Ryan Sayles

Beau is a hero. He’s also the kind of guy who, when he patrons a taco truck, is as interested in their food as he is their black-market firearms. And the special is soup paired with a streetsweeper shotgun. When Beau puts the special to use at a Black Friday sales event, he unintentionally starts a full-blown, storewide shoot-out. But he escapes, and takes with him an abandoned little girl he rescued. Maybe she’d like some soup too. In his apartment, oblivious to the fierce manhunt for the child, Beau discusses just how badly he screwed up the Black Friday shooting with his underhanded neighbors. Then SWAT arrives, but SWAT’s never dealt with someone like Beau. Concerned for the little girl’s safety, Beau has to reach deep down to become the protector she needs. After the fires have been put out, the bodies sorted and the wreckage cleared, Beau’s gonna be hungry. Fortunately, soup is very filling and a lot of taco trucks offer it.

Sopa and a Streetsweeper

Ann Aptaker

Mark Troy

There’s a taco truck in Chicago known among a certain segment of the population for its daily specials. Late at night and during the wee hours of the morning, it isn’t the food selection that attracts customers, it’s the illegal weapons available with the special order. Each episode of Guns & Tacos features the story of one Chicagoland resident who visits the taco truck seeking a solution to life’s problems, a solution that always comes in a to-go bag. Episode 10: A Taco, a T-Bird, a Beretta and One Furious Night by Ann Aptaker Episode 11: Sopa and a Streetsweeper by Ryan Sayles Episode 12: Dos Tacos Guatemaltecos y Una Pistola Casera by Mark Troy Episodes 7-9 of Season Two are featured in Guns + Tacos Vol. 3.

Guns + Tacos Vol. 4

She is unstoppable. She murders the elderly, seeing it as compassion against their suffering. The police can’t curb her ritualized, angel of mercy rampage and as every new victim falls, the distance between them and her increases. Then the killer is caught in the act by the young, pregnant wife of Norm Braden. There is no option but to murder her too. As a widowed Norm struggles to return to his family, to his new normal, he is joined in grief by his wife’s twin sister. But, the killer is also having a difficult time recovering from the startling break in her ritual. Killing Norm’s wife has affected everything. So, one day she visits Norm, offering an olive branch. Maybe they can help each other move past it all. Their co-dependent, cat-and-mouse game begins. Revenge is within Norm’s grasp, but his religious beliefs force him to see the killer’s humanity despite her horrific shortfalls. The killer, a strange and exotic woman with a singular fixation on Norm, thinks she has found more than just the solution to her problems. She’s found her completion, her other half in Norm—if only she can replace the memory of his dead wife. If she can do that, she can continue murdering. Praise for TOGETHER THEY WERE CRIMSON: “Maybe it took me a long time to read Ryan Sayles. Too long it turns out. I’d seen the beautiful cover designs of his novels, grinned at some of the gut-punching titles like Maybe I Should Shoot You In the Face and The Subtle Art of Brutality. But now that I’ve read his newest hard-boiled offering, Together They Were Crimson, I can’t help but tell myself, ‘Holy fuck, I’m gonna read every last word this guy writes.’ He’s that powerful, that talented, that damned good.” —Vincent Zandri, New York Times bestselling Thriller and Shamus Award winning author of The Remains and The Embalmer “Together They Were Crimson tells the story of lives gone wrong, of lives perverted and bereft of mercy, and as only Ryan Sayles can do, ones that end in blood. Come for the prose, stay for the crimson. One step better: prepare.” —Beau Johnson, author of All of Them to Burn “Sayles rides the line of balance between a procedural and a thriller, hitting all the right notes of both songs. Tense, driven, and satisfying!” —Frank Zafiro, author of the Charlie-316 series “Completely unlike all other serial killer novels I’ve read before. Sympathies cross the line repeatedly and pull me in further. Comparisons will be made, but this book is one of a kind.” —Jeffery Hess, author of No Salvation, Beachhead, and Tushhog “Sayles is already notorious for writing hardboiled prose as if he were swinging a sledgehammer, but with Together They Were Crimson, we get to see another side of him, the violence is there, the tension is taut, but this time out, the story is carved into the page with the precision of a scalpel. Not to mention Sayles has given us one of the most memorable villains since Hannibal Lector. Sayles never fails to disappoint—or in this case surprise.” —Brian Panowich, author of Hard Cash Valley and Bull Mountain

