Please Do Not Buy These Books!

I found out yesterday that Down & Out Books – the US publisher that I worked with on three books and multiple anthologies – is closing down with immediate effect. Undeniably sad news, as I know a lot of good people who had books published by D&O – and all of those books will now be stuck in limbo. (Also: running a small press in this day and age is a brutal, thankless task, so while saddened, I’m not massively surprised how things turned out.)

I kind of snuck in the back door, as all of my books were picked up via All Due Respect, a now-defunct imprint of D&O – and the last one of those was published in 2021 – so I feel a little detached from the events that are currently unfolding. Suffice to say, several people I know are owed royalties and a lot of good books are going out of print.

Personally, I won’t receive any further royalties for the books I published with them until the rights revert to me, so please don’t buy any of my D&O/ADR books until this happens. I’m optimistic that this should happen pretty soon, and I hope to re-publish the books in 2026, but the originals are still on Amazon as I type this.

In the meantime, if you have a burning desire to buy one of my paperbacks, I have a few spare copies knocking around (see below), and I’m happy to undercut whatever price Jeff Bezos is charging for them on Amazon!

(Note: UK only, while stocks last! I can do £6 per book + P&P if you are interested – message me!)

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Slut Vomit 2: Out Now!

I’m happy to confirm that the new Outcast Press anthology – Slut Vomit 2 – is out now in paperback and e-book formats!

The book includes a new and exclusive Joe Rey story called ‘The Name of Your First Pet’, which sees everyone’s favourite anti-hero hired to track down a missing porn star. Like all good Rey stories, it’s funny, sleazy and incredibly violent!

Here’s the blurb:

20 more short stories presented by Outcast Press that don’t skirt around the many sides to sex work. Bad b!tches and good guys. Creeps and kleptos. Nymphos and the needy. Eastern Bloc gangstresses to blackmailing e-girls. Yacht whores to yearning wives. Rent boys and triple-X stars. BDSM DVD kings and glory hole gawkers. Epstein wannabes and trafficking ring stingers. Dragsters and lot lizards. Every facet of prostitution, fetishism, and taboo/cathartic writing finds a haven here.

1. Razorblade Pussy by Manny Torres
2. Boat Drinks by John Kojak
3. Balloonatics by C.R. Abby
4. The Doxxing Domme by Dan Baltic
5. Toppings by Brandon Mead
6. Girl Dinner by Paige Johnson
7. Dead Fish by Annabel Costello
8. Save Me, 6-Ft. Nazi Dominatrix by Charlie Babbit
9. Eye Spy by Cody Sexton
10. Honeysuckling by Ryan Warrick
11. Cog Fuck by Neda Aria
12. Ladyboy by Robb White
13. Zombie Whorehouse by Sebastian Vice
14. The Name of Your First Pet by Tom Leins
15. Smalltown Boy by LG Thomson
16. Perv Tax by Mark Burrow
17. Deprivation of Character by Jeff Schneider
18. Worms by James Jenkins
19. Lot Lizard by JD Clapp
20. Will-O’-The-Wisp by Aaron Paul Schaut
21. Lewds by Slxt Vxmit

Amazon UK link.

Amazon US link.

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One Man Army: Book Trailer!

Today is the last chance to grab a free copy of my new e-book ONE MAN ARMY!

(For a few months, at least!)

Here’s a quick trailer to help convince you to take the plunge – or put you off altogether!

Amazon UK Link

Amazon US Link

A quick peek behind the curtain: this book was written as a bit of an experiment. After 20 years of writing about Joe Rey and his grubby suburban misadventures, I wanted to place my protagonist in a slightly different environment, and give him a very different type of challenge to deal with – without changing anything about his characterisation. It was also a palette cleanser – a shameless, action-packed page-turner – written between two grim, intense Paignton Noir books.

Interestingly – for me at least (!) – I tweaked the Kindle categorisation for this book, and it quickly cracked the Top 10 charts for free e-books in multiple categories, including conspiracy thrillers, military thrillers and crime action fiction. I realise this is a pretty negligible achievement, but I’m always interested to see the Amazon algorithm at work, as it is a complete mystery to me. It’s still a hardboiled/noir Joe Rey story, but I’m interested to see if readers respond to a well-worn character in a different type of story.

