The first reviews for “Boise Longpig Hunting Club” are lurking about. Over at Tough magazine, E.F. Sweetman calls the book “fast-paced” with a “dark storyline and sharp dialogue.” Also:

“’Boise Longpig Hunting Club’ combines the best of both crime and thriller. The body count goes high, and the gun count goes even higher. It is filled with chaos, suffering, and memorable characters with awesome names like Zombie Bill, Monkey Man, the Viking, Fred the Nazi Marlboro Man. It is a fast-paced story that gets right to the point and holds the reader captive until its explosive finish.”

Criminal Element has a brief excerpt from the book (a more flashback-oriented section, so no major spoilers), and I did a brief interview on Steph Post’s blog in which we ended up talking about everything from Nabokov to handmade grenades. Good stuff!

The book’s available for preorder at the usual places—Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.—but if you’re looking for a pre-release deal (and who isn’t looking for one of those), Down & Out is offering a few bucks off.

Summer’s coming to a close, and if you’re looking for a couple of short-story anthologies to take to the beach, I have two recommendations:

First, “Lost Highways,” a horror collection about haunted byways and backroads. It features stories by heavyweights such as Joe Lansdale (of “Hap & Leonard” fame), and also a freaky story by yours truly. Plus, it’s got a retro-creepy cover that gives me the willies, and some badass illustrations like the one above…

Second, “Unloaded Volume 2: More Crime Writers Writing Without Guns,” also filled with heavyweights. All proceeds go to the nonprofit States United to Prevent Gun Violence. (Full disclosure: I’m in this collection, too, with a story that’s very near and dear to my heart.)