A tsunami-sized crime wave of hardboiled noir from some of the most enduring names in crime fiction, outside of the New York Five. This is the biggest, most robust issue of Switchblade yet. An all-star lineup, brimming with hard luck tales from some of the best outlaw fiction storytellers in print. Court Merrigan and Rob Pierce are in this issue. Indianapolis crime writer, and managing editor of Pulp Modern, Alec Cizak, has a story in this issue. Switchblade usual suspects Preston Lang, Jack Bates, Robb T. White, Rick Risemberg, and Lisa Douglass, are back and sharper than ever. New prospects Tom Andes, Tony Genova, E.F. Sweetman, David Rachels, Danny Sophabmisay, Chris McGinley, Timothy Friend, and Tom Barlow, have been jumped in to the fold. Sharp and deadly, quick and dirty; it’s the fast action gutter mag that fits into your back pocket. Featuring the soul-searing poetry of Lisa Douglass.

Switchblade (Switchblade Volume One)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Rachels, David

Cizak, Alec

Merrigan, Court

White, Robb T.

Douglass, Lisa

McGinley, Chris

Friend, Timothy

Sophabmisay, Danny

Andes, Tom

Mystery

Caledonia Press

Elmore Johnson has only got two friends, the bottle of Jim Beam in his coat pocket and a revolver named Lorraine. He worked for the Indianapolis Police Department until they booted him for exposing dirty cops. Now he makes a meager living snapping seedy photos. But when Elmore shoots pictures of the daughter of a wealthy CEO making cheap porn, the girl ends up dead. As the bodies pile up, Elmore finds himself trapped in the heart of a bizarre conspiracy until he discovers the horrifying truth about a place called Manifesto Destination.  Alec Cizak’s Manifesto Destination will take you back to dystopian 1998 Indianapolis where everyone—the cops, big business, and even the little guy—is dirty and only looking out for themselves. His writing is boiled rock hard and keeps you turning one noir-infested page after another until you find yourself as paranoid as Elmore Johnson.   “Alec Cizak finds the naked truth on the printed page. An artist with no fear and thankfully no moral center.” – David Cranmer, Editor of Beat To A Pulp  "The city of Indianapolis like you haven't seen it before (at least not yet), seasoned with a splash of noir, a dash of dystopia and almost but not quite hard-boiled. More like Eggs Benedict - though that breakfast was originally invented as a hangover cure, and this might cause one. Alec Cizak's heady mixture of sci-fi and P.I., bad cops and Big Brothers, is a dark, funny read, full of twists and a barely controlled rage at the state of our corporate nation. And by nudging his detective story into a disturbing but recognizable future, the author paints this concoction with an extra layer of despair, as we realize his Phil Dickian satire of manipulation is not just familiar, but also inevitable. Best read with Charlie Parker in the background (the hero probably wore out his Charlie Parker With Strings tape, but it weaves the perfect soundtrack). Jazzy and weird, the whole thing is probably a thinly-veiled threat, but I had too much fun to heed any warnings. See you at the Magic Carpet before they tear it down." - David James Keaton, author of FISH BITES COP: Stories To Bash Authorities

Manifesto Destination

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Welcome to Lake County, a group of small towns near Gary, Indiana, where the macabre and unusual collide with contemporary life and throw ordinary men and women out of their comfort zones and into the unthinkable. In these twelve stories, a ghostly presence leaps off a satellite image on the Internet and terrorizes the real world, a drug allows its users to interact with the dead, a popular energy drink turns consumers into religious zealots, and a couple discovers a window in their bathroom where the sun always shines, even if it’s midnight. These and other disturbing tales await you in Lake County Incidents, a collection of weird fiction steeped in the traditions of the classic pulps, set against the backdrop of the crumbling industrial landscape of rural America.

Lake County Incidents

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

ABC Group Documentation

Cool It Down

There Are No Heroes In This World\nAfter fleeing a deadly romance, Blake Ness finds himself on an obscure island off the Gulf Coast. He befriends the island’s owner and mayor, a Cuban counter-revolutionary, and takes a job as a bouncer at a local massage parlor. Just when he thinks he’s found a home in paradise, he meets a Sarasota land baron who knows his real identity. Blake must choose between paying for his crimes of the past, or committing a new crime he may never escape from…\nReview:\n"In Cool It Down, Alec Cizak’s follow-up to Breaking Glass, Blake Ness wends through a Florida town’s web of paranoia and conspiracy. He soon realizes he’s addicted to murder, and, like a Jim Thompson character interwoven with one of David Goodis, all he has to do to survive is surrender all he believes...Does it end well? Does anything by Cizak? A stunning novel"—Rob Pierce, author of Blood by Choice\n"Just when Florida couldn't get any weirder, Alec Cizak pulls you into Raro Key, a fictional coastal town rife with alligator worship, coffee-sipping spiders, pedophilic preachers, ghosts, and sins from the past, characters whose allegiances shift like shadows on cracked pavement. David Lynch meets Carl Hiassen in this sun-soaked revenge yarn" 
—Hector Duarte Jr., author of Desperate Times Call\n“In Cool it Down Alec Cizak does what he’s always done best--kick back against the prigs of conformity while writing real prose with words that assault you like an iron fist in a silk glove. Cool it Down transcends genres and literary pigeonholes to stand alone and it is a novel that truly deserves to.”—Stephen J. Golds, author of Always the Dead

Predators thrive on entropy. They're often the ones closest to us. They know where we're most vulnerable-where it hurts the most. They come in all types. They cruise the street anonymously, looking for victims; or they return to us like a lethal rash from an unresolved past. They might be ideological extremists. Or profit-driven sharply dressed parasites. They might even be megalomaniacs. But they all thrive on weakness-especially dysfunctional relationships. And they know when to strike, when you think the world's got your back-and then you realize it does: when it whispers softly that what you're about to receive is nothing more than a routine prostate exam.

