by Jake Hinkson
Frank didn't even see her. He let go of her hand and stood up.
He told me, "I'm going to miss you, baby."
Kitty's face fell; it just seemed to crumble. Her eyes filled with tears.
Frank walked over to take me in his arms and kiss me goodbye, so I moved the gun to my left hand.
Then with my right hand I punched him in the nose.
It hurt my hand, but I took some satisfaction in knowing that it hurt his face more.
"Like I said, Frank. You see me again, you better start running the other direction."
Morley held his bloody nose.
Kitty stared at him with tears still in her eyes. Then she looked at me.
She wiped away some tears and started clapping.
I turned around and left.
* * *
I don't remember the drive over to Nate's house. I'm not sure I obeyed all the traffic laws. I'm not sure I stopped at every red light. I really don't recall.
My hand still hurt from hitting Frank. My nose still hurt from where Vin Colfax had smashed my face into the floor of the chicken plant. I felt these things, but I didn't think about them. I just drove.
Walking up to the door, I had my first thought in over half an hour. Should I knock?
Before I could decide, the door opened.
My brother leaned in the doorway. The light behind him cast a long shadow over his face. He asked, "Are you okay?"
"Opinions vary."
"You want to come in?"
"Yes."
He didn't move. "Are you going to be alright, Ellie?"
"Probably not," I said, "but do you really want to miss the show?"
Without saying anything my brother opened the door wider. His face was still obscured by shadows, but it almost looked like he was smiling.
†
About the Author
Jake Hinkson is the author of several books, including Hell on Church Street, The Posthumous Man, and Saint Homicide. He lives in Chicago.
Also by Jake Hinkson
HELL ON CHURCH STREET (New Pulp Press) Kindle edition
Geoffrey Webb is a natural born con man who talks his way into a cushy job as the youth minister at a small Baptist church in Arkansas. He gets free housing, a steady paycheck, and he doesn’t have to work very hard. His only mistake is to begin an affair with the preacher's teenage daughter. When a corrupt local sheriff named Doolittle Norris finds out about Webb's relationship with the girl, Webb's easy life starts to fall apart. Sheriff Norris, backed by his family of psychotic hillbillies, forces Webb into a deadly scheme to embezzle money from the church. What the Norris clan doesn't understand, however, is that Geoffrey Webb has brutal plans of his own.
One of the best noir novels of recent years, an instant classic …
—Jason Starr, author of Twisted City
An amazing debut from an instant star of the genre …
—Scott Phillips, author of The Ice Harvest
One of the rare novels that actually deserves the over-used comparison to Jim Thompson …
—Los Angeles Review of Books
* * *
THE POSTHUMOUS MAN (BEAT to a PULP) Kindle edition
When Elliot Stilling killed himself, he thought his troubles were over. Then the ER doctors revived him. It's infatuation at first sight when he meets his nurse, Felicia Vogan, a strange young woman with a weakness for sad sacks and losers. After she helps Elliot escape from the hospital, she takes him back to her place. He’s happy to go with her, even when she leads him straight to a gang planning a million dollar heist. Does Felicia just want Elliot to protect her from the outfit's psychotic leader, Stan the Man? Or is Elliot being set up to take the hard fall? One thing’s for sure: if he's going to survive this long night of deceit and murder, Elliot will have to finally face himself and his own dark past.
In this novel, the existential and theological themes buried inside the best noir are pulled to the surface, hungry for air and clutching a last chance at redemption …
—Eddie Muller, founder and president of the Film Noir Foundation
… manages to feel both like a classic post-war crime novel and something entirely new and all Hinkson's own at the same time …
—Spinetingler Magazine
* * *
SAINT HOMICIDE (Crime Factory Publications) Kindle edition
The other inmates call him Saint Homicide, the murderous man of god who heeded the voice of wrath when it told him to do the unthinkable. Many consider him a fanatic. Others see him as a prophet. And some simply think he's insane. Here, he tells his story.
A chilling masterpiece … establishes Jake Hinkson as a major player …
—Ed Gorman, author Cage of Night
Bible-black noir, a study in the annihilating force of self-righteousness …
—Eva Dolan, author of Long Way Home
A masterpiece …
—Jon Bassoff, author of Corrosion
Other titles from BEAT to a PULP
The Axeman of Storyville
by Heath Lowrance
(available in print and for Kindle)
From the Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles series comes a gripping tale of terror as Miles hunts down a nightmarish serial killer.
New Orleans, 1921. It's a new world for former U.S. Marshal Gideon Miles, now retired and running one of the most popular jazz clubs in the city. But when a deranged axe murderer strikes at the prostitutes of Storyville, and the Black Hand takes up arms, Miles is drawn back into the world he knows so well--the world of evil men, buried secrets, and violent death. Just like old times.
Dinero Del Mar
by Garnett Elliott
(available in print and for Kindle)
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.
Wake Up, Time to Die
by Chris Rhatighan
(available in print and for Kindle)
Delusions of grandeur. Furby with an assault rifle. More convenience store robberies than ten seasons of Cops. This is Wake Up, Time to Die. Sometimes funny, sometimes disturbing, and always filled with bad coffee and cheap cigarettes, these stories highlight the weird crime side of Chris Rhatigan's repertoire.
Offering short story collections and novellas in a variety of genres (from noir and hardboiled crime to Westerns, from science fiction to the undefinable), BEAT to a PULP is sure to have something for every pulp enthusiast. See what's new in our catalog from some of the finest pulp writers of today.
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