top of page
Welcome to The Hard Word
A Champion Of
Western & Crime Fiction
Read More

Heading 1
Recent Posts






Archive
Tags


LOOKING INTO THE DARKNESS: DOMENIC STANSBERRY'S THE LIZARD
In the eighties Wild At Heart writer Barry Gifford founded Black Lizard Books . In that original incarnation of the press, not only did...


A WEST WILD & WEIRD: FREDERIC S. DURBIN'S THE COUNTRY UNDER HEAVEN
In The Country Under Heaven, Frederic S. Durbin mixes pulp horror the paperback western through a saddle tramp whose a adventures often...


"THE CLASSICS, TRULY, NEVER GO OUT OF STYLE": BORN A RAMBLIN' MAN AND OTHER STORIES MICHEL LEE GARRETT
I only know Michel Lee Garret from her fiction and bio, but that's enough to realize she's a smart bad ass with heat. She is steadily...


ONE OF A KIND PRIVATE EYE WRITER: JOHN CONNOLLY'S CHILDREN OF EVE
With John Connolly's Charlie Parker series you never know what to expect with each book, The literally haunted detective never has any...


SHOTGUN BLAST FROM THE PAST: ED MCBAIN'S COP HATER
Author Evan Hunter launched his influential 87th Precinct series under the pseudonym of Ed McBain in 1956 with Cop Hater . I had read...


"SOMETIMES THERE'S MORE POWER IN IN THE SILENCE IN BETWEEN THE WORDS THAN THEN WORDS THEMSELVES.": THE MEMORY WARD'S JON BASOFF
Jon Basoff uses a Rod Serling starting point for his latest novel, The Memory Ward, where mailman Hank Davies learns that his typical...


SHOTGUN BLAST FROM THE PAST: JOSEPH HANSEN'S SKINFLICK
Skinflick is the fifth book in Joseph Hansen's Dave Brandstetter series. Considered to be the first gay private detective, we find the...


CRACKING CASES IN THE REAGAN ERA: SLEUTHS JUST WANNA' HAVE FUN- PRIVATE EYES IN THE MATERIALISTIC EIGHTIES edited by Michel Bracken
The eighties were an interesting time for fictional private eyes. V.I. Warshawski and Kinsey Millhone broke the glass ceiling. The...


"ALMOST EVERYONE HAS SOME PROFESSIONAL OR INTENSE PERSONAL TIE TO MUSIC.": 120 MURDERS' NICK MAMATAS
Nick Mamatas, a master craftsman of crime and dark fiction in his own right, gathered almost two dozen gifted writers of various...


MICHEL LEE GARRET'S BORN A RAMBLING MAN AND OTHER STORIES
Michel Lee Garrett has been chopping her way through the short fiction jungle with her two-fixted tales. She has appeared in many...
Home: Blog
Home: Subscribe
Give a Shout
Thanks for your interest in The Hard Word. For more information, feel free to get in touch.
4700 E. Riverside Dr. #1117C
Austin, TX 78741

Home: Contact
bottom of page