Whatever Kills the Pain

by C.W. Blackwell

In this gritty collection of crime stories, Derringer Award-winning author C.W. Blackwell mourns an America lost to the shadows, exploring a broken economic system that has given rise to rampant inequality, violence, and darkness.

Crackling with energy, emotional depth and unflinching violence, and filled with characters desperate to reclaim what has been unjustly taken, plotting the heist of a lifetime, or grappling with chance encounters that might free them from the bonds of wage exploitation-or send them to early graves, Blackwell fearlessly documents an America sick with greed and hate.

Nearly everyone has an angle, a fight, or a spark of hope, yet some have learned there isn't a cure for every ill, and that sometimes the best medicine is whatever kills the pain.

223 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 18, 2025

About the author

C.W. Blackwell is an American author from the Central Coast of California. His short stories have appeared with Shotgun Honey, Tough Magazine, Reckon Review, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Dark Yonder, and Rock and a Hard Place Press. He is a 2x Derringer Award winner and 5x nominee. He was included on the Distinguished Author list in the 2024 Best American Mystery and Suspense collection. His folk horror novella Song of the Red Squire was published in 2022 from Nosetouch Press. His crime fiction novella Hard Mountain Clay was published in January 2023 from Shotgun Honey Books. His debut crime fiction collection Whatever Kills the Pain was released by Rock and a Hard Place Press in July 2025.

Reviews

[Vicki Herbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crime Noir Collection...

WHATEVER KILLS THE PAIN
by C.W. Blackwell

5 stars. The killer introduction to this dark collection of crime stories reads: If you are reading this, there's a small chance I am dead.

That introduction (and I urge readers to read the complete introduction) sets the stage for the great collection of crime stories that follow.

HARD RAIN ON BEACH STREET
On a muggy July night in 1975, two brothers and their elderly Pop left NYC heading for California. That city had turned bad. Maybe the coast was better...

A LITTLE RAIN MUST FALL
With all her debts, Mirabel thought the duffle bag full of money she'd found on her job site was a blessing. Later, she decided it was a curse...

NO WRONG WAY TO GRIEVE
The little support group despaired over the gun deaths of their children. However, one of them had a plan. A good plan...

THE HOUR IS GETTING LATE
In a seedy part of Tennessee, Buddy Delmore's brother Beau was killed at the Blue Club. Delmore was going to settle the score Biblical style: a brother for a brother...

I KEEP COMING BACK EMPTY-HANDED
Volunteers were searching the redwood forest for a missing boy. Two teens teamed up to help, one of them was carrying a dark secret...

DIG DEEP THE
MIDNIGHT FURROWS
The Browers of Tennessee were about to lose their farm due to lack of money, but young Dean found a way to dig up some funds...

MERCY, MERCY
Back in the good ol' days, this town used to be safe. That was before Rodney Langaniere killed all those kids in '72...

THE BLOCK AND THE CHAIN
When it comes to investing client's money, broker Brooks found out the hard way that sh*t just happens...

WHATEVER KILLS THE PAIN
The year was 1960, and Ma was dying of cancer. Her pain was excruciating, but her children found a way to pay for her meds. Sometimes, the best medicine was whatever killed the pain...

THE BREAKWATER CLUB
Sitting in the Breakwater Club bar in his hotel, Emmett Kessler told the barman names are sacred. Sometimes, that's all one has left, but names attract dirt, and you have to work hard to keep them clean because they can take on a permanent stain, leaving one hopeless...

ALL HER DIAMOND RINGS
As he worked on a car, Markeem Kennon sensed someone watching him. A feeling like someone had walked over his grave, an anonymous patch of dirt somewhere in the world waiting to receive him. The lady with all the diamond rings was paying him a visit...

PALOMA
Schoolgirl Paloma Russell has a secret. Teacher Jeanie Kurcik has the same secret, and she gives Paloma a silver whistle so she can call for Jeanie if she needs help...

This is a great collection of crime noir stories. I waited anxiously for its release, and it was well worth the wait. Although most of the stories take place in the Santa Cruz coastal area, they are as dark and gritty as the entries in Tennessee. Yes, beach cities have their fair share of crime. It's not all sunshine, surf, and sand (ask Dano). I appreciate that Mr. Blackwell's writings are not police procedurals. Each story had a zinger buried within it, causing me to ruminate a while before moving on.

SONG OF THE RED SQUIRE and HARD MOUNTAIN CLAY are also great novels by this author.

If you're into crime noir, I highly recommend this collection to you!

[Janie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title says it all. Well-written and intensely involving, I want to read more by this author. His stories are sad songs for the underprivileged. Check it out.

[M.E. Proctor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stories that sing with love. Love for flawed characters, love for messed up places where people get stuck, and love for writing about them, with a spoonful of hope and an occasional dash of humor. Because nobody is truly thoroughly bad, just human and inclined to make bad decisions, or often being forced into making them by others and a world that doesn’t care. C.W. Blackwell’s stories grab you by the scruff of the neck and demand complete attention, full emotional involvement. "Whatever Kills the Pain" is that rare collection where stories build upon one another, exploring different tones and moods, like these color swatches that take you through the rainbow so slowly and smoothly that you remain unaware of the breathtaking journey. Just leaving you slightly dazed by all the beauty at the end.

[Thomas Trang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tore through this collection over the weekend. Only two of these stories were familiar to me - one previously appeared in the One Percent anthology where I also had something. CW Blackwell also blurbed my novel Dark Neon & Dirt but that is neither here nor there.

It is rare to read a story collection which is as consistently strong as this one. The writing is crisp and sets a scene, or an entire world, in brisk but detailed fashion. The stories are a howl of anger and rage at the world, but we also get glimmers of hope - even some humor. It dips into the past but is for the most part rooted in the now. A perfect mix of literary realism and crime/noir set mostly on the Central California coast, and it almost flirts with the supernatural in one particular instance. Evocative descriptions of the land and perfect character building. The collection is a great example of the RHP ethos. Gritty, heartbreaking, and desperate people caught up in things. Only some of them will make it out.

The ones that hit me the hardest: Hard Rain on Beach Street, The Breakwater Club, All Her Pretty Diamonds, A Little Rain Must Fall (I wanted this one to keep going!) and Paloma.

[Coy Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

With every story, C.W. Blackwell creates worlds. Worlds of desperation, dead ends, anger, and blood. And worlds of pathos, of humans being human, of life eating souls. Whatever Kills the Pain is a tremendous read.

[J. Marquez Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

As my explorations led me deeper into the depths of Indie Literature, I kept finding traces and footprints of a CW Blackwell. Who was this CW Blackwell who kept appearing within this newly discovered literature? And, goddamn is he a good storyteller. The One Percent, On Fire And Underwater, Rock and a Hard Place Issues 9 & 3, Dark Yonder Issue 9, Shotgun Honey and the list went on—his short stories just got better and better.
Wow, I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if this dude came out with a collection of shorts? And, by gosh, someone in heaven heard me…that is if heaven is in some dark corner of the Rock and a Hard Place press headquarters—maybe the janitorial closet or the men’s restroom. Whatever the case may be, “Whatever Kills the Pain” appeared before me like some golden chalice in a ruin stashed somewhere in the Peruvian tropical forest.
At the time, I was in the middle of a John Grisham novel, which I dropped the second I got my hands on it. And, boy, let me tell you, I’m glad I did. Nothing on Grisham, but the Blackwell anthology was much more, whatta you call, close to home, you know: realistic, genuine. The twelve stories within deal with harsh realities, dwindling hope and…life in general. Oh, and let’s not forget, pain, lots of pain. It, indeed hit home.
“Whatever Kills the Pain” is a testament that CW Blackwell doesn’t write with his heart, he wrings tunes out of his soul. And, in turn, lends itself as the reader’s—or in this case, listener’s—antidote to kill their pain.
Five well-deserved stars.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional.

[Justin Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm planning on interviewing/reviewing this author. So, I won't get too in the weeds with my thoughts here.

What I will say is that this collection is a breath of fresh air in the world of noir fiction.

So many writers in the genre get to enmeshed in the trappings. Way too much style of substance.

C.W. Blackwell has forgone the dressing and given us a damning, heart-breaking, call-to-arms. There's a darkness out there that seems impossible to navigate. But there's also a light. We just have to fight every moment for it.

[Hugh Lessig · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Stiff Shot Of Noir

Blackwell hits it out of the park with this collection. He tackles tough subjects from the lingering anguish of school shootings to roving homelessness. Hard lessons here. Worth your time.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

An astonishing collection of short stories populated with desperate losers in hopeless situations. Kindred to Donald Ray Pollock’s Knockemstiff. Brutal but not totally bleak; there’s a glimmer of justice and positivity here and there. One of the best things I’ve read all year.

[Nathan Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

CW Blackwell can do in short stories what some writers require novels to do. His characters, the details he creates, and the way each story stays with you after you finish are marks of a modern master in the making.

[John Teel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Top to bottom this collection is excellent. There isn’t a dud in the bunch. I tore through it in a weekend and now I’ll be picking up Blackwell’s other work.

Highly recommended.

[Lyle Boylen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blackwell has produced an outstanding collection of gritty crime fiction stories that are filled with real people with real problems. If you enjoy crime fiction I highly recommend this.

[Amy Pastor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this collection of short stories. Dark, gritty and a healthy dose of “sticking it to the man”. A much needed voice for the voiceless of our time.

[Whiskey Leavins · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, so that I don’t bury the lede. Whatever Kills the Pain, by C.W. Blackwell is a superior collection of short stories. It stands as an exemplar of crime noir fiction. The prose itself is brilliantly crafted, each word, phrase, sentence, and paragraph carefully chosen and crafted together to paint vivid and compelling imagery, while simultaneously advancing a compelling narrative.

Second, what makes a story Noir? A hardboiled dick? A femme fatale? Highly stylized black-and-white imagery? I love all of those things and relish seeing them show up in my consumption of crime fiction, literary or cinematic. But, if I may be indulged, the term Noir originates in post WWII France where critics who had gone through the German occupation without Hollywood films suddenly found themselves watching The Maltese Falcon and Double Indemnity instead of feel-good Capraesque pictures. Above all else, the term they coined, Noir, refers to the post-war existential nihilism that pervaded these films. That’s the actual Noir part. The existential nihilism. So, back to the book at hand. This is where this book excels. It is infused with characters who aren’t bad people (mostly) who find themselves caught up in a game where they are forced to, or believe they have no choice but to, play against house odds. If post-war bleakness provided the context for the coining of the term, Blackwell masterfully uses the theme of late-stage capitalism as his palette to define a highly relevant, close-to-the-bone, contemporary definition of Noir. The book is full of characters we identify with and root for, while judging their choices with a grimace. Not that we’d choose differently given the same circumstances, but from our detached, third-party point-of-view, we know in our hearts that it’s doomed course of action. Many of us live on the margin. We are comfortable but also one missed paycheck, illness, or random occurrence away from a similar choice. If I found a duffle bag full of money that I know people would kill me for taking, would I leave it? Or would I make a run for it? I don’t know. Damned if I do, damned if I don’t. Existential nihilism at its finest.

If Noir, real Noir is your bag, you have to check this book out.

[Matt Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best of crime fiction has always been, at heart, an indictment of society’s failings, and you’re unlikely to find a contemporary crime fiction author with more thumbs on more pulses than Blackwell. This riveting, versatile collection runs the gamut from hardboiled noir with a contemporary spin, to the darkly comedic, to slice-of-life-gone-sideways, to…well, scenarios that in a saner world would read like dystopian fiction, but in these lunatic times we face, read more like, again, slice-of-life-gone-sideways. If the old TV show ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS were airing today, ol’ Hitch would do well to hire Blackwell as a screenwriter; he’d melt all our brains. Many of these stories capture a raw, unflinching, shocking power, and a couple in there hit almost too close to home. By the end of some of these stories, I felt like I’d gone on a whole novel’s worth of an emotional rollercoaster in the space of twenty pages. All of the stories herein are standalone pieces, yet they work in tandem with each other in a unique way: a few stories in, one thing that becomes clear is that there’s truly no telling where Blackwell’s gonna go. The all-too-real world he depicts is cruel, unforgiving, yet not nihilistic. Sometimes things end with a spiral into the worst case no-win scenario, others with things working out pretty well despite the odds, sometimes somewhere in between or with the jury still out. One truly, simply never knows with Blackwell, and the more that sinks in, the more it creates a live-wire, tension-ratcheting effect of page-turning dread and anticipation.

[Amelia.S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whatever Kills the Pain is a searing and poetic exploration of America’s fractured underbelly. Through this masterful collection of crime stories, C.W. Blackwell captures the despair, defiance, and dark humor of those left behind by a system rigged against them. Each story pulses with raw emotion and razor-sharp prose, revealing characters driven by desperation, vengeance, or the faint flicker of redemption.

Blackwell’s storytelling blends noir grit with moral insight, using violence not for spectacle but as a mirror reflecting societal decay. Beneath the blood and betrayal lies a haunting elegy for a country struggling to remember its soul. It’s a work of fierce empathy and hard truth written with both the heart of a poet and the precision of a craftsman.

[Zakariah Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

As has been said, America isn't a country, it's a crime scene. Which makes noir the perfect genre to depict the higher truths behind the fiction. Blackwell is a master of the form and the sentiments that inform it. The desperate characters in these stories sometimes win, sometimes lose, but we feel for them either way, even if we can't always root for them to get away with "it" (though sometimes we can, we surely, truly can.)

[C.W. Blackwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

WHATEVER KILLS THE PAIN is the culmination of ten years of short story writing, with six of my favorite previously-published stories and six new tales written exclusively for the book. I'm very proud of it, and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Don't be shy about dropping a rating and letting me know what you think!

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

In thiscollection of thorny noir excursions, Blackwell’s on-the-edge characters find themselves in situations that are somehow simultaneously gritty and hyperreal, a fractured reflection of the desperation and rot of whatever passes for the American Dream these days.

[Armand Rosamilia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a bad story in this collection, which is rare. Every story is unique, sad and riveting. I loved each and every one of them. I will be reading more and more from this author in the future!