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Blood, Guts, and Whiskey
She had an ass like a heart turned upside down and cut in half--and that's what we call foreshadowing, friend.
Gruesome and glam, vicious and violent, this collection of the best new neo-noir fiction will hit you like a biker boot to the skull. Unleashed from the net's most hardcore award-winning site, these down, dirty, and deeply depraved tales don't just cut the edge . . . they pour gasoline on it and toss it in a meth lab full of C-4 . . .
"Just because I killed my best friend with my bare hands doesn't make me all that bad. . . Christ, I loved the guy like a brother."
Throw down a shot with the last word in badass--a scheming stripper playing one fool too far; the rage-haunted lesbian who's the last word in nightmare revenge; a mercenary sheriff doomed by ruthless payback; avenging street angels unleashing holy hell --and just try and stagger away intact. . .
"This country's got a motto. It's pura vida, and it means when life gets you down, put your feet up, sister. But I lift my legs for no man."
So settle back with your favorite rot-gut, keep your brass knuckles handy, and hang where the odds are never good, darkness is a permanent state of mind, and the house always takes all . . .
Blood, Guts, And Whiskey
"Lean, mean stories. . .today's brightest writers provide some of the darkest tales you've ever read." –Max Allan Collins
Big Daddy Thug/Todd Robinson's writing has appeared in Plots With Guns, Danger City, Demolition, Out Of The Gutter, Pulp Pusher, Crimespree and Writers Digest's The Year's Best Writing 2003. He was nominated for a 2006 Derringer Award from the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and is the creator and chief editor of Thuglit.com.
The stories he's edited for Thuglit.com have been nominated for several awards, including The Derringer and The Million Writer's Award, and been have been selected for The Best American Mystery Stories and Best Noir 2006.
He lives and works in New York with his wife (Lady Detroit), a ferret named Matilda, and three freakin' cats.
Gruesome and glam, vicious and violent, this collection of the best new neo-noir fiction will hit you like a biker boot to the skull. Unleashed from the net's most hardcore award-winning site, these down, dirty, and deeply depraved tales don't just cut the edge . . . they pour gasoline on it and toss it in a meth lab full of C-4 . . .
"Just because I killed my best friend with my bare hands doesn't make me all that bad. . . Christ, I loved the guy like a brother."
Throw down a shot with the last word in badass--a scheming stripper playing one fool too far; the rage-haunted lesbian who's the last word in nightmare revenge; a mercenary sheriff doomed by ruthless payback; avenging street angels unleashing holy hell --and just try and stagger away intact. . .
"This country's got a motto. It's pura vida, and it means when life gets you down, put your feet up, sister. But I lift my legs for no man."
So settle back with your favorite rot-gut, keep your brass knuckles handy, and hang where the odds are never good, darkness is a permanent state of mind, and the house always takes all . . .
Blood, Guts, And Whiskey
"Lean, mean stories. . .today's brightest writers provide some of the darkest tales you've ever read." –Max Allan Collins
Big Daddy Thug/Todd Robinson's writing has appeared in Plots With Guns, Danger City, Demolition, Out Of The Gutter, Pulp Pusher, Crimespree and Writers Digest's The Year's Best Writing 2003. He was nominated for a 2006 Derringer Award from the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and is the creator and chief editor of Thuglit.com.
The stories he's edited for Thuglit.com have been nominated for several awards, including The Derringer and The Million Writer's Award, and been have been selected for The Best American Mystery Stories and Best Noir 2006.
He lives and works in New York with his wife (Lady Detroit), a ferret named Matilda, and three freakin' cats.
337 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2010
23 people are currently reading
69 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 27, 2025
it is absolutely massive, standing tall at 24 (count them) stories, it is three times the length of most of the anthologies out there. You can keep this book open and not bother grabbing another one for quite a while. Indeed, with this many stories (337 pages in length for the actual physical book edition), it is simply such a huge dose of hardboiled nastiness that may take days or even weeks to recover from.
Many of the stories are by well-known names in modern crime fiction, including Jordan Harper, Tom Piccirilli, Pearce Hansen, Justin Porter, Kieran Shea, and Dave Zeltersman. So this is not just some batch of unknowns trying to pimp their first story. Some of these stories I've read in other collections (Red Hair and Black Leather), but not all of them and not together.
It opens with a very lengthy introduction by one of my favorite authors, Max Allan Collins, detailing the entire history of hardboiled crime fiction, going write back to the beginning with Hammett and Chandler and Cain and tracing a line through Horace McCoy and Mickey Spillane and others to the present day world of crime fiction.
The editor, Robinson, himself explains in a tongue-in-cheek fashion what this volume is all about: "rainbows, puppy dogs, and whatever Celine Dion is up to."
"Red Hair and Black Leather" begins with the line: "She had an ass like a Heart turned upside down and cut in half - and that's what we call foreshadowing, friend." The title, of course, refers to Jolene, she of the cascading red hair, leather pants, and wifebeater t-shirt, who drinks shots of Wild Turkey and suggests that Jackie close the bar early. This short piece has everything from a crazy redhead who can't wait to shed her clothes to drinking and a backwoods brawl. What's great about this though is the hardboiled phrasing that just makes this an absolute pleasure to read.
