Sunday, May 16, 2021

Compelling Collections

 

Sometimes it's better not to commit. Take a little time to figure out what your looking for or what's right for you. An anthology can be a great way to meet new writers, as in the JUKES & TONKS title or read several tales by one author, as in the Junji Ito collection. Jump in and start reading. 

JUKES & TONKS 
edited by Michael Bracken and Gary Phillips



Crime Fiction Inspired by Music in the Dark and Suspect Choices

Publication Date: April 19, 2021

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.

Lovesickness: Junji Ito Story Collection 
by Junji Ito



Publication Date: April 20, 2021

An innocent love becomes a bloody hell in another superb collection by master of horror Junji Ito.

Ryusuke returns to the town he once lived in because rumors are swirling about girls killing themselves after encountering a bewitchingly handsome young man. Harboring his own secret from time spent in this town, Ryusuke attempts to capture the beautiful boy and close the case, but…

Starting with the strikingly bloody “Lovesickness,” this volume collects ten stories showcasing horror master Junji Ito in peak form, including “The Strange Hikizuri Siblings” and “The Rib Woman.”

Houses Burning and Other Ruins 
by William R. Soldan



Publication Date: May 07, 2021

Desperation. Violence. Broken homes and broken hearts. Fathers, junkies, and thieves. In this gritty new collection, one bad choice begets another, and redemption is a twisted mirage. An ex-addict takes a detour with his young son and comes face-to-face with an old drug dealer and an unsettled debt. A down-on-his-luck gambler visits his estranged sister while figuring out his next play. An Iraq War vet fights a personal battle to reconcile life as a civilian. Three boyhood friends stumble upon a dark secret in a rural dump. These and the other troubled characters that inhabit the streets and alleys of these stories continually find themselves at the mercy of a cold, indifferent world as they hurtle downward and grapple for hard-won second chances in a life that seldom grants them.

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