feeling was an everyday thing.  Feeding the animals at night, or going to see what was freaking the chickens out, was scary business.  I can remember adrenaline spiking through me when I was a kid creeping around in the dark, hoping that something wasn't likewise creeping around to get me.

It was fun when you had someone else with you, both of you scaring each other and trying not to act scared.  But, man, it sucked when you were out there by yourself.

So, as I was saying, I like a little creepy every now and again, and I think that most of us do.  This movie sounds like it will fit the bill.

Darkness has descended over the northwestern town of Cold Rock. One by one, its children are disappearing. They leave behind neither clues nor credible witnesses, but instead a legend, a story cloaked in shadows passed from neighbor to neighbor… And with it, a building sense of terror which threatens to devour what’s left of the community itself. Superstitious locals talk of ‘The Tall Man,’ a mysterious figure who takes the children away, never to be seen again. But Julia Denning (Jessica Biel) has no time for legends or superstitions. A nurse doing her best for the emotionally distraught and economically devastated former mining town, she tries instead to preserve a semblance of normality both at work and at home. Until terror enters her own front door. Waking up in the middle of the night, she races to her child’s bedroom, only to discover an empty bed – and a hulking specter in the downstairs doorway who steals off into the darkness with her boy (Jakob Davies). As Julia follows in pursuit, she will stop at nothing and will risk everything to save him. Joined by determined investigator, Lt. Dodd (Stephen McHattie) and the town’s local sheriff (William B. Davis), the chase is on and with it the quest for answers: Who is ‘The Tall Man’? What has become of the children? Soon, the town of Cold Rock will have the answers it so desperately seeks, answers that will shake the community to its core. A suspense-filled thriller like no other, THE TALL MAN mines a corrosive world of fear and terror before ultimately revealing its own unimaginable truth.

Electric City

I don't know how this one slipped under my radar, but it did.  At least catching up is easy to do.  So far, ten episodes (all five or six minutes long)  have been released.

The show is an alternative science fiction/steampunk narrative with a 1940s noirish kind of feel.  The story is understated and comes from different characters, a complex thing that is coming together very nicely.

I don't know that it will be according to everyone's taste, but I really encourage everyone to have a look at it and find out for themselves.  I think comics and animation fans will have a blast with this, but it also has the feel of a large movie scope production.

The web site is located here.

New James Lee Burke

Out today!  And I can't wait to get into this one.

Dave Robicheaux is back, in a gorgeously written, visceral thriller by James Lee Burke, “the heavy weight champ, a great American novelist whose work, taken individually or as a whole, is unsurpassed” (Michael Connelly).

Creole Belle begins where the last book in the Dave Robicheaux series, The Glass Rainbow, ended. Dave is in a recovery unit in New Orleans, where a Creole girl named Tee Jolie Melton visits him and leaves him an iPod with the country blues song “Creole Belle” on it. Then she disappears. Dave becomes obsessed with the song and the memory of Tee Jolie and goes in search of her sister, who later turns up inside a block of ice floating in the Gulf. Meanwhile, there has been an oil well blowout on the Gulf, threatening the cherished environs of the bayous.

Creole Belle is James Lee Burke at his very best, with beloved series hero Dave Robicheaux leading the charge against the destruction of both the land and the people he has sworn to protect.

Episodic Novel Staging Digital Return?

The writer in me is fascinated by doing episodic fiction, but I know the reader in me might get impatient.  When the project starts in December, it's going to be interesting to see how it shapes up.

For info, click here.

Caught My Eye

Love the art on this cover!

A cursed destiny. A band of warriors. And one troubled kingdom.

It is whispered in Agathia that the legendary warriors of the mist-cursed by the gods-can be summoned only when a champion is needed and the cause is just. Gideon, their captain, knows this to be the one path that will lead his men to redemption-lest they face an eternity of damnation.

Years have passed since anyone has journeyed to the river's edge, but times are desperate. Oppressed by a cruel guardian whose dark magic threatens to destroy her people, the beautiful and courageous Merewen calls upon the bespelled warriors. In Gideon she finds more than a champion, and in his arms, more than protection. However, their enemies are fighting with a power darker than anything than they imagined, and should Gideon fail, she will lose everything she holds dear-including her heart.

Looking for Reviewers!

Alex Archer is looking for reviewers for the newest release.  I've got six copies to give away.  Send me your address, blog url or Amazon page url, and I'll get these puppies out.

Email me here.

Summer Reading? Try Rancho Diablo!

Come join the Blaylock family for adventure in the Old West.  If you love action-packed Westerns, these books will be a good fit in your library.

Out Today

More than twenty New York Times bestselling authors team up to create a first-rate serial novel, a one-of-a-kind collaboration that combines the skills of America’s greatest storytellers to produce one spellbinding whopper of a mystery.

Alexander McCall Smith. Sandra Brown. Faye Kellerman. J.A. Jance. Jeffery Deaver. Kathy Reichs. Lisa Scottoline. Jeff Lindsay.

Only a handful of the names that make up the all-star lineup of authors behind the creation of No Rest for the Dead, a tale of vengeance, greed, and love that flows seamlessly, in the words of David Baldacci, “as it passes from mind to mind of each Creator.”