Switchblade: Issue Eleven (Switchblade Volume One)

Garnet, George

Burnett, Misha

Wilsky, Jim

Graves, J.D.

JAYNE, SERENA

Beatty, Brian

Timm, John

Weren't Another Other Way to Be: Outlaw Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Waylon Jennings

Bracken, Michael

Floyd, John

Phillips, Matt

Holliday, Trevor

De Boer, Burke

Bain, January

Thayer, Russel

Craig, Meredith

Klink, Ian

Short Stories & Anthologies

Gutter Books

Times are tough. Lester Banks, a cab driver in Indianapolis, can’t pay his bills and is about to get kicked out onto the streets. His neighbor, a gorgeous young college student named Chelsea, is also on the verge of homelessness. He convinces her to become an escort under his guidance and protection. Their financial situation looks like it might improve until some dirty cops step in, demanding their cut. Lester makes a tragic decision to solve his own problems. Then the situation gets worse, more than he could ever have imagined.

Down on the Street

Thrillers & Suspense

Elmore Johnson has only got two friends, the bottle of Jim Beam in his coat pocket and a revolver named Lorraine. He worked for the Indianapolis Police Department until they booted him for exposing dirty cops. Now he makes a meager living snapping seedy photos. But when Elmore shoots pictures of the daughter of a wealthy CEO making cheap porn, the girl ends up dead. As the bodies pile up, Elmore finds himself trapped in the heart of a bizarre conspiracy until he discovers the horrifying truth about a place called Manifesto Destination. Alec Cizak’s Manifesto Destination will take you back to dystopian 1998 Indianapolis where everyone—the cops, big business, and even the little guy—is dirty and only looking out for themselves. His writing is boiled rock hard and keeps you turning one noir-infested page after another until you find yourself as paranoid as Elmore Johnson. Praise for MANIFESTO DESTINATION: “Alec Cizak finds the naked truth on the printed page. An artist with no fear and thankfully no moral center.” —David Cranmer, editor of Beat To a Pulp “The city of Indianapolis like you haven’t seen it before (at least not yet), seasoned with a splash of noir, a dash of dystopia and almost but not quite hard-boiled. More like Eggs Benedict—though that breakfast was originally invented as a hangover cure, and this might cause one. Alec Cizak’s heady mixture of sci-fi and P.I., bad cops and Big Brothers, is a dark, funny read, full of twists and a barely controlled rage at the state of our corporate nation. And by nudging his detective story into a disturbing but recognizable future, the author paints this concoction with an extra layer of despair, as we realize his Phil Dickian satire of manipulation is not just familiar, but also inevitable. Best read with Charlie Parker in the background (the hero probably wore out his ‘Charlie Parker With Strings’ tape, but it weaves the perfect soundtrack). Jazzy and weird, the whole thing is probably a thinly-veiled threat, but I had too much fun to heed any warnings. See you at the Magic Carpet before they tear it down.” —David James Keaton, author of Fish Bites Cop: Stories To Bash Authorities

All Due Respect

It’s summer, 2016. Chelsea Farmer has awoken from one nightmare into another. Once a call girl with no control over her life, she’s lost even more control, becoming another statistic in the opioid epidemic eating America from the inside out. Shacking up with a woman she may or may not be in love with, and three men unaware of just how useless they’ve become, she participates in home invasions to steal material goods that can be traded for pills or, even better, heroin. In between hits, the gang finds other ways to scrape together money, such as getting paid to march in a protest-turned-riot against presidential candidate Donald Trump. As the habit increases, calls for more crimes to feed it, the boys get increasingly violent with the victims of their home invasions. How long will it be before they actually kill a homeowner who refuses to cooperate? Chelsea must decide whether or not she’s willing to hang around and find out. Praise for BREAKING GLASS: “Alec Cizak hits streets we don’t want to live on and he hits them hard. For a writer as good as Cizak, that isn’t enough. Breaking Glass is the story of an addict who stumbles into a chance at recovery only to have her past come back on her. Can she redeem herself while maintaining her newfound peaceful self? This book raises brutal questions and gives the answers it must.” —Rob Pierce, author of Uncle Dust and Vern in the Heat “Alec Cizak continues to tap into the bleakness of modern life that he did with Down on the Street. Breaking Glass is so dark and troubling it will make you cry for mercy as he joins Poe and Lovecraft in finding new ways to disturb you.” —David Nemeth, editor of Unlawful Acts “In addition to containing the single best death scene—ever, in the history of writing—Alec Cizak’s Breaking Glass paints a condemnation and a begrudging acceptance of our post-PC culture, told through the eyes of Chelsea Farmer, a millennial dope fiend. Part Tom Sawyer and part Alex from A Clockwork Orange, Chelsea takes us on a tour of an America where hardcore violence and sickening sexual predation are givens; yet subliminal microaggressions end careers and the definition of rape is as elusive and fluid as a spoon-cooked tab of oxycontin. I was hooked.” —Grant Jerkins, author of A Scholar of Pain and Abnormal Man “Alec Cizak’s writing is clean, full of dark humor and pulpy edge; all of which highlights his fast dialogue and faster plot. His expert use of language allows him to build believable, interesting characters and create realistic, though bleak, situations. Manifesto Destination and Down on the Street solidify his position next to the greatest writers of hard-boiled fiction. Every story he creates is thrilling and compelling.” —Marietta Miles, author of May and Route 12

Breaking Glass

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