Under the Thumb: Stories of Police Oppression

Published November 20, 2021
Now available on IndieBound, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

Say their names:

Sandra Bland.
Philando Castile.
Daniel Shaver.
George Floyd.
And too many others.

They died, the victims of a justice system which, for many people in our country and around the world, is seldom just.

In this anthology, our authors explore the darker side of the badge, where a traffic stop can go one of two ways—bad or worse. Where evidence can and will be forged. Where the Blue Wall of Silence closes ranks, and accountability becomes a four-letter word.

At the end, you’ll wonder—is the system broken? Or more chillingly, is it operating just the way it was always intended, and are we meant to live our lives Under the Thumb?

Guest edited by New York Times bestseller S.A. Cosby, this anthology turns an unflinching eye towards the issues of police violence, systemic disparity, and abuse of power from some of the rock stars of crime fiction working today. Proceeds to benefit the New Jersey chapter of Black Lives Matter.

Contributors:

S.A. COSBY (Guest Editor; @blacklionking73) is the New York Times national best-selling, award-winning author from Southeastern Virginia. His books include My Darkest Prayer, and Blacktop Wasteland, which was Amazon’s #1 Mystery and Thriller of the Year and 3# Best Book of 2020 overall, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, Winner of the LA Times Book Award for Mystery or Thrillers, and a Goodreads Choice Awards semifinalist and the winner of the ITW award for hard cover book of the year, and won the Macavity for best novel of the year, the Anthony, the Barry, an honorable mention from the ALA Black Caucus and was a finalist for the CWA Golden Dagger. He is also author of the best-selling Razorblade Tears.

His short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines, and his story “Slant-Six” was selected as a Distinguished Story in Best American Mystery Stories for 2016. His short story “The Grass Beneath My Feet” won the Anthony Award for Best Short Story in 2019. His writing has been called “gritty and heartbreaking” and “dark, thrilling and tragic” and “raw, emotional and profound.”

Contributing Writers:

HECTOR DUARTE, JR. (@Hexpubs) is a writer/ educator out of Miami, Fl. He’s published widely online and in print, like the recent anthologies Pa Que Tu Lo Sepas: Stories to Benefit the People of Puerto Rico, and Shotgun Honey Presents Volume 4: Recoil. In September of 2018, Shotgun Honey Books published his full-length short story collection Desperate Times Call.

JAMES QUEALLY (@JamesQueallyLAT) is a journalist, author, and general arbiter of fact from horse shit. He's spent the past 12 years writing about crime, policing and chaos: first in Newark, NJ for The Star-Ledger and currently for the Los Angeles Times. His debut novel, Line of Sight, was published by Polis Books in 2020 and received starred reviews from Publisher's Weekly and Booklist. The sequel, All These Ashes was published in October 2021. His short fiction has appeared in several magazines including Thuglit, Crime Syndicate and Shotgun Honey.

BOBBY MATHEWS (@bobbymathews) is a writer based in Birmingham, Alabama. His next novels—Living the Gimmick and Magic City Blues—are forthcoming in 2022 and 2023 from Shotgun Honey.

HILARY DAVIDSON (@hilarydavidson) is the bestselling author of seven crime novels, including One Small Sacrifice, Don't Look Down, and The Damage Done. Her fiction has won two Anthony Awards and a Derringer Award, and her short stories have appeared in Thuglit, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, and Mystery Tribune. Her latest novel, Her Last Breath, has been named one of the best books of summer 2021 by Parade Magazine, Travel + Leisure, and the Toronto Star. Originally from Toronto, she moved to New York City in October 2001.

JOSEPH S. WALKER (@JSWalkerAuthor) lives in Indiana and teaches college literature and composition courses. His short fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Mystery Weekly, Tough, and a number of other magazines and anthologies. He has been a finalist for the Edgar Award and the Derringer Award and has won the Bill Crider Prize for Short Fiction and the Al Blanchard Award.

KEITH ROSSON (@keith_rosson) is the author of three novels, including Smoke City (2018) and The Mercy of the Tide (2017). My story collection, Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons, came out in February of this year. His short stories have appeared in Ink Heist, Black Static, PANK, Outlook Springs, Cream City Review, and others. He is also a legally blind illustrator and graphic designer—which certainly provides its own unique challenges and rewards—with clients that include Green Day, Against Me!, and Warner Bros.

TIM P. WALKER (@walkertimp) asks that you check out and consider supporting RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) and House of Ruth.

