Frank Sinatra in a Blender (26 page)

I stopped by the staircase and let Frank scout the area for the best place to piss, shit, or both. He yelped when he put pressure on his foot and I thought of what a tough little bastard he must be to withstand such trauma and recover so quickly.

Frank lifted his leg and fired short bursts of golden piss into the snow.

We stood at the bottom of the stairs and looked at each other. We’d both been beaten and abused. We’d seen the worst mankind had to offer and fought back at their level.

I shifted my weight and got a better grip on the Stihl, got a better grip on the dildo, too. I asked Frank if he was ready and he barked, sneezed, and snorted.

“Let’s go, Frank.” I drove my boot heels down into the wood as my Yorkshire terrier took off. His injuries hampered his performance to an extent, but you could never take away his passion for stair climbing.

The End

About the Author

Matthew McBride
burst onto the crime-fiction scene with his shocking and visceral short stories of bad men and good guns. Now his powerful first novel confirms what noir and crime pros have been murmuring online for months—this guy is the one to watch. McBride lives on a farm in rural Missouri with his wife and a bull named Hemingway. He started writing on the assembly line at a Chrysler plant in St. Louis, where he worked for thirteen years. Now he’s a force to be reckoned with as a crime writer. Welcome a new voice that’s raw, wild, and completely original.

http://igotpulp.blogspot.com/

Ken Bruen
(introduction) is one of Ireland’s premier writers, author of dozens of thrillers and crime novels, many adapted into feature films.

www.kenbruen.com

Acknowledgements

This book would not be possible without the help and support of the following. Thank you—Melissa, for giving me the guts to write. Scott Phillips, for meeting me in the coffee shop that day and inspiring me to create worlds. Stona Fitch, my editor, for making this book what it is. Stacia Decker, my agent, for telling me to go with my gut.

Thanks also to Jedidiah Ayres, Rod Wiethop, Anthony Neil Smith, Charlie Stella, Elizabeth A. White, Sabrina Ogden, Fiona Johnson, Linda Trest, Lauren O’Brien, J. S. Woemmel, Mike Keller, Brad Wyman, and, of course, Ken Bruen.