Sketches of Gotham by Ike Swift offers a concentrated, compelling experience within fiction / literary. This concise work presents carefully drawn characters and purposeful plotting that together explore themes of choice, consequence, and human connection. The prose is precise and economical, balancing vivid scenes with clear pacing to maintain narrative momentum. Ideal for readers seeking a thoughtful, accessible read, the book is well-suited to book clubs and classroom discussion. Its in...

Gritty all-new crime stories set in the bustling Texas city, by Ben Fountain, Kathleen Kent, James Hime, and many more.In a country with so many interesting cities, Dallas is often overlooked—except on November 22 every year. On that day in 1963, Dallas became American noir. This collection of crime stories takes its inspiration from the darker corners of everyday life in a city that many associate only with a historic assassination—or a glitzy TV show about oil fo...

Now available in paperback, William C. Banfield’s acclaimed collection of interviews delves into the lives and work of forty-one Black composers. Each of the profiled artists offers a candid self-portrait that explores areas from training and compositional techniques to working in a exclusive canon that has existed for a very long time. At the same time, Banfield draws on sociology, Western concepts of art and taste, and vernacular musical forms like blues and jazz to provide a frame for t...

One of the New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st CenturyThe world just goes along. Nothing much matters, you know? I mean really matters. but then sometimes, just for a second, you get this grace, this belief that it does matter, a whole lot.With an introduction from Lydia DavisLucia Berlin’s stories in A Manual for Cleaning Women make for one of the most remarkable unsung collections in twentieth-century American fict...

Detective Carson Ryder faces his most terrifying adversary yet in this nail-biting thriller from the author of Her Last Scream.Carson Ryder thought he’d seen everything …A specialist in twisted crimes, Detective Carson Ryder thought he’d seen the lowest depths of human depravity. But he’s barely started his new job in Miami when called to a horrific scene: a concrete pillar built of human remains, their agony forever frozen in stone.Finding the secret of the pillar ...

A classic in the Bukowski poetry canon, Love Is a Dog from Hell is a raw, lyrical, exploration of the exigencies, heartbreaks, and limits of love.A book that captures the Dirty Old Man of American letters at his fiercest and most vulnerable, on a subject that hits home with all of us. Charles Bukowski was a man of intense emotions, someone an editor once called a “passionate madman.” Alternating between tough and gentle, sensitive and gritty, Bukowski lays bare the myriad facets of...

An explosive serial killer thriller perfect for readers of Lee Child, Karin Slaughter and Michael Connolly.Southern California, 1986. Detective Ben Wade has returned to his hometown in search of a quieter life and to try to save his marriage. Suddenly the community, with its peaceful streets and neighbourly concerns, finds itself at the mercy of a serial killer who slips through windows and screen doors at night, shattering illusions of safety.As Ben and fo...

TILL DEATH DO US PART Marcy Addwatter killed her husband - there's no question about that. Shot him dead in the motel room where he was trysting with a blonde hooker. Shot the hooker, too. But where the cops might see an open-and-shut case, private eye Michael Tree - Ms. Michael Tree - sees a conspiracy. For Ms. Tree, digging into it could mean digging her own grave... and digging up her own murdered husband's. Based on the longest-running private-eye comic book series of all time, DEADLY ...

Idjit Galoot has a problem. He escaped from his master's house for a brief romp around town, seeking out easy targets such as bitches in heat, fresh roadkill and unguarded garbage cans. When he returns to his house, the aged basset hound discovers that his master has packed up their belongings and moved to Florida without him. "Smashed, Squashed, Splattered, Chewed, Chunked and Spewed" is the story of Idjit Galoot's ne'er do well owner and his efforts to work his way back to the dog that h...

A father and his boys have won 'the war': the father's term for his bitter divorce and custody battle. They leave Kansas and drive through the night to their new apartment in Albuquerque. Settled in new schools, the brothers join basketball teams, make friends. Meanwhile their father works from home, smoking cheap cigars to hide another smell. Soon his missteps - the dead-eyed absentmindedness, the late-night noises, the comings and goings of increasingly odd characters - become s...

This book has alot of good old fashion jokes and alot of new ones. I know you'll read it over & over so you can tell them to all your friends or at your next Party.

Married to an uncaring, workaholic husband, Shylia Allred walks to alleviate stress and to consider her divorce. Typical of many abused spouses, she dreams of escape but always comes up with a reason to thwart her own plans. Then, as she's walking past the local parish hall just as an AA meeting is letting out, she literally bumps into Randall Sly. As they get to know each other, she comes to trust him completely. He's the one man who can bring a huge change to her life. But change isn't a...