Famous for his realistic characters and accurate depictions of the history of his home state of Texas, Elmer Kelton continues to write exceptional novels of American history.In Hanging Judge, Justin Moffitt is eager to help keep the peace as a deputy marshal in small-town Texas. That is, until Justin is assigned to the wrong marshal-a "hanging judge" who is as famous for his ruthlessness as he is for his commitment to justice. When Justin's boss hangs a controversial criminal, Justin must defend himself against an army of friends and relatives, desperate for revenge.

    . . and trust as essential to survival as it is hard-earned.Trust was rare and precious in the wide-open towns that sprung up like weeds on America's frontier—with hustlers and hucksters arriving in droves by horse, coach, wagon, and rail, and gunmen working both sides of the law, all too eager to end a man's life with a well-placed bullet. In these classic tales that span more than five decades—including the first story he ever published, “The Trail of the Apache”—Elmore Leonard once again demonstrates the superb talent for language and gripping narrative that have made him one of the most acclaimed and influential writers of our time.

    Short, fast-paced, high-impact entertainment.We have to go out, but we don’t have to come back.When a distress call is received at the Casco Cove Coast Guard Station in Alaska, Rick O’Neill readies his team for a rescue mission. In the storm-tossed freezing waters they find the foundering Russian cargo ship, but when they try to make contact they receive no response. Boarding what appears to be a deserted vessel, O’Neill begins to realise that nothing on this ship is as it seems, and he may have just led his team into a trap.

    Originally published in the October, 1933 issue of The Spider.

    In seven hours and twenty minutes Grace Jordan will be dead. Will she have abandoned her family in vain, or is this the start of a new journey and her chance to save us all?Transmit is a short story about an epic odyssey into the unknown.This book can be downloaded by signing up to the authors mailing list:http://freestory.craigleagordon.com/t..."A thought-provoking, original and thoroughly absorbing concept... fantastic.""It’s a page-turner. I was hooked right away when I read the first line and just breezed through. The plot unraveled at an enticing pace, I was very excited to find out what was going on. The writing is top notch, a real pleasure to read.""For such a short story you did a great job establishing an emotional connection to the main character."

    Oludara, a slave, and Gerard, an outcast, must each outwit a legendary foe to overcome their pasts and forge a new future together.Tired of the same old fantasy tropes? The Fortuitous Meeting, a finalist for the Nebula Award in 2011, is unlike anything you've read before. It's a mixture of action, adventure, humor, magic,and South American folklore in the wilderness of sixteenth-century Brazil. Legendary characters like the one-legged prankster Sacy-Perey and the flaming serpent Botat come to life in these pages.This is the story that started it all, the first in a series of adventures that can each be enjoyed in a single sitting.

    Next to the Louis L’Amours, one could find the adventures of The Executioner, the Destroyer, the Death Merchant, and many more action heroes that were hell-bent on bringing America back from the brink. That time was the 1970s & ’80s. A bygone era filled with wide-eyed innocence and mustaches.Those stories are back! The new quarterly magazine Blood & Tacos is bringing back the action, the fun, and the adventure. Also, the mustaches.In each issue of Blood & Tacos, some of today’s hottest crime writers will choose an era and create a new pulp hero and deliver a brand-new adventure. Each issue will include 5-6 stories featuring action-packed mayhem written in the style of that bygone era. The stories might not always be politically correct, but whether satire or homage, they will deliver on every page. Fast and fun, action and adventure, Blood & Tacos.If the stories weren’t enough, Blood & Tacos will also feature fine pulpy art, reviews of some of the fine (and not so fine) novels from the same period, and maybe even a recipe or two.So enjoy this serving of Blood & Tacos. And remember, if it’s too cheesy, it’s a quesadilla.***Blood & Tacos is the brainchild of Johnny Shaw, screenwriter and author of the novel Dove Season: A Jimmy Veeder Fiasco. When he’s not writing or teaching, he is usually in an undisclosed warzone working as the demolitions expert in the mercenary group, The Bushmasters. He also enjoys badminton. His website can be found at Johnnyshaw.net. Or follow him on Twitter at @BloodandTacos.Blood & Tacos is published by Creative Guy Publishing, the company that brought you such fine books as Amityville House of Pancakes (Vols 1-3), Stays Crunchy in Milk, Installing Linux on a Dead Badger, Brine, and many others with odd titles but excellent stories.