One Man Army has shifted quite a few units since the weekend, so hopefully I’ve hooked some new readers in the process… I’ve definitely sold a bunch of other books in recent days, but that could be purely coincidental! As always, watch this space!

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One Man Army: Out Now!

“The cold air has a nasty tang from the diesel fumes of the snow ploughs that have been grinding their way across town since dawn. The stark Torquay landscape looks starker than usual as I shuffle down the hill towards the town centre, which has been smothered by a spectral bluish-white blanket of snow. I know better than most that the fairytale makeover is burying a multitude of sins.”

New e-book time! My brand new novelette, One Man Army, is out now for Kindle! Even better, it is free for the next five days (1st February-5th February)!

Here’s the synopsis:

March, 2018. Anticyclone Hartmut – better known as the Beast from the East – has brought Great Britain to its knees, with sub-zero temperatures and heavy snowfall. Paignton private investigator Joe Rey has other problems, however…

Rey has been offered a lucrative pay-day by Konstantin, a shadowy ex-KGB Directorate Chief, who wants him to retrieve a decades-old dirty bomb that was hidden in the nuclear bunker beneath Torquay Magistrate’s Court shortly before the end of the Cold War. To ensure his cooperation, Konstantin injects Rey with a nerve agent – the antidote to which is stashed in the same nuclear bunker.

With the clock ticking, Rey has no choice but to start messing with the kind of people who really don’t like to be messed with. But will he succeed, or will Torquay go up in smoke?

Buy via Amazon UK.

Buy via Amazon US.

Enjoy!

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The Cattleman @ Crystal Lake Publishing

“It’s late-August. The fag-end of a broiling hot summer. The afternoon is heavy and oppressive and the fat sun pulses like a bag of medical waste. I step inside the Coach House and order a pint of Kronenbourg. The teenage bar-band – the posters advertise them as Bled Dry – sound louder than an abattoir, but mildly less tuneful.“

If you are a patron of the Crystal Lake Publishing Patreon, you can now read my story The Cattleman in this month’s Folklore flash fiction contest! (Note: voting opens on Thursday, when all 20 stories are online.)

Here’s a taster of what you can expect!

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Slush Fund Review @ Punk Noir Magazine

“Joe’s sense of right and wrong is so blurred, you’ll think your drink was spiked and like any good hardcore wrestler anything can be used as weapon.” 

from A Punk Noir Book Review By Scott Cumming

Many thanks to Scott Cumming for this excellent review of my new book, Slush Fund, over at Punk Noir Magazine!

I’m always happy when people who have been reading my stories and books for years keep coming back for more – it gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

If you fancy going down the rabbit hole, I’ve had a whole bunch of stories published by Punk Noir over the years – most recently The First Five People You Meet In Hell, which dropped in April this year.

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Slush Fund: Book Trailer

I had fun putting together a quick trailer to advertise my new book, Slush Fund. Here’s the result!

(Regular readers will hopefully recognise a few familiar faces based on their descriptions in the books!)

Tempted? You can order a copy from the usual place!

UK Link

US Link

I was excited to get hold of a copy of the book this week, as you can see below!

All things being well, there should be a brand new e-book available this Autumn, followed by an extended special edition paperback of an old story that I didn’t quite do justice to the first time round. Watch this space!

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Slush Fund: Out Now!

The last time I saw Albert Erasmus, he was driving a jaundice-yellow Ford Sierra that was nearly as old as me. Today he picked me up in a silver Mercedes Benz C-class. Nearly new.

“Nice ride, Erasmus. Business must be booming,” I say.

“This is Torquay, Mr Rey. The devil always finds work for idle hands.”

We crawl along the seafront, into the heart of the ‘English Riviera’. Once upon a time, Torquay used to be the most desirable holiday destination in the country. Well-heeled Victorians flocked here for the microclimate, building elaborate villas with enviable views. Now the villas have been subdivided into grotty bedsits and the upper classes have beaten a hasty retreat. These days, most British seaside towns have fallen on hard times. Torquay is a particularly distressing example.   

