Crimes in Southern Indiana

Good Lord, where in the hell did this guy come from? Hits as hard as an ax handle to the side of the head after you've snorted a nose full of battery acid and eaten a live rattlesnake for breakfast. Seriously, I'm warning you in advance: take your heart medication and strap yourself to your bar stool for one of the wildest damn rides you're ever going to take inside a book.

Donald Ray Pollock, author of Knockemstiff

Dark, grim, and achingly beautiful. Frank Bill is one of the most original and compelling voices in this new generation of crime writers.

John Rector, author of The Cold Kiss

Some serious hillbilly-noir that had my ears ringing by the end. Open the first page... and duck.

Craig Clevenger, author of The Contortionist’s Handbook

Take American gothic + Tarantino + 1 cup of human blood. Liquidise in blender. Result: The great stories of Frank Bill

Alan Warner

An astonishingly powerful debut book...It’s a brutal rabbit punch of a book – a shotgun blast in the chest of literature and a crystal meth hit to the reader…Remarkable.

Doug Johnstone, Big Issue

Amazing collection…It’s all overshadowed by a Southern Indiana landscape that proves eerily ideal for guns, hunting, secret meth labs and the casual infliction of terrible pain. 270 pages of gripping and harrowing shitloads of it.

Dazed and Confused

Brutal and intoxicating.

Guardian

There’s a whiskey-gargling swagger to [Frank Bill’s] Cormac McCarthy-style prose, and each noir tale is savagely addictive.

Shortlist