    Helpless, doomed, into the graveyard of space floats the wrecked freighter Pallas.

    The story was rescued from an old floppy disc and first published in 2008, in a special, 10th anniversary edition of Crossroad Blues. To Atkins' surprise, that edition earned an Edgar Award nomination for the forgotten Nick Travers tale. The story shows Nick at his best: in New Orleans, at JoJo's Blues Bar, helping an old friend, challenging the powerful, and getting in way over his head.

    The racecourse circumnavigates the post-apocalyptic ruins of Teijouan, and with a choice between being eaten by the monstrous Kaiju that prowl the island’s devastated cities or murdered by her fellow racers, the odds against surviving another Run, let alone winning it, are slim.Dutch doesn’t care about the odds nearly so much as she cares about getting back behind the wheel of her beloved Ford Falcon—except for one problem: she’s spent the last five years incarcerated in a high-security prison for her part in a heist.So when a crooked billionaire offers to put her back in the race on condition she uses it as cover for a secret retrieval operation, she can’t refuse.Can Dutch survive assassins, monsters, and psychopathic drivers long enough to complete her mission as well as take part in the race—or is this the year death finally catches up with her in a blazing tangle of wreckage?

    "The Sage Wind blows Cold" is a finalist in Chanticleer Dante Rossetti Awards 2014, New Adult Thriller. Author Clint Hollingsworth studied tracking under Tom Brown, Jr., consultant on Benicio Del Toro's "The Hunted" and is a black belt in Goju Ryu karate. "Bagging a killer should have been the end of it, but it was only the beginning. Young tracker Mackenzie Crow, working at his uncle’s bounty hunting business, is ambivalent when an old flame pleads for help. Not sure where he stands with Kailee, Mac soon finds out: she is married to his old rival and has kept this from him in order to solicit his expertise. Once in the woods with the Search and Rescue team, Mac comes into his element and within a short time has found both the lost child’s trail and something completely unexpected: a strange set of tracks following the girl. Before this is through, he will be hunted by a psychopath and a cadre of mercenaries, all wanting to remove Crow from the land of the living."

    But that’s only part of the challenge – one that many trained agents could handle effectively. They’ve called upon Monarch because, after the interrogation, he must return the scientist without the Russians, the Iranians, or the scientist himself ever knowing he’s been grabbed.

    Stalking the world of the wealthy and the powerful, he sells death to the highest bidder. And now he works for "the Empress", the ruthless shadow ruler of a Japanese conglomerate.

    Based entirely on the original films, novels, and comics, PREDATOR: IF IT BLEEDS (a quote from the original movie) reveals the Predators stalking prey in 12th Century Japan, 9th Century Viking Norway, World War I, Vietnam, the Civil War, Hurricane Katrina, and the modern day, as well as across the far reaches of future space.DEVIL DOGS by Tim LebbonSTONEWALL'S LAST STAND by Jeremy RobinsonREMATCH by Steve PerryMAY BLOOD PAVE MY WAY HOME by Weston OchseSTORM BLOOD by Peter J. Wacks and David BoopLAST REPORT FROM THE KSS PSYCHOPOMP by Jennifer BrozekSKELD'S KEEP by S. D. PerryINDIGENOUS SPECIES by Kevin J. AndersonBLOOD AND SAND by Mira GrantTIN WARRIORS by John ShirleyTHREE SPARKS by Larry CorreiaTHE PILOT by Andrew MayneBUFFALO JUMP by Wendy N. WagnerDRUG WAR by Bryan Thomas Schmidt and Holly RoberdsRECON by Dayton WardGAMEWORLD by Jonathan Maberry

    The title story, Quantum of Solace, lends its name to the upcoming James Bond film, slated to release in Fall 2008. This collection will be published to coincide with the film's release, as well as to continue Penguin's centenary celebrations of Fleming's birth.