New book time! My brand new Joe Rey thriller, Slush Fund, is out now as a paperback and e-book! I wrote this novel in 2023, while participating in the ITW’s ‘Thriller-tique’ online critique programme, and I think it’s my best book to date.

For those of you following along with the chronology at home, Slush Fund follows on from Boneyard Dogs, Ten Pints of Blood and Sin Clinic and picks up Joe Rey’s story. As such, we get reacquainted with a few familiar faces from the earlier books. It also serves as a prequel to Sharp Knives & Loud Guns and Dirty Bullion, and we cross paths with a handful of characters who have only ever appeared in the ‘later’ books.

It was a blast to write: funnier, crazier and more violent than the other Joe Rey thrillers – which is saying something!

UK Link

US Link

GoodReads Link

See below for the official synopsis!

Private investigator Joe Rey earns a living from tawdry, poorly-paying cases that force him to trawl the sordid underbelly of the seaside town he calls home. The luckless investigator is given a window into another world when local lawyer Albert Erasmus enlists him to look into the death of Simon Diamond, a racist 1980s comedian, who was found with his throat slashed on his ex-wife’s yacht at Torquay Marina. A Bulgarian prostitute, Elena Stoyanova – known as Tinkerbell – was arrested for the murder, after being discovered at the crime scene soaked in Diamond’s blood.

Rey is keen to sink his teeth into the new case, but finds himself pressurised by local mobster Malcolm Chung into joining the security detail for a soon-to-open casino, the Lucky Dragon. Chung is acting as the go-between for a group of investors from Macau, who want to expand their illicit gambling empire to the UK. Rey quickly realises that there is more than meets the eye to the casino – and starts to make enemies with some very dangerous men.

High-class hookers, vicious Chinese mobsters, and knuckle-dragging neo-Nazis – something is very rotten on the English Riviera…

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Dirty Bullion Book Trailer!

For anyone who has yet to pick up a copy of the new Dirty Bullion paperback, here’s a little trailer I put together to promote the release! If you have a spare minute, please check it out, as it gives a real flavour of the book!

Tempted? You can order a copy from the usual place!

UK Link

US Link

I was excited to get hold of a copy of the book this week, as you can see below!

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Dirty Bullion Paperback: Out Now

“His nose looks like it has been broken more than once. I haul him to his feet and break it again – just for the sheer fucking hell of it. The nasal bone snaps with a wet crack, and thick, clotted blood drips from his nostrils, into his mouth. I grab him by his throat, squeezing the scratchy-looking ‘18’ tattoo on his windpipe and crunch his head into the dank brickwork.”

Back in 2018, London writer Benedict J. Jones and I collaborated on a brutal little page-turner called Dirty Bullion. We shopped the book around for a little while, without any takers and it ended up being published as an e-book the following year. I’m excited to reveal that it has now been reissued as a paperback/e-book, with brand new artwork!

Revisiting the book this month was an interesting experience for me, as I was an unpublished author back when we wrote this (well, unpublished inasmuch as I had yet to publish a full-length book)! Ben and I wrote it in a month-long blast of activity, trading chapters every other night and driving the story forward into increasingly dark territory. Looking back, there is definitely a bleak, nasty Meat Bubbles energy to my material, as that was the book I had just finished writing – and the tone I was seeking to replicate.

Anyway, you can now order this lovely looking paperback to add to your collections!

UK Link

US Link

(If you bought the e-book first time around, the new cover should refresh on your Kindle next time you use it.)

Here’s the synopsis:

A missing jeweller. A vanished girl. A stash of long-lost Nazi gold. And two very dangerous men. Things are going to get dirty.

In DIRTY BULLION Paignton private eye Joe Rey crosses paths with South London ex-con-turned-investigator Charlie ‘Bars’ Constantinou, as the two P.I.s look into very different cases.

Neither man plays well with others, but they are forced to push aside their mutual suspicions to work together on an increasingly disturbing case – an assignment which sees the duo outnumbered, outgunned and out of their depth.

With an army of neo-Nazis ensconced in South Devon, the two men head into the belly of the beast. But will they make it out alive?

DIRTY BULLION represents the first collaboration between two of the UK’s most exciting crime writers, Benedict J. Jones and Tom Leins.

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