Jack Veeder is dying. Soon. And that impending event brings his son Jimmy back to the Imperial Valley of southern California just north of the Calexico/Mexicali border. Jimmy hopes he can spend what time his father has left laughing and reminiscing. But Jack's got one dying request. He needs Jimmy to find a Mexican prostitute named Yolanda. Enlisting the help of his boyhood friend Bobby Maves, the pair stumbles through the violent, the exploited, and the corrupted of Mexicali. It doesn't take long before they?re in over their heads. And as Jimmy tries to survive the dangers of the Mexicali underworld, he unwittingly uncovers truths about his father he never imagined, forcing Jimmy to come to terms with the man he thought he knew, and to decide just what sort of man he wants to become. Johnny Shaw] is excellent at creating a sense of place with a few deft strokes... he moves effortlessly between dark comedy and moments that pack a real emotional punch, and he's got a knack for off-kilter characters who are completely at home in their own personal corners of oddballdom.? ? Tana French, author of In the Woods, Faithful Place

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. When Eliseo goes missing, Luz is lost. She doesn't trust the authorities to help. One wrong move could get her deported. Luz has no option but to investigate her son's disappearance on her own. Engaging Nadia and her roommate, they navigate an increasingly hostile American environment in an effort to reunite Luz's small family. When Luz and Nadia uncover a link to the people that run the garment factory, the two women become determined to save more than just Luz's son. THE SOUTHLAND is a crime story, but more than that, it's a story of America and the dangers that migrants face when being forced to live in the shadows.

2013 Anthony Award Winner Imagine Chuck Palahniuk and Don Winslow's love child-and that would be ribald author Johnny Shaw. His novel Big Maria is an unfiltered, wild romp in which three men get one chance to find a lost gold mine; the only problem is the Big Maria Mine is right in the middle of a US Army artillery range. 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.

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