TRAVID WADE BEATY (@TravisWBeaty) grew up in Northeast Indiana, spent a good deal of his twenties in Los Angeles, and now resides in Washington, DC. While he’s had a great many jobs, his favorites have included acting, teaching, and being a stay-at-home dad to two girls and three cats.

MIKE McHONE'S (@mike_mchone) work has appeared in Mystery Magazine, Mystery Tribune, Guilty, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, the Detroit News, the AV Club, and Ellery Queen where he recently placed on their Readers Poll for his short story "A Drive-by on Chalmers Road?" He currently lives in Metro Detroit. Visit him online at www.mikemchone.com.

OLUSEYI ('Seyi) ONABANJO (@Seyi_Onabanjo) currently lives in New York City, has a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Lagos, Nigeria as well as an MBA from Columbia Business School, New York. ‘Ṣeyi worked in corporate IT for many years, but has been most recently employed as a project management consultant, in between bouts of tech entrepreneurship. ‘Ṣeyi is currently completing the MA (Creative Writing) program at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and is using this experience to release the novel which has stuck in him for the past few years. ‘Ṣeyi is prepping for a second hike up (and down) Mount Kilimanjaro, has an extremely patient wife, two ultra-cool kids, multiple bartenders, and hundreds of booksellers partly dependent on him for a living.

JEFFREY EATON is a retired pastor with an arrest record. He has numerous academic publications, and, thanks to Rock and a Hard Place, a couple of bits of fiction have also been published.

JAMES D.F. HANNAH (@JamesDFHannah) is the Shamus Award-winning author of the Henry Malone series; his most recent novel, Behind the Wall of Sleep, won the 2020 Shamus Award for Best Paperback Original. His short fiction has appeared in The Anthology of Appalachian Writers, Rock and a Hard Place Magazine, Crossed Genres, Shotgun Honey, Only the Good Die Young: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Billy Joel, Trouble No More: Crime Fiction Inspired by The Allman Brothers, and the upcoming Playing Games, edited by Lawrence Block.

Harlem native MICHAEL A. GONZALES (@gonzomike) is a cultural critic and short story scribe. His fiction has appeared in The Book of Extraordinary Femme Fatale Stories edited by Maxim Jakubowski, The Killens Review of Arts & Letters, Dead-End Jobs: A Hit Man Anthology edited by Andrew J. Rausch, Black Pulp edited by Gary Phillips, Crime Factory, Brown Sugar 2: Great One Night Stands edited by Carol Taylor, Needle: A Magazine of Noir edited by Steve Weddle and Bronx Biannual edited by Miles Marshall Lewis. He writes essays for CrimeReads, Soulhead.com, Oldster Magazine and Catapult.

PRESTON LANG (@LangReads) is a Toronto-based writer. He has written a number of short stories and at least two novels.

ANDREW CASE (@AClaudeCase) is the author of two novels, The Big Fear and A Falling Knife. His plays have been produced at Steppenwolf in Chicago, New Theatre in Miami, InterAct Theatre in Philadelphia, and others across the country. He spent ten years investigating police misconduct at the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board and now serves as Senior Counsel at LatinoJustice, a civil rights organization that works to create a more just society by using and challenging the rule of law to secure transformative, equitable and accessible justice.

ZAKARIAH JOHNSON (@Pteratorn) plucks banjos and pens thriller, horror, and crime fiction on the banks of the Piscataqua. His stories have appeared in Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, Thriller Magazine, and elsewhere, exploring topics of class, loyalty, and bad decisions.

JEFF SOLOWAY (@jeff_soloway) won the 2014 Robert L. Fish Award from the Mystery Writers of America and is the author of the Travel Writer mystery series for Penguin Random’s Alibi imprint. His short fiction has been published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, various MWA anthologies, and elsewhere.

RICHIE NARVAEZ (@richie_narvaez) is the award-winning author of Roachkiller & Other Stories, Hipster Death Rattle, Holly Hernandez and the Death of Disco, and Noiryorican. He lives in the Bronx.

MICHAEL DOWNING (@KMWriter01) is the author of Still Black Remains, Lost Exit, and Nine in the Morning, as well as two books in the Fight Card series: Fight Card: Hard Road, and Fight Card: Can’t Miss Contender (written under pseudonym Kevin Michaels). His short stories and flash fiction (including a few that were nominated for Pushcart Awards) have appeared in a number of magazines, literary journals, and indie publications. Originally from New Jersey (with that same attitude, edginess, and love of Springsteen), he left the Garden State a few years ago to live and write in a small college town northeast of Atlanta.