Sixteen tales that combine the otherworldly with hardboiled crime fiction—from Joe R. Lansdale, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Paul G. Tremblay, Melanie Tem, and others.Here are the femme fatales, the tough guys, the down-on-their-luck detectives—but with a twist. Collected by Hugo and Bram Stoker Award–winning editor Ellen Datlow, these stories of the murderous and macabre will take you onto the dark streets of worlds unlike our own, where the monstrous stalk their prey.

The Death Panel: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness features 13 stories from authors of crime, suspense, and horror. Sadistic serial killers, German war criminals, cops and zombies, the mob and monsters, detectives and were-creatures, all rolled up into one roller coaster ride of an anthology. Ultra violent, hardboiled, with an unhealthy dose of the macabre, The Death Panel is a no-holds-barred, in-your-face hard ride to hell.EDITORIAL REVIEWS"...if you’re looking...

From award-winning author Tom Piccirilli comes what Lee Child calls “perfect crime fiction,” a wholly original novel introducing the Rands, a vipers’ nest of crooks and cons, one generation stealing from the next. Upon the razor-thin edge between love and violence lives a pair of brothers, their bonds frayed by betrayals and guilt, their loyalty to each other their last salvation.Raised to pick a pocket before he could walk, Terry Rand cut free from his family after his older broth...

"Lovers of gritty noir will devour this . . . a pulse-pounding account of a writer's descent into despair and violence." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)With his book sales—never strong to begin with—ebbing and the economy crashing, a writer is on the brink. When his wife leaves him and the bank takes his house, he goes over the edge. Living out of his car with his beloved bulldog, Churchill, he's set upon by street punks just as he's about to pawn the...

Chase was raised as a getaway driver by his grandfather, Jonah, a con man feared by even the hardened career criminals who make up his crew. But when Jonah crosses the line and murders one of his own, Chase goes solo, stealing cars and pulling scores across the country. . . . And then he meets Lila, a strong-willed deputy sheriff with a beguiling smile who shows him what love can be. Chase is on the straight and narrow for the first time in his life—until tragedy hits, and he must reenter ...

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Tom Piccirilli's The Last Kind Words.This lyrical tale of evil, loss, and redemption is a stunning addition to the Southern gothic tradition of Flannery O’Connor and Harry Crews.A Choir of Ill Children is the startling story of Kingdom Come, a decaying, swamp backwater that draws the lost, ill-fated, and damned.Since his mother’s disappearance and his father’s suicide, Thomas has cared for his th...

"...if anybody tells you that all you need is a lucky break, then tell them to shove off. Luck is about the worst thing that can happen in this biz, and it's no substitute for knowledge, experience, and skill."—Tom Piccirilli, from Welcome to Hell"Welcome to Hell is an anecdotal look into Piccirilli's life and writing process that happens to serve as a wonderful tool for any fledgling writer. Oddly, since he's so acclaimed, this may be the Piccirilli book ...

Hugo and World Fantasy Award nominated editor Warren Lapine celebrates twenty years in genre publishing with his latest effort, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination. This anthology contains fourteen nicely varied stories by some of the top names in genre publishing and several new up-and-comers. Included are Harlan Ellison, Mike Resnick, Barry B. Longyear, Kelly McCullough, Shariann Lewitt, Tom Piccirilli, Trent Zelazny, Sharon Lee, Steve Miller, and many others. The stories range from edg...

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Tom Piccirilli's The Last Kind Words.Five years ago, Eddie Whitt’s daughter Sarah became the victim of a serial killer known as Killjoy, and Whitt vowed to hunt him down—no matter what the cost. But the police have given up. And Killjoy has stopped killing…and in some bizarre act of repentance has begun kidnapping abused infants and leaving them with the parents of his original victims.The only clues to Killjoy’s identit...

An ex-cop, Finn was left literally blinded by violence. The one thing he can still see is the body of his wife, Dani, and a crime scene that won’t fade from his mind’ s eye. Now a professor, Finn never would have guessed that an isolated girls’ prep school could be every bit as dangerous as city streets. Especially when he stumbles upon a local girl lying in a graveyard in the middle of a raging blizzard.Finn may live in a world of total darkness, but it’s about to get a s...

Five years ago, Priest McClaren and his younger sister, Molly, were forced to watch as their parents were murdered by a desperate pair of outlaws. Though one is dead, the other, Yuman Dean, is still on the loose. Now Molly is a haunted bounty hunter and all Priest wants is to run a little store with his partner, Lamarr, an ex-slave and ex-Union soldier. But it won't be that easy.

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Tom Piccirilli's The Last Kind Words.Two years ago Shad Jenkins went to prison for assaulting hissister’s attacker. Now he has returned to the southern mountain town of Moon Run Hollow, only to find that Megan is dead. No one knows how she died–or why she was found on Gospel Trail Road, a dirt path leading up to the gorge high above the Chatalaha River, where victims of yellow fever were once brought to die.Naviga...