The Books

This page preserves the publication record of the novels written by the founder of Hardluck Stories, as the original site presented them — the bibliography of a working noir novelist in mid-career, with the critical reception that greeted each book. Together they trace the same arc the zine championed in its fiction: classic noir, brought up to date, with no compromise.

Small Crimes (Serpent's Tail, 2008)

The breakthrough. Crooked cop Joe Denton gets out of prison early after disfiguring the local district attorney — which doesn't help his popularity. Nobody wants Joe around: not his ex-wife, his parents, or his former colleagues. Meanwhile the local mafia don is dying of cancer, keen to cut a deal with God, and thinking of singing to the DA — and he knows things that would send Joe down for a very long time. Set in the pressure cooker of a very small town, the novel brings the claustrophobic hell of Jim Thompson and James M. Cain up to date.

The reception was extraordinary for a small-town noir. A starred trade review said the novel deserved comparison with the best of James Ellroy. Marcel Berlins in the London Times called it the kind of grim noir novel they used to write in the Thirties and Forties, served up with enthusiasm and some fine writing. The Guardian's crime critic noted its surprisingly bold ending; the Sunday Express praised one of the best-realised characters in the genre. Ken Bruen judged it a whole new jump in noir — classic noir, dark, funny, shocking, and absolutely no compromise, with the last twenty pages a kick in the face. Ed Gorman called it one of the finest dark suspense novels he'd read in years, and Allan Guthrie predicted, correctly, that it would be the breakthrough book. It was later adapted into a feature film.

Pariah (Serpent's Tail, 2009)

Book two of the badass-out-of-prison cycle flips the premise: this time the man walking out of the gates is a high-level member of the South Boston Irish mob, a man who leaves death and destruction wherever he goes. The publisher of Murdaland praised its blend of strong narrative voice and multi-layered plot, its keen sociological insight into Southie's underworld, and a veracity found mostly in nonfiction. Ken Bruen, never one for understatement, declared the bar so high after Pariah that the rest of the field was, in his word, screwed.

Killer (Serpent's Tail, 2010)

The cycle closes with a Mafia hitman released after a long sentence, the quietest and most reflective of the three books — an ending the first two earn.

Fast Lane (Point Blank Press, 2004)

The debut: Denver private eye Johnny Lane, a likeable narrator with a hidden Jim Thompson darkside that knows no depths. What begins as Chandleresque spirals into a pit of noir, lies, betrayal, and worse. Ken Bruen hailed it as the most entertaining debut since Jim Thompson; Poisoned Pen's Hardboiled Crime Club made it a selection, placing its author alongside the writers then reinventing the classic PI novel. The Italian edition appeared from Meridiano Zero — sold, famously, before the U.S. edition.

Bad Thoughts (Five Star, 2007) and Bad Karma (Five Star, 2009)

An ambitious genre-bender: a Cambridge, Massachusetts cop plagued by blackouts and nightmares as the anniversary of his mother's murder approaches, and women begin dying in the same grisly manner. Booklist called it a compellingly clever wheels-within-wheels thriller, ingeniously plotted and skillfully executed; Library Journal praised its balance on the fine line between mystery and horror; Bookgasm named it among the year's overlooked best. Steve Hamilton called it one hell of a book, and Jeremiah Healy confessed it taught him what the concept of evil really meant. The sequel, Bad Karma, moved the action to Boulder, Colorado — hardboiled PI work with a new age twist.

The Record

For readers building a collection, the order of composition is its own noir story: Fast Lane written more than a decade before publication, Small Crimes turned down everywhere before becoming the breakthrough, and the cycle completed exactly as the author planned it. Industry coverage of the era can be traced through Publishers Weekly, and the awards context through the Crime Writers' Association, whose longlists would later recognize the post-Hardluck novels. The man behind the bibliography is profiled on the author page, and the short fiction is cataloged on the stories page.