My next book, MAGIC CITY BLUES, comes out in six weeks from Shotgun Honey Books … It’s been a wild ride to get this book to publication. I’ve actually sold this book twice — once to a British publisher who, I later found out, had acted in a way I thought (and still think) was unethical. I pulled the book in April of 2021 with no guarantee that it would find a new home.

If you’re a writer or creative person in general, you know how scary that is. In June of that same year, Shotgun Honey agreed to publish Magic City Blues, along with Living the Gimmick. However, they chose to publish Living the Gimmick first. That makes Magic City Blues — which was supposed to be my debut — in fact, my second book. I want to thank the folks over at Do Some Damage (and specifically the great Steve Weddle) for allowing me to do a cover reveal over at the DSD website.

I also wrote a little bit about the two great authors that inspired the book, Robert B. Parker and Donald Westlake, and how they affected me not only as a writer but also as a person. You should go check it out.

But hey, you really want to see the cover, right? Here it is!

Now, here’s the back jacket copy, for your reading pleasure.

When low-level legbreaker Kincaid takes on a new assignment, he discovers it’s not really a step up — it’s a setup. The deal was supposed to be this: Protect Abby Doyle, the daughter of Birmingham, Alabama’s most dangerous crime lord. But when Abby’s fiancé is found murdered, Kincaid is forced to team up with BPD detective Laura D’Agostino to find the killer and protect Abby at all costs … even from her own father.

The killer’s trail winds through Birmingham — the city streets, the back alleys, the world-class food scene and the hole-in-the-wall clubs and bars — and the white-flight suburbs that surround the city, as Kincaid and D’Agostino uncover secrets that everyone would prefer left alone. But Kincaid doesn’t care about secrets. He’s been hired to do a job, and he’ll see it through or die trying.

Thrown together by circumstance, Kincaid and D’Agostino explore their unexpected feelings for one another while chasing down the killer and untangling a land swindle in North Birmingham that’s been in the making for more than a decade. But their relationship may not survive the explosive ending that sees Kincaid stand alone against the toughest crime lord the city has ever known.

What else can I tell you? I love writing about Birmingham, and I think it’s simultaneously a great place to live, but also a place where you sometimes have to watch your back. For better or worse, the city feels like home in a way that nowhere else does, and I grin every time I see the Vulcan or the neon red WBRC call letters on the mountain behind him.

If you’re interested in learning more about Magic City Blues or preordering, click this link. I hope you enjoy the hell out of it! 🙂