Recently, twenty-some of the nation’s leading mystery and thriller writers joined together to form The American Detection Club, a group dedicated to publishing high-quality anthologies and serial genre novels. In No Rest for the Dead, their first endeavor, the group has collaborated to create the mystery behind the murder of Christopher Thomas, a curator at San Francisco’s Museum of Fine Arts. Though Thomas’s wife was convicted and executed for the crime, detective Jon Nunn is not convinced. Ten years after the murder, Nunn gathers together all who were present on the night Christopher died, intent on uncovering the truth, suspect by suspect.

Edited by the talent at The Strand Magazine, the home of mystery fiction since 1890, No Rest for the Dead is a thrilling, page-turning accomplishment that only America’s very best could achieve.

On Sale Today!

With time running out to stop the nuclear destruction of Tel Aviv, Dewey Andreas must defeat his most fearsome opponent yet.
Off a quiet street in Brooklyn, New York, Israeli Special Forces commander Kohl Meir is captured by operatives of the Iranian secret service, who smuggle Meir back to Iran, where he is imprisoned, tortured, and prepared for a show trial.

What they don’t know is that Meir was in New York to recruit Dewey Andreas for a secret operation. Meir had been tipped off that Iran had finally succeeded in building their first nuclear weapon, one they were planning to use to attack Israel. His source was a high-level Iranian government official and his proof was a photo of the bomb itself.

Dewey Andreas, a former Army Ranger and Delta, owes his life to Meir and his team of Israeli commandos. Now, to repay his debt, Dewey has to attempt the impossible ---to both rescue Meir from one of the world’s most secure prisons and to find and eliminate Iran’s nuclear bomb before it’s deployed---all without the help or sanction of Israel or America (at the near certain risk of detection by Iran).

Unfortunately, Dewey’s first moves have caught the attention of Abu Paria, the brutal and brilliant head of VEVAK, the Iranian secret service. Now Dewey has to face off against, outwit, and outfight an opponent with equal cunning, skill, and determination, with the fate of millions hanging in the balance.

New Eddie LaCrosse Hard-Boiled Fantasy

Twenty years ago, a barmaid in a harbor town fell for a young sailor who turned pirate to make his fortune. But what truly became of Black Edward Tew remains a mystery—one that has just fallen into the lap of freelance sword jockey Eddie LaCrosse.

For years, Eddie has kept his office above Angelina’s tavern, so when Angelina herself asks him to find out what happened to the dashing pirate who stole her heart, he can hardly say no—even though the trail is two decades old. Some say Black Edward and his ship, The Bloody Angel, went to bottom of the sea, taking with it a king’s fortune in treasure. Others say he rules a wealthy, secret pirate kingdom. And a few believe he still sails under a ghostly flag with a crew of the damned.

To find the truth, and earn his twenty-five gold pieces a day, Eddie must take to sea in the company of a former pirate queen in search of the infamous Black Edward Tew…and his even more legendary treasure.

Out Now!

A year after the pulse-pounding action of Split Decision, Jimmy Wyler is back in Chicago trying to put his life back together. Working a job washing dishes in a late night diner, Jimmy vows to never get into a boxing ring again.

But then, someone needs him. Leo, a teenaged boy who fights hard against the city every day, could use a man like Jimmy. To help save him from his alcoholic father, and to save his only sister from a pimp bent on turning her out.

Jimmy must fight again. Fight for the ones who can?t fight for themselves. It will take him from fistfights in back alleys to no rules bouts with crowds screaming for blood and all the way back to the orphanage where he grew up. Along the way, blood will be spilled and knuckles will be bruised.

More white-knuckle action and epic fights from the Fightcard series.

Praise for Split Decision:
"It was unpredictable; it put its main protagonist through the ringer; and didn?t take the soft option for the resolution. It's that kind of story. I finished it in one sitting. It's that entertaining. Highly recommended."

Permission To Kill

"Split Decision is a prime example of the sort of variety and adventurous storytelling we can expect from the Fight Card series, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Highly recommended."
James Reasoner, author of Dust Devils and The Blood Mesa

"Split Decision hooked me. Allow enough time to read the whole thing at one sitting, you're not going to want to put it down."

Mike Faricy, author of Russian Roulette and Finders Keepers

Would Be Cool!

A Metal Man movie?  Be still, my beating heart!  Loved these characters when I was a kid.  Would be interesting to see what they can do with them with special effects these days.

Info here.

Coming Tuesday

As the Civil War rages through the South, two men take fate into their own hands as fortune hunters, venturing into Mexico where the sacred Bells of El Diablo, forged of pure gold, are said to be buried…

The son of a wealthy plantation owner, Confederate Lieutenant James Dunn is young, brash, and a fierce fighter. But during a guerilla mission in the north Georgia mountains, he learns first-hand how horrific and destructive the war really is. Having lost his taste for bloodshed after a brutal act on a night-cloaked bridge, he goes AWOL…and he isn’t alone.

Crosseye Reeves, a former sharecropper on the Dunn plantation, was there to witness James’ moment of horror. And he’s had his own bellyful of war. Together, the men make for Denver, where a tale of treasure in Mexico gives them a new destination…perhaps even a new life.