My BOOKS
Dove Season: A Jimmy Veeder Fiasco
Twelve years have passed since Jimmy Veeder set foot in the Imperial Valley of southern California. The only person that could bring him back is his father, Jack, who is dying of cancer. Jimmy is prepared to spend Jack’s final days joking and reminiscing, but the old man has other plans. He needs Jimmy to cross the border into Mexico and find a prostitute named Yolanda. It’s a strange final request to be sure, but Jimmy’s not one to argue with a dying man.
With his childhood buddy Bobby Maves in tow, he heads south, looking for Yolanda among the seedy bars and neighborhoods along the Calexico/Mexicali border. Their search leads them to Tomás Morales, a rising star in the Mexican underworld. While dangerous to most, his childhood friendship with Jimmy brings out his loyalty and spurs him to help.
But just when Jimmy thinks his quest has ended, an unexpected murder sucks him further into the violence and danger of Mexicali. In his fight for survival and search for truth, what he uncovers calls into question everything he thought he knew about his father—and will determine just what kind of man he himself truly is.
Big Maria
There’s gold in them thar hills—or more precisely, in Arizona’s Chocolate Mountains, where one hundred years ago a miner stashed a king’s ransom of the stuff. But times have changed. The world has changed. And now the Chocolate Mountains are the home of the largest military artillery range in the world.
Harry’s living on disability and getting liquored up and beaten down. Frank’s a feisty old-timer battling cancer and a domineering daughter. And Ricky’s a good kid in a bad spot, doing everything for family. Together they’re staking what little they have left on a dangerous quest to the Big Maria Mine—and the gold that can offer them a new beginning.
Unfortunately a meth-dealing biker wants a piece, a trigger-happy AWOL soldier wants to play chicken in a live minefield, two stubborn burros want to go home, a starving mountain lion wants his dinner, and the US Army wants to rain on our heroes’ parade with real bombs.
When you’re all out of crazy ideas, you’ve got to try the stupid ones.
The Southland
THE SOUTHLAND tells the story of three unauthorized Mexican immigrants living in Los Angeles: Luz works multiple jobs to provide for herself and her teenage son Eliseo. Nadia, a former journalist with PTSD, fled Mexico and tries to stay hidden from the dangerous men that she exposed in Sinaloa. Ostelinda works as a laborer in a garment factory, having been deceived by coyotes and imprisoned in the same building since her arrival.
Their lives intersect through terrifying circumstance that clarify and contrast the horrors of existence.
Plaster City: A Jimmy Veeder Fiasco
Jimmy Veeder and Bobby Maves are back at it, two years after the events of Dove Season—they’re not exactly the luckiest guys in the Imperial Valley, but, hey, they win more fights than they lose.
Settled on his own farmland and living like a true family man after years of irresponsible fun, Jimmy’s got a straight life cut out for him. But he’s knocking years off that life thanks to fun-yet-dangerous Bobby’s booze-addled antics—especially now that Bobby is single, volatile as ever, and bored as hell.
When Bobby’s teenage daughter goes missing, he and Jimmy take off on a misadventure that starts out as merely unfortunate and escalates to downright calamitous. Bobby won’t hesitate to kick a hornets’ nest to get the girl to safety, but when the rescue mission goes riotously sideways, the duo’s grit—and loyalty to each other—is put to the test.
Floodgate
Andy Destra is a mostly honest cop in the most notoriously corrupt and crime-ridden city in America: Auction City. After discovering explosive information that reveals corruption within the highest levels of the police department, Andy is kicked off the force, framed, and disgraced, left to wage a lonely one-man crusade against conspiracies he can’t prove.
Andy’s investigation plunges him into a blackly comic maelstrom of one-armed gang members, slick pickpockets, criminal syndicates, hired mercenaries, escaped convicts, sewer dwellers, and one sinister ice cream truck. At the same time, he must contend with a mystery closer to home: the true identity of his parents, his most unshakeable obsession. Understanding their past may be the key to Auction City’s future as it teeters on the brink of chaos.
If Andy can’t solve this case, the Floodgate will fail…and his city will burn.
Imperial Valley: A Jimmy Veeder Fiasco
Jimmy Veeder has finally settled down, completing his dramatic transformation from hell-raiser to family man. With his new wife, Angie, and eight-year-old son, Juan, he lives the quiet life. No trouble, no problems.
Or so he thought. But this is Jimmy Veeder's Fiasco, after all.
The night after his wedding, Jimmy is lured right back into a world of danger and mayhem when childhood friend Tomás Morales, the current crime lord of Mexicali, turns up on his doorstep offering information about the whereabouts of his son's grandfather, for whom Jimmy has been searching for years.
Jimmy and Angie head to Mexico—one part honeymoon, one part expedition to find Juan's grandfather—accompanied by old pals Bobby Maves and Griselda.
The trip immediately careens into chaos when they find themselves shadowed by thugs, shot at by cartel soldiers, and forced into a confrontation with a violent, volatile drug lord. The fight spreads from Sinaloa back to Jimmy's doorstep, putting everything Jimmy cares about directly in the crosshairs.
The Upper Hand
Fifteen years ago, Axel, Gretchen, and Kurt Ucker lost their father. At the same time, they learned that he had secretly been a thief their whole lives—and left a fortune unaccounted for. Since then, the Uckers have lived a precarious existence. Their small town shunned and shamed them. Their mother, Bertha, retreated into her religion and her favorite televangelist, Brother Tobin Floom. Axel got a dead-end job. Gretchen turned to petty crime. And Kurt stayed with his mom and his garage band.
When Bertha dies, she leaves everything she has to Floom and his gold-plated revival. The Uckers are at a loss for words. And an inheritance, a house, and a future.
Until their long-lost aunt shows up with a secret: Floom is their grandfather; some new relatives: a family of liars, cheats, and thieves; and best of all, a plan: infiltrate Floom’s multimillion-dollar ministry and pull off the grandest heist in Ucker family history.
When you’ve got nothing left to lose, you might as well risk it all.
Blood & Tacos: The Beginning
STORIES FROM THE FIRST FOUR ISSUES OF BLOOD & TACOS-COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME!
Gird your loins, boys and girls, for a literary tour of force. Gird them!
Once, paperback racks were full of men's adventure series. Next to the Louis L'Amours sat the Executioner, the Destroyer, the Death Merchant, and other action heroes hell-bent on bringing America back from the brink. That time was the 1970s and '80s-a bygone era filled with wide-eyed innocence and mustaches. Those stories are here again! Blood & Tacos has brought back the action, the fun, and the adventure. Also, the mustaches.
We are proud to present the Silencer, Father Dukes, the Albino Wino, Studs Winslow, Battleground U.S.S.A., Tiger Team Bravo, L.A.N.D.B.O.A.T. (the Boat That Goes on Land), and many more-a veritable piranha tank full of heroic heroes. Blood & Tacos: The Beginning features stories "discovered" by Ray Banks, Matthew C. Funk, Rob Kroese, Stephen Mertz, Gary Phillips, Johnny Shaw, Josh Stallings, Todd Robinson, and a slew of other killer writers. Ride the tiger!
And remember, if it's too cheesy, it's a quesadilla!
