Coming in September from Down & Out Books: THREE STRIKES, 3 Authors, 3 Novellas

TAMPA, Fla. - May 8, 2018 - PRLog -- Down & Out Books is pleased to announce that THREE STRIKES, three crime novellas by Ross Klavan, Tim O'Mara and Charles Salzberg will be published on September 10, 2018 in trade paperback and ebook formats.

About THREE STRIKES …

"I Take Care of Myself in Dreamland" by Ross Klavan

Bartok is horribly scarred. Wounded in the Army, he roams through 1970's New York, a city of perpetual night, punctuated by crime and populated by streetwalkers, hooker bars, strip clubs, easy drugs and a feeling of doom. There's one thing on his mind: an experience he had when his Army truck exploded, an experience he calls Red River. More than bliss, more than spiritual. But nothing goes right. Bartok loses his girl, his money, any possibility of support and decides that he's finished, he's going to end it but before he does, he's going out on the town for one last attempt to recapture the incredible experience of Red River. And when he does, he runs into others who see him as an easy mark for dirtier plans…plans that involve murder before suicide.

Bartok's story is told by a driver for the mob, a guy who's heard it all and usually keeps his mouth shut because when he begins a trip, it's almost always one-way.

"Jammed" by Tim O'Mara

Aggie's back. After barely escaping with his life in "Smoked," Aggie disproves the old adage of "Once burned…" This time around he's heading from the Midwest to New York City with a sweet shipment of stolen maple syrup. He also has picked up an unwanted-and potentially dangerous-passenger; the fifteen-year-old daughter of his latest boss has hopped on for a free ride to the Big Apple and her on-line boyfriend. When they arrive in NYC, Aggie's worst fears are realized when the "boyfriend" turns out to be a group of human traffickers. Aggie knew that running one of the world's most valuable liquids across state lines was skirting the line between safety and danger, but he never knew it could get this sticky.

"The Maybrick Affair" by Charles Salzberg

It's a couple weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor and a young reporter, Jake Harper, who works for a small Connecticut newspaper, is assigned a routine human interest story. A reclusive, elderly woman, has quietly passed away in her small cottage upstate. Anxious for bigger stories, Jake begins his assignment by trying to find out who this woman was and what kind of life she led. As Jake investigates the old woman's death he finds that years earlier she was tried and convicted of murdering her husband in a well-publicized, lurid trial in London, England. And, after digging further, he, unearths evidence that she might have had a connection to an even more famous British serial killer and that the ramifications of this story might affect America's entry into the War.

Meet the authors …

Ross Klavan's novella Thump Gun Hitched was published in the collection Triple Shot. He is the author of the comic novel Schmuck (Greenpoint Press) and his original screenplay Tigerland (starring Colin Farrell) was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, produced by New Regency, and directed by Joel Schumacher.

Tim O'Mara is best known for his Raymond Donne mysteries about an ex-cop who now teaches in the same Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood he once policed. O'Mara's short story "The Tip" is featured in the 2016 anthology Unloaded: Crime Writers Writing Without Guns, and his novella Smoked appeared in Triple Shot, both from Down & Out Books. O'Mara taught special education for 30 years in the public middle schools of New York City, where he now teaches adult writers and still lives. In addition to writing the stand-alone high-school-based crime drama So Close to Me, O'Mara is currently curating a short-story anthology to benefit the non-profit American Rivers.

Charles Salzberg is the author of the Shamus nominated Swann's Last Song, as well as the sequels, Swann Dives In, Swann's Lake of Despair, and Swann's Way Out. He's also author of Devil in the Hole, named one of the best crime novels of the year by Suspense magazine, and Second Story Man. His novella Twist of Fate appeared in Triple Shot. He has written numerous articles for major magazines and nonfiction books include From Set Shot to Slam Dunk, an oral history of the NBA, and Soupy Sez: My Zany Life and Times, with Soupy Sales. He teaches writing at the New York Writers Workshop, where he is a Founding Member, and he is on the board of the New York chapter of Mystery Writers of America.

Celebrating seven years as an independent publisher of award-winning literary and crime fiction, Down & Out Books (https://downandoutbooks.com) is based in Tampa, Florida. For more information about the book, to request a review copy of the book, or to inquire about an interview with the author, contact lance@downandoutbooks.com.