The Return of Inspiration by Tom Piccirilli is a bit more than just a story about a divorced man who finds dating life to be a bit more hardcore and nasty than he remembered it being. It is smoothly written.
From there, the stories continue in this juicy, crazy vein. Some are about motorcycle gangs. Some are about cutting out body parts. Some are about love, or maybe lust. Some are about pole dancers and blondes with nipple rings. There's lots of tough guys and equally tough girls and the stories are all messy and violent. No one is singing Kumbaya here. Nope. But there are lessons here on grave digging, bar robbing, and disposing of community property. Some of this stuff is shocking and if you have an uneasy stomach, be careful.
Many of the stories are by well-known names in modern crime fiction, including Jordan Harper, Tom Piccirilli, Pearce Hansen, Justin Porter, Kieran Shea, and Dave Zeltersman. So this is not just some batch of unknowns trying to pimp their first story. Some of these stories I've read in other collections (Red Hair and Black Leather), but not all of them and not together.
It opens with a very lengthy introduction by one of my favorite authors, Max Allan Collins, detailing the entire history of hardboiled crime fiction, going write back to the beginning with Hammett and Chandler and Cain and tracing a line through Horace McCoy and Mickey Spillane and others to the present day world of crime fiction.
The editor, Robinson, himself explains in a tongue-in-cheek fashion what this volume is all about: "rainbows, puppy dogs, and whatever Celine Dion is up to."
"Red Hair and Black Leather" begins with the line: "She had an ass like a Heart turned upside down and cut in half - and that's what we call foreshadowing, friend." The title, of course, refers to Jolene, she of the cascading red hair, leather pants, and wifebeater t-shirt, who drinks shots of Wild Turkey and suggests that Jackie close the bar early. This short piece has everything from a crazy redhead who can't wait to shed her clothes to drinking and a backwoods brawl. What's great about this though is the hardboiled phrasing that just makes this an absolute pleasure to read.
The Return of Inspiration by Tom Piccirilli is a bit more than just a story about a divorced man who finds dating life to be a bit more hardcore and nasty than he remembered it being. It is smoothly written.
From there, the stories continue in this juicy, crazy vein. Some are about motorcycle gangs. Some are about cutting out body parts. Some are about love, or maybe lust. Some are about pole dancers and blondes with nipple rings. There's lots of tough guys and equally tough girls and the stories are all messy and violent. No one is singing Kumbaya here. Nope. But there are lessons here on grave digging, bar robbing, and disposing of community property. Some of this stuff is shocking and if you have an uneasy stomach, be careful.
January 4, 2014
Any anthology is hot and cold. Blood, Guts, and Whiskey falls into inconsistency, as can happen in a collection with so many stories. The anthology focuses mostly on the crime fiction subgenre. Some stories in this collection are really good, but here are others that don't work for me. The conclusions jump out of nowhere, or the plot doesn't seem anchored. Neo-noir is so much about atmosphere, but at the same time storytelling technique still applies. The lesser of the stories in this anthology were high in atmosphere, but failed in plot. Some of the best stories came from lesser-known writers. Some of the best-known seemed to just phone it in. Tom Piccirilli, whose writing I really like, provided "The Return of Inspiration" which started with an interesting premise, and had some very vivid writing, but failed to really go anywhere. He throws a female Chekov's gun into the mix that never goes off, and the reader is left with literary blue balls. Overall, I am giving the anthology three stars, but the stories bounce from two to five stars, individually. I've seen better from Thuglit in the past, but there are some very good stories in the collection. They are all short, and will introduce you to some new stars in the genre. If you are willing to wade through some mediocre stories to find the gems, you won't be disappointed.
September 27, 2012
Another good collection of stories from Todd Robinson and Thuglit. Not as good as Hardcore Hardboiled, but still good and still worth the time for fans of the genre. Now you go read it while I dream about one day being published in it.
April 4, 2019
Read this collection just because there was a Jordan Harper story in it. Unfortunately I’d already read it and none of the others were even close to as good.
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October 30, 2023
Coarse and crude.
November 10, 2023
Good collection of short stories.
August 6, 2010
Decent collection of up-and-coming noir fiction. A friend of mine is published in here and I went to a reading of several of the authors. It has some saggy stories but overall it's an excellent light read.
May 25, 2012
First collection of neo-noir I have read. It was good, I look forward to more, a brilliant book to relax to.
March 12, 2013
If you are a fan of modern noir this book is a must. This is a well balanced, fast paced collection. There is enough variance in the styles of the individual stories to show a wide range of noir.
December 27, 2013
One of the best comps of the year. Violent, funny, and ruthless. Short excellent fiction. Recommended for lovers of short, gritty, wild stuff. I couldn't get enough.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews