Black Trace: Crimes in a Future California

by Matt Maxwell

The United States lost the war with itself.Jake Culver was one of those serving, until he realized he was on the wrong side. Instead of further killing or summary execution, he disappeared. He reappared in the newly-independent California, building a life for himself. Until his past roared back at him.Armored in steel and diesel with a hail of bullets, with his name carved on them all. Now he's caught between that promise and going back to the one place he swore he'd never return to.Waiting there are ghosts that make the bullet look like the better choice.Black Trace is Matt Maxwell’s third novel. He is also the writer of the comic series Strangeways, the short horror novel The Queen of No Tomorrows, and Highway 62 Revisited, as well as numerous other projects including short story work for Blizzard Entertainment. He is a recovered animator currently living in California.

396 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 13, 2021

About the author

Hey folks, haven't been around for awhile. Poking my head back in to update this because there's nothing more fun than updating a million websites and membership zones, right? Yeah. So much fun.

Since I was last here, I've successfully Kickstarted All Waters Are Graves (which may be listed here, but who even knows) and Fake Believe (which should totally not be listed here yet.) They are the second and third Hazeland books, respectively. What's Hazeland? It's genre-agnostic (some say genre-antagonistic) stories all set in Los Angeles of the past, mostly the 80s. Things are weird and getting weirder. What can you expect? Fantasy horror science fiction weird magical realist human crime fiction is what.

More later.

A southern California native transplanted to the Sierra Nevada Foothills, Maxwell has been writing since he learned how to touch-type before he was in high school. He attended college at University of California, Irvine and graduated the same year TWIN PEAKS came on the air. Afterwards, he went on to work at a think-tank with members of the Manhattan Project team. Don't get excited. He did computer and clerical work. He took classes in design and animation and went on to work as an animator at Netter Digital, on MAX STEEL and DAN DARE. Sometimes he plays guitar and or keyboards and or drones for Identify 9, which you can hear at highway62.bandcamp.com.

His latest project is the weird horror/crime series Hazeland, with the first release coming out this summer and the next several releases coming two a year.

He is the author of several novels, including RAGNAROK SUMMER (out for the kindle now). He has written several short story collections, including TUG ON THE RIBBON and BLINK AND OTHERS and the upcoming DUSTBEARER. HIGHWAY 62 REVISITED is his latest collection of non-fiction and commentary, following THE COLLECTED FULL BLEED. Finally, he is the writer and creator of the western/horror comic series STRANGEWAYS, illustrated by Luis Guragña (gur-anya) and Gervasio and Jok. He talks too much on twitter (@highway_62) and spends too much time on tumblr (highway62.tumblr.com and intrapanel.tumblr.com) where he chatters about movies and comics, respectively.