Trey R. Barker

Almost every story in this remarkable collection deals with someone on the run. They're running away from or they're running back to, but no one is standing still. Make no mistake, there's nothing static about these stories. The pacing is breakneck, the tension sometimes unbearable, the action swift and decisive. The settings are sleazy bars and two-bit flops and alleys that smell of puke and piss. The characters are not the kind of people most of us would admit to knowing. They long ago forfeited their souls. They're haunted'some quite literally'by the past, by deeds done or left undone, by lovers lost, by dreams stillborn.

Remembrance and Regrets

Jonathan Brown

John M. Floyd

Gar Anthony Haywood

S.A. Cosby

Debra H. Goldstein

Stacy Woodson

Penny Mickelbury

William Dylan Powell

Kimberly B. Richardson

Whether their cover bands play Willie Dixon or Willie Nelson, juke joints and honky-tonks appeal to hard-working men and women looking for a good time. Offering hot music, cheap food, and generous amounts of liquor, jukes and tonks are often a community’s unofficial gathering spot, where Saturday nights are spent committing the sins church leaders rail against the following morning. The stories in Jukes & Tonks introduce you to many sinners and few saints, love begun and love gone wrong, and all manner of unsavory criminal endeavors. What the stories have in common is that they plop you down in worlds where the music pulsating from the compact stage—if there’s a stage at all—provides the backbeat for tales that are unsparing, heartbreaking, twisty, and a few are as dark as the night, and the blinking sign offering live music is an invitation to the unexpected. Contributors include Trey R. Barker, Michael Bracken, Jonathan Brown, S.A. Cosby, John M. Floyd, Debra H. Goldstein, Gar Anthony Haywood, Penny Mickelbury, Gary Phillips, William Dylan Powell, Kimberly B. Richardson, and Stacy Woodson. Praise for JUKES & TONKS: “The world needs more jukes, more tonks, and more fine crime fiction—and this fast-paced playlist from Michael Bracken and Gary Phillips offers all of the above and then some. It’s a #1 hit…with a bullet!” —Josh Pachter, editor of The Great Filling Station Holdup: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Jimmy Buffett “While twists abound and nothing is predictable, one thing is certain: Jukes & Tonks transports the reader to a world where the drinks are cheap, the dancing is close, and the music reigns supreme.” —Holly West, Anthony Award-nominated editor of Murder-a-Go-Go’s: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of The Go-Go’s

Crime Fiction Inspired by Music in the Dark and Suspect Choices

Jukes & Tonks

With Jace Salome’s partner out of the picture, she’s forced to delve into the world of online predators alone… Two bodies, recently beaten to death, are discovered on the edges of Zachary County. There is a recent attempt to break into the security office at a resort in nearby Rooster County. And the Zachary County Jail has exploded with seemingly random fights. A year into the job now, Deputy Sheriff Jace Salome is edging into being more comfortable with her role in the department. When she finds a smartphone in the jail she learns the random fights are anything but, that they have been filmed and then emailed from the phone to an intricate web of private email servers and access-only websites. And the fights seem to be directed from someone outside the jail. The two dead bodies, as well as the investigation of the resort break-in, and Jace’s look into the fights, all collide when she discovers that a dead girl had been in the Zachary County jail and that video exists of her getting beaten both in the jail and in the security office of the hotel. Jace realizes the darkest recesses of her imagination cannot keep up with reality. This is a world of technology and on-line predators, and the stakes are much higher than her pay-grade. Worse still…Jace Salome has to face this case alone Praise for Trey R. Barker and the Jace Salome novels: “A writer who walks the walk, Barker will show you the difficult and dark side of crime literature. Get the nerve to read him—you should.” —Craig Johnson, New York Times bestselling author of the Longmire mystery series “Barker, a former journalist who works in law enforcement, has produced a noirish police procedural that’s gritty, violent, and utterly believable.” —Kirkus Reviews on Slow Bleed “With a ripped from the headlines plot and a twist that adds a real kick, this gritty mystery brings to mind the crime fiction of Kathryn Casey and Alanna Martin.” —Library Journal on East of the Sun “Introduced in Slow Bleed, Jace [Salome] is a fascinating protagonist, flawed and broken but determined to rebuild her life.” —Library Journal

