A Randomly Generated Jacket Blurb

Writer's block?
Algorithm for the distraction.

The Heavy Paperweight

A Mystery
by Jack Bates

The small, cold town of Row holds a secret.
Shelly Hope has the perfect life working as a pharmacist in the city and hiking with her warm boyfriend, Mark Tupp.
However, when she finds a heavy paperweight in her cellar, she begins to realise that things are not quite as they seem in the Hope family.
A Sorghum Festival leaves Shelly with some startling questions about her past, and she sets off to dark Row to find some answers.
At first the people of Row are bright and cheerful. She is intrigued by the curiously tender pizza chef, Larry Forton. However, after he introduces her to hard opiods, Shelly slowly finds herself drawn into a web of murder, blackmail and perhaps, even theft.
Can Shelly resist the charms of Larry Forton and uncover the secret of the heavy paperweight before it's too late, or will her demise become yet another Row legend?

Auto Praise for The Heavy Paperweight

"Who wouldn't give up a life of hiking with their warm boyfriend to spend a little time with a curiously tender pizza chef?"

- The Daily Tale

"About as mysterious as finding a poo in a public toilet. However, The Heavy Paperweight does offer a valuable lesson about not getting into hard opiods."

- Enid Kibbler

"The only mystery, is why did I keep reading after page one?"

- Hit the Spoof

"I could do better."

- Zob Gloop

HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT!

Drum-roll please! We are thrilled to announce the contributors to the 2018 Bouchercon Anthology!

Patricia Abbott, "When Agnes Left Her House"
J.D.Allen, "The Unidentifieds"
Jack Bates, "The Fakahatchee Goonch"
Lawrence Block, untitled as yet (it's a surprise!)
Susanna Calkins, Author, "Postcard for the Dead"
Reed Farrel Coleman, "The Ending"
Angel Luis Colón, "Muscle Memory"
Hilary Davidson Books, "Mr. Bones"
Brendan DuBois, "Breakdown"
John Floyd, "Frontier Justice"
Barb Goffman, "The Case of the Missing Pot Roast"
Greg Herren, "Cold Beer No Flies"
Eleanor Cawood Jones, "All Accounted for at the Hooray for Hollywood Motel"
John D. MacDonald, "The Hangover"
Paul D. Marks "There's an Alligator in My Purse"
Craig Pittman, "How to Handle a Shovel"
Neil Plakcy's Books, "Southernmost Point"
Alex Segura, "Quarters for the Meter"
Debra Lattanzi Shutika, "Frozen Iguana"
Holly West Books, "The Best Laid Plans"
Michael Wiley, "Winner"

We are immensely grateful to everyone who submitted stories. We had a record number of submissions, and choosing from this embarrassment of riches was a monumental task (that's a real quote from our editor, Greg Herren!).

We'll have more news about the anthology (including the cover, which the images below are not...we just needed fun pictures for this post) soon--stay tuned!