Together They Were Crimson

Joyce Carol Oates

Joe R. Lansdale

Rob Hart

Hilary Davidson

Alison Gaylin

Joe Clifford

Kelli Stanley

Reed Farrel Coleman

Grant Jerkins

Alec Cizak

Holly West

Patricia Abbott

Thomas Pluck

S.W. Lauden

Angel Luis Colón

J.L. Abramo

Trey R. Barker

Paul J. Garth

Kent Gowran

Jeffery Hess

Tim O’Mara

Tom Pitts

Keith Rawson

Nominated for the 2017 Anthony Award for Best Anthology/Collection *** Proceeds from the sales of Unloaded will benefit the nonprofit States United To Prevent Gun Violence (CeaseFireUSA.org) *** For the first time, more than two dozen crime and mystery authors have joined together to use the strongest weapon at their disposal—words—in a call for reasonable gun control in the U.S.A. In this collection you get all the thrills and excitement you come to expect from a great crime story, but without any guns. From best sellers and writing legends to the brightest stars of the next generation of crime writers, the twenty-five authors here have taken pen in hand to say enough is enough. Gun violence has got to stop and this is our way of speaking out—by showing that gun violence can be removed from the narrative, and maybe from our lives. It's not anti-gun, it's pro-sanity. And above anything else, these are thrilling crime stories that will surprise and shock, thrill and chill—all without a gun in sight. The writers are from both sides of the political aisle and many of the authors are gun owners themselves. But everyone felt it was time to speak out. Featuring the talents of J.L. Abramo , Patricia Abbott, Trey R. Barker, Eric Beetner, Alec Cizak, Joe Clifford, Reed Farrel Coleman, Angel Luis Colón, Hilary Davidson, Paul J. Garth, Alison Gaylin, Kent Gowran, Rob Hart, Jeffery Hess, Grant Jerkins, Joe R. Lansdale, S.W. Lauden, Tim O’Mara, Joyce Carol Oates, Tom Pitts, Thomas Pluck, Keith Rawson, Kelli Stanley, Ryan Sayles, and Holly West. Praise for UNLOADED… “The 25 short stories in this thought-provoking theme anthology prove that clever crime writers can generate just as much mayhem, weirdness, and chills without the use of firearms.” —Publishers Weekly

Crime Writers Writing Without Guns

Unloaded

From a bank robbery gone horribly wrong to a shipwrecked man with a serious anger problem to a lonely teenage Peeping Tom, Ryan Sayles’s second collection of stories steam rolls along. Need a transvestite beating up her drug dealer? Got it. What about a guy trying to stuff a dead hooker into his trunk? Got it also. Need a Richard Dean Buckner story? Got two of ’em. Come on in and join the mayhem.

