Witch Bone Blues by Luciano Marano

A dark and disturbing standalone novella by the award-winning author of Gargoyle Safari and Humbug.

Mercenaries don't mellow with age, they only grow more dangerous. And there’s no rest home waiting for old killers—no rest at all, in fact—just some serious music to face.

A bold new take on the popular “cursed film” motif, this story of hardboiled horror centers on Creighton Smith, a notoriously brutal showbiz fixer reluctantly pulled out of retirement in rural Washington State by a desperate call for help from Liliana, the daughter of a deceased army buddy, whose girlfriend, Chaney, has been abducted by a dangerous cult. Now in his 60s, with his health and confidence in decline, Creighton’s reluctant to get involved, but agrees to intervene after learning the missing woman bears an impossible resemblance to a gorgeous young actress he was forced to murder nearly 40 years ago on the set of a legendary unfinished horror movie.

Assisted by his girlfriend Selena, a model turned photographer, Creighton pursues the kidnapped woman and the truth about her connection to his own sinful past, from the hinterlands of the Pacific Northwest to the twisted heart of America’s capital and back again, all while confronting his reduced station in modern society, his deteriorating faculties, and—faced with a series of increasingly bizarre and unexplainable attacks—losing his already tenuous grip on reality.

It's James Bond as written by M.R. James

Folk horror by way of Tarantino

“John Wick(er) Man”

Includes three bonus mini essays in which the author discusses several films that inspired this cinema-centric story’s style and tone.