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

Cizak, Alec

Genre Fiction

ABC Group Documentation

Deserted soldiers struggle to accept the violence that surrounds them. A boy wrestles with guilt over the death of his brother. And a man's morality is challenged in the hope of saving his daughter's life. The men and women found in the stories of Darkening inhabit a world marred by darkness. While each of these characters searches for hope, they must ultimately confront the consequences of their own actions.Darkening is an impressionistic fever dream. Daily conjures a remarkably dark vision, one where we'd be doomed if it weren't for the faintest glint of light off in the distance, one we still recognize as hope.-Jarret MiddletonAuthor of Darkansas

Darkening

Daily, Brandon

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

Chaos? Or fate? What brought you here? Were the choices yours, or did something outside of you conspire to bring you to this place? Because out in the woods, in a box buried in the ground, there is a little girl who has no hope of seeing the moon tonight. The moon has forsaken her. Because of you. “There is some dark magic in this one. I mean, really dark. Like whittle-my-bones-to-a-bloody-point dark. Jerkins calmly, unflinchingly goes about his business of crafting some troubled yet sympathetic characters who are in dire straits. That he manages to make these characters sympathetic, their problems understandable, is impressive and prompts the reader to consider the justice in violence. But despite the skill of its execution...I must pass.” —HarperCollins, Acquisitions Editor Grant Jerkins is the author of A Very Simple Crime, At the End of the Road, The Ninth Step, and Done in One. He lives in the Atlanta area with his wife and son. Visit his website at www.grantjerkins.com.

Abnormal Man

Jerkins, Grant

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

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Thrillers & Suspense

In his debut short fiction collection, A Scholar of Pain, Grant Jerkins remains—as the Washington Post put it—“Determined to peer into the darkness and tell us exactly what he sees.” Here, the depth of that darkness is on evident, oftentimes poetic, display. We meet, and come reluctantly to sympathize with: The office chair-sniffer who only wants to be loved, a bottomed-out cough-syrup addict, a terminally ill school bus driver who takes her young riders on a drunken suicide run, and a cheated-on housewife who discovers her husband’s other woman isn’t a woman at all, but a…No spoilers here. Just read it. Read all sixteen of these deviant diversions. Peer into the darkness. Praise for A SCHOLAR OF PAIN: “A Scholar of Pain hits that literary sweet spot: Could be crime fiction, might be southern gothic—or even horror. The stories are funny as hell, too. And compassionate. In fact, Jerkins’ voice is amongst the most compassionate I’ve heard, because he extends it to some hideous wretches in a way that underscores the humanity I share with them. I heartily recommend Grant Jerkins.” —Jedidiah Ayers, author of Peckerwood and Fierce Bitches “Sophisticated. Elegant. Sleek and demolishing.” —Ryan Sayles, author of Subtle Art of Brutality and Warpath “A joyous celebration of the darkness within us all. With A Scholar of Pain, Grant Jerkins gives an unflinching look—with no anger or judgment—into the realities that surround us. It’s one thing to write a convincing and compassionate love story, but writing one that involves a sex doll, well that’s another thing completely.” —DH Tuck, author of Formica

A Scholar of Pain

Short Stories & Anthologies

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

The twentieth century looms just a few years away, bringing with it the belief in progress and a new world. But for Josiah Fuller, William Corvin, and the Rider in the Appalachian backwoods and small towns, there is nothing but a world where bloodshed is paid for in blood, and violence is the ultimate law of the land. When seventeen-year-old Josiah Fuller comes home to find his parents hanged and mutilated and the family house burned to the ground, he sets off to find the man responsible for their murders and avenge their deaths. His journey takes him through new towns and wildernesses he has not seen before. He meets people who show him the realities of living in a violent world, forcing Josiah to decide what is most important to him: vengeance or grace. Years after running away from home as a young boy, William Corvin returns with his new bride to take over the family’s coal mining operation. Though he is haunted by the violence of his past, he sets out to live a peaceful life and start a family there. However, Corvin’s hopes of peace are challenged when a horrible act of violence causes him to revert back to the man he once was. After being visited by an angel in a dream years earlier, the Rider has become a man with violence in his blood, believing himself to be appointed by God to collect the souls of sinners. He travels around on his horse, killing whoever he feels is deserving of God’s wrath and vengeance. These three men move along their individual paths, their stories intersecting one another, as they search for an understanding of the violent world in which they live. The novel examines the power and fragility of belief and conviction within humans, showing how one small act often leads to consequences that reach far beyond anyone’s imagining. Praise for A MURDER COUNTRY: “A Murder Country is an existential, primordial fable. You will hear this novel compared to the work of Cormac McCarthy. You're going to hear that a lot. And it's true, Daily is mining a dark American seam. He's of a tradition that starts with Hawthorne, and on to Poe, to Dickinson. From Melville, to Steinbeck, to O'Connor. And yes, to McCarthy. And now beyond. You must read this book. But steel yourself.” —Grant Jerkins, author of A Scholar of Pain and A Very Simple Crime “In A Murder Country, author Brandon Daily has crafted a dark and beautifully written story of death and violence in a mystical landscape of tortured souls struggling with their innermost desires and demons. Daily’s style is reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy at his finest, but with twists and turns that make this work uniquely his own. An excellent read!” —William Rawlings, author of A Killing on Ring Jaw Bluff “A Murder Country is a beautifully written, razor sharp historical thriller. The prose is so assured and powerful, the characters so vivid and fully formed that it’s hard to believe this is a first novel. You won’t be able to put it down.” —David Bell, author of Never Come Back “Brandon Daily has managed what is rare in a debut novel, the synthesis of adventure and philosophy, of gritty realism and metaphysics. In the traditions of Jack London and Cormac McCarthy he has delivered an engaging story of the hardness of human nature and the quest for vengeance, all set in an expansive and questioning vision.” —Anthony Grooms, author of The Vain Conversation and Bombingham

A Murder Country

Literary

For the people of Corvin Valley, a small and secluded region within the Appalachian Mountains, life is slow and simple. Graham Stevens and Quinn Arnolds are teenagers falling in love for the first time, Father Wade Northrup and Sheriff Michael Leighton are both men trying to move on from sordid pasts and live righteous lives, and Adelaide Lewis is a lonely woman in search of love and a place within her world. But when a tragic accident occurs in the valley, these five people are forever changed as their paths become inextricably linked and they are confronted with their deepest secrets and fears, while being forced to reconcile their actions. The Valley explores the sometimes dark nature of love and family, and shows how hope can often be found in the unlikeliest of places. "Reading Brandon Daily's The Valley is like spending a hot summer night in some uneasy Faulknerian backwater damp with melancholy and sad longings, but also smoldering with suspense and dark secrets. This well-crafted novel is sure to be one of the year's best." —Donald Ray Pollock Author of The Heavenly Table and The Devil All the Time

The Valley

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Books by ABC Group Documentation

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Lake County Incidents

Darkening

Cool It Down

Cool It Down

Abnormal Man

Down on the Street

A Scholar of Pain

Breaking Glass

A Murder Country

The Valley