I'm Not Happy Till You're Not Happy

Family man Carl, with his wife and daughter, are on their way check on his young son who had been hospitalized for an ear infection complicated by the boy’s Type 1 Diabetes. Stopped at a light they are confronted by a gunman who pulls Carl from the vehicle, stealing the vehicle and his family with it. Desperate, Carl, will do anything to save his family, even commit a carjacking himself. Carl finds himself chasing after his family, being chased by the police, and confront the reason for this random act of violence. When all seems lost, Carl finds a reason to believe, and finds himself amidst a conflict of good and evil. Praise for GOLDFINCHES: “A man watches helplessly as his car is hijacked and driven off with his wife and daughter imprisoned inside. And, then; the nightmare accelerates into warp-speed unspeakable horror. Ryan Sayles has delivered yet another masterpiece in his newest novel, Goldfinches. This guy just keeps getting better and better! Take my advice and read this book with all the lights on…” —Les Edgerton, author of The Rapist, The Bitch, and The Genuine Imitation Plastic Kidnapping “No one does fractured domestic noir like Ryan Sayles. And Goldfinches finds him mining that dysfunction harder and fiercer than ever. Shattering domestic bliss with pulse-pounding, pedal-to-the-metal action. Think Liam Neeson and his special set of skills—only jacked up on meth with stronger moonshine and more vicious complications.” —Joe Clifford, author Lamentation and Junkie Love “Take the emotional grittiness of Breakdown, turn the violence dial to eleven, throw in a healthy dose of desperation multiplied by having kids involved, and you’re on your way to something akin to Ryan Sayles’ Goldfinches. This is a brutal, tense, fast-paced ride full of the relent- less brutality and knack for action that have made Sayles a household name for fans of great crime fiction, and this vicious ride may just be his best one yet.” —Gabino Inglesias, author of Zero Saints and Hungry Darkness “Ryan Sayles writes like he’s got an angel on one shoulder and a fallen angel on the other. Here’s hoping Ryan keeps working it out on the page…and doesn’t make much progress.” —Jedidiah Ayres, author of Fierce Bitches and Peckerwood

Goldfinches

The girl has gone missing. Again. But this time people are trying to kill her. Trying to burn down everything she has touched or left behind. The girl's surrogate father feels responsible and to assuage his guilt, he hires Richard Dean Buckner, former Saint Ansgar homicide detective turned private eye to ferret her out. Buckner was doing fine as a bare-knuckles detective for the PD until he was rendered "unserviceable" by a hit attempt. Early retirement doesn't sit well with that type of man, half predator and half savior. He takes the case, and from two ex-boyfriends who ruined their lives for the girl, her rapist dad, drug dealers she burned for thousands, an uncomfortable meeting at the local Incest Survivors group to whoever is setting fire to her life, Buckner is going to need all his guts, instinct and .44 Magnum to finish the job. Because in Saint Ansgar, what doesn't kill you only makes you wish it did. Praise for The Subtle Art of Brutality "Richard Dean Buckner is just the hero for our modern world: a righteous killer who can step outside convention and right the wrongs; and Sayles is just the writer to drive his story. This is how I like my fiction: unrelenting prose and kick-ass justice." -Joe Clifford, author of Lamentation "The brutality is in the prose. Course and violent, Sayles writes like he is seeking vengeance against the world. It's 21st century noir. Mickey Spillane on meth." -Tom Pitts, author of Knuckleball "As subtle as brass knuckles to the face. Buckner is a classic and Sayles is one to watch." -Eric Beetner, author of Rumrunners and The Year I Died Seven Times ..".Richard Dean Buckner left me wanting more. He is a breath of fresh air in an antiques shop. A biker in a museum. A chaotic, reckless anomaly. You know I'm enjoying something when I deliberately slow down my reading pace to enjoy the novel longer. The Subtle Art of Brutality is a ridiculously strong first novel, starting the new darling of the P.I novels legacy." -Benoit Lelievre, blogger and reviewer at Dead End Follies "Gut twisting detective fiction done the way it is supposed to be done. RDB makes Dirty Harry seem a little soft." -Todd Morr, author of Jesus Saves, Satan Invests "The Subtle Art of Brutality is a nut busting slice of noir. All of the required hard-boiled elements are present and accounted for..." -Chris Leek, author of Gospel of the Bulley "The Subtle Art of Brutality is a testosterone-and-meth cocktail, a relentless blast of tough guy intensity. 21st-century hardboiled." -Warren Moore, author of Broken Glass Waltzes

The Subtle Art of Brutality

Ryan Sayles

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