Two-Trick Pony (The Drifter Detective Book 8)

Very stoked to announce that Two-Trick Pony by Garnett Elliott is now available for both print and ebook. Here's the description and thank you, dMix, for the cover:

What happens when a Drifter stops drifting?

Two-Trick Pony features the first and last (?) cases of wandering P.I. Jack Laramie, bookending his not-so-glamorous career. In ‘The Big Bronc Hit,’ a fresh-faced young Jack travels to Amarillo, eager to earn his money on a foray into Texas horse country—until he learns the true nature of his ‘investigation.’ Rodeo clowns, a broke-down bronc-riding champ, and a mystery woman round out the cast, with a final confrontation among the rocky crags of Palo Duro Canyon.

In ‘The Vinyl Coffin,’ an older, more jaded Jack makes his next-to-last mistake when he decides to settle down in Dallas, finally opening the detective office he’s been dreaming of. But quitting a vagabond’s life doesn’t do much for the middle-aged blues, and after a nightcap at the infamous Carousel Club that leaves him face to face with an old nemesis, he finds himself helping a faded star already down the path to self-destruction. Does Jack get pulled in too, or does he rally in time to save both of them? Well, it is his ‘last’ case ...

Blood Moon

Here's the latest book the BEAT to a PULP team has been working on:

BLOOD MOON by Eric Beetner 

The Lawyer should have heeded the ominous signs: a forest fire raging in the distance and the undertaker’s wagon carrying away two knife-stabbed bodies. But he’s a man obsessed, methodically hunting down the gang members who murdered his family, and Big Jim Kimbrough, his latest target, isn’t far from the hell-blazing inferno. In a surprise turn, Kimbrough gets the jump on The Lawyer and leaves him for dead; though fortune is in his corner when a trio of frontier women find him and nurse him back to health. It’s not long before Kimbrough learns The Lawyer is still alive. Desperate to rub out the man who’s been dogging him, the outlaw goes gunning for The Lawyer again, determined this time to finish the job.

Eric Beetner (The Year I Died Seven Times) writes the Old West with the same terse, action-packed grit as his crime fiction. BLOOD MOON is his second riveting “Lawyer” tale following the highly praised Six Guns at Sundown.

Available Now: Coffin for Cash

New Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles written by Nik Morton.

Hardboiled, Surreal, and Bewitching

Hope you Blogger friends fans can spare some time to read my article, at Macmillan's Criminal Element, on one of my favorite writers. --DC

Wayne D. Dundee's The Retributioners

J.D. Miller, aka The Lawyer, continues to hunt the men that slaughtered his family. His next target is Jules Despare who’s been riding with the Selkirk gang robbing banks. When the town of Emmett, Texas, is marked by the hardcases and the local marshal murdered, The Lawyer is asked by the town’s influential residents to track down the reprehensible outfit. But he has little use for the narrow-minded bigots that won’t stand behind the remaining deputy—a black man named Ernest Tell. After Tell resigns, he suggests a partnership with The Lawyer who refuses. It’s obvious, though, these two avengers are gunning for the same men and will eventually work together to settle old scores in THE RETRIBUTIONERS.

And click here for Wayne talking about writing the second adventure in the Lawyer series.

Torn And Frayed

Went to edit my latest and found out my daughter was already working on it.

A Fistful of Beetner by CT McNeely

Eric Beetner gets a glowing review by CT McNeely from Dark Corners ...

Eric Beetner is a good old-fashioned pulpster. He spins a rip-roaring yarn like nobody's business and this year is one of the best years to introduce yourself to his work if you're not already on Team Beetner. I am going to talk to you about two of the things Mr. Beetner has coming this year: Rumrunners and The Year I Died Seven Times.

If you have your hand on the pulse of pulp, you know what an amazing operation David Cranmer is running over there at Beat to a Pulp. If so, you may be aware of The Year I Died Seven Times already when it was released in serialized installments. Regardless if you've read it serialized or not, this is your chance to see the whole funny, sordid, wild tale in one volume.

The Year I Died Seven Times tells the story of poor, unfortunate Ridley as he, well, it's pretty much in the title. What isn't in the title is all of the times that Beetner will make you cringe, laugh, cry, and all the sleep that you will lose staying up to read this one to its thrilling conclusion.

Also coming this year is Rumrunners. Rumrunners is Dukes of Hazzard meets Fargo, pissed off and mad about it. It's an alcohol fueled rollercoaster ride of backcountry badassery.

Rumrunners, like all the best backcountry crime tales, focuses on a family. In this case, the McGraws. You need only look to the title to see how they get by. That is, until now, when Tucker McGraw decides to go straight. Of course, it's not that simple. These things never are.

Rumrunners is every bit as good as you want these books to be. It succeeds in pulp revelry where so many other great works of Southern crime fiction fall flat. It is one damn fun book and you'll find yourself returning to it like a favorite movie over and over.

The same can be said, of course, for everything Beetner has ever written. This will be a year of good fortune for Beetner, with many new releases, and that means it will be a great time for all you crazy fiends out there in Pulpsville. Get ready with them wallets, folks. The Year of the Beetner has arrived.

Hell Town Shootout Review

This made my day! Western legend James Reasoner reviews Hell Town Shootout.