A Jace Salome Novel

When the Lonesome Dog Barks

Runaway. Victim of domestic battery. An older, married boyfriend. Pregnant. And ultimately, dead and forgotten in a cornfield. For Sheriff’s Deputy Wes Spahn, this isn’t just another case. For Spahn, this case will have too many emotional similarities to his first case as a detective, similarities that will leave him questioning everything. When a farmer finds a pile of bones, Spahn begins an odyssey that will lead him inexorably both forward through false leads and empty clues, from incorrect identifications to bad suspects and backward into a case that is a decade old. It also leads to tension between Spahn and his fellow officers as he pushes them out of his way in his zeal to solve the case. Spahn’s victim is Suzanne Margaret Haas, a runaway since early summer. As he puts her life together, Spahn comes to focus on her boyfriend. He is a man nearly ten years older, dishonorably discharged from the military, married but with girlfriends scattered throughout the area. Spahn is convinced of the man’s guilt. But there is another man…who has a taste for violence and young girls. Is he Suzanne’s killer? During all this, ratcheting up his emotional barrenness, is his on-going failure in solving his very first case, that of a missing girl. He tries to work both cases simultaneously and soon understands someone is gunning for him. He finds tire tracks and footprints in the snow around his house and sees multiple vehicles following him. When he realizes the different vehicles belong to different people, who are following him for different reasons, Spahn begins to believe his world is falling in on him, and he wonders if he’s been on the wrong road the entire time, both in how he handled the two cases and how he handled everyone around him. The endgame comes quickly and at the story’s end, Spahn walks away from the job and the friends he’s lost, his original case still unsolved. Praise for THE UNKNOWING: “Trey R. Barker writes with soul, sulfur, and an insight into the mind of midwestern Sheriff’s deputy Wes Spahn that only midwestern Sheriff’s deputy Trey Barker could bring. Part elegy, part police procedural, with a sprinkle of gallows cop shop banter and a splash of country noir, The Unknowing is a heartfelt new entry in the dark and dangerous public blotter of Barkerville.” —Sean Doolittle, Thriller Award-winning author of Lake Country “Trey R. Barker is one of the most lyrical writers of crime fiction around, and his noir police procedural The Unknowing is no exception. It’s the story of a detective trying to solve the disappearance and murder of a girl in rural Illinois, but what kept me turning the pages was Barker’s driven, guilt-ridden, utterly believable protagonist Wes Spahn, who, despite a similar case earlier in his career, lands in a no-win situation. Barker’s solid character development, combined with his polished prose, races to a surprising finale which makes us ponder whether Wes ran the case or the case ran him.” —Libby Fischer Hellmann, author of the Georgia Davis PI Series Praise for the Books by Trey R. Barker: “A writer who walks the walk, Barker will show you the difficult and dark side of crime literature. Get the nerve to read him—you should.” —Craig Johnson, New York Times bestselling author and creator of the Longmire hit series on Netflix “Barker, a former journalist who works in law enforcement, has produced a noirish police procedural that’s gritty, violent, and utterly believable.” —Kirkus Reviews, for Slow Bleed

The Unknowing

East of the Sun

Joyce Carol Oates

Joe R. Lansdale

Rob Hart

Hilary Davidson

Alison Gaylin

Joe Clifford

Ryan Sayles

Kelli Stanley

Reed Farrel Coleman

Grant Jerkins

Alec Cizak

Holly West

Patricia Abbott

Thomas Pluck

S.W. Lauden

Angel Luis Colón

J.L. Abramo

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

Trey R. Barker

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