A Further Nod

What a nice way to end the year! Ron Scheer takes a look at my Further Adventures.

Remembering John Dall

Link: Let’s Not Forget Film Noir's John Dall

The Lawyer: Stay of Execution by Wayne D. Dundee

Coming soon...

In the Old West, J.D. Miller had been an attorney at law. A respected and successful one. Until the horrific, soul-scarring day when he returned home to find his entire family gruesomely slaughtered—the charred remains scarcely recognizable in the smoldering ruins of what had once been their house. Like a phoenix rising out of the ashes, The Lawyer—a killing machine—was born, and he’s leaving a blood-splattered revenge trail as he searches out those who murdered his family.

THE LAWYER: STAY OF EXECUTION is the first novella in a thrilling new hard-boiled Western series by bestselling Amazon author Wayne D. Dundee (Manhunter’s Mountain, The Empty Badge) and BEAT to a PULP books. Based on characters created by Edward A. Grainger, author of the Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles adventures.

Listen for Cash

So a few months back, Erik Arneson approached me and asked if I had a story he could use for his topmost Word Crimes Podcast. I was just completing Further Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles and thought “Merciless” would be a perfect fit, and thanks to Erik and the vocal talents of Scott Detrow it turns out to be something special indeed. This is a first for me, hearing my characters come alive, so to speak, in another medium.

“Merciless” features former lawman Cash Laramie—The Outlaw Marshal—at seventy-nine-years-old. His glory days far behind him, he’s traded his horse in for a car and sits most evenings in a Cheyenne bar conversing with the bartender. Another patron, a young loudmouth named Roberts, sets in motion a series of events that leads to a poignant, tragic ending.

I feel this one turned out pretty darn good, with special thanks going to my buddy Chuck Tyrell who had considerable input (and to whom I dedicate my latest collection). “Merciless” originally appeared in Pulp Modern Issue #4, edited by Alec Cizak.

And, of course, big thanks to Erik and Scott. What a nice, early Christmas present. Guaranteed I'll listen another two dozen times at least.

At Kevin's Corner...

I'm always appreciative when someone takes the time to read a book I've worked on and even more pleased when they take the time out of their busy week to review. In this case, Kevin Tipple was kind enough to write a few words on my Further Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles. Thanks, Kevin!

Further Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles

This is my first new collection of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles short stories in almost three years. Wayne D. Dundee, Heath Lowrance, and Nik Morton have done such a fantastic job while I’ve been away that I knew I needed to dig deep to live up to their recent exploits.

The story of Cash and Gideon begins in the 1880s Wyoming Territory, then thunders through to 1930s New Orleans, and the two Deputy U.S. Marshals continue to find themselves on the outside of societal norms.

My buddy Chuck Tyrell helped me considerably with several stories in Further Adventures, and, in fact, I dedicated this collection to him.

Further Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles is available in print and for the Kindle.

Hardboiled Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway is one of the biggest names of 20th century literature. He won the Pulitzer Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954, and his star seems in no danger of burning out even with tastes shifting away from the controversial sport of his beloved bull fighting and his outdated machismo. Though he didn’t write for the pulps, his spare dialogue and trim storytelling strongly influenced many hardboiled crime writers of his time and extending to crime-scrawling word slingers on the Internet today. Below I’ve selected six stories and two films that exemplify why, along with impresarios like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, he helped define a genre directly with classics like “The Killers” and indirectly with more literature-infused offerings like “In a Clean, Well-Lighted Place.”

Read the rest of Edward A. Grainger's Hardboiled Hemingway here.

Free eBooks!

Two Jack Laramie, The Drifter Detective, novellas are free for the Kindle over the next several days: The Girls of Bunker Pines by Garnett Elliott and Wide Spot in the Road by Wayne D. Dundee.

What I'm Working On...

My first collection of Cash & Miles short stories in three years. Almost done.

Free eBook! Manhunter's Mountain (Cash Laramie Adventure) by Wayne D. Dundee

A fast, hardboiled Western that continues the Cash Laramie legend with swagger and good, solid writing. Wayne Dundee brings his masterful voice to the Western and tells a Cash Laramie story in perfect pitch. Manhunter's Mountain should be on every Western fiction reader's bookshelf. -- Larry D. Sweazy, Spur Award-winning author of The Coyote Tracker.

Free eBook! Dinero Del Mar by Garnett Elliott

Jack Laramie finds himself in the middle of a rural beauty contest that’s as crooked as a busted fiddle. Things get worse from there, and a chance encounter in the Corpus Christi drunk-tank leads to a new case—on Texas’s dazzling Padre Island. A big, old mansion full of scheming rich folks, lawyers, and psychics is just the beginning. Jack survives the ‘trip’ of his life, but is his craftiness a match for the privileged upper crust?

Dinero Del Mar runs about 24k words, the longest Drifter to date, and features an ending that will forever change the series. Don’t miss it!

*****

Dinero Del Mar is the fifth novella in The Drifter Detective series, following on the heels of Wayne D. Dunde’s Wide Spot in the Road, and Garnett Elliott’s The Girls of Bunker Pines, Hell Up in Houston, and the eponymous debut, The Drifter Detective.

Free ebooks!

For the next several days I'm offering two of my collections for free. Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles, Vol.II and The Education of a Pulp Writer & other stories.