Crime and consequences! We’re dashing from pillar to post, as they say, so today a mention for something entirely un-supernatural which recently came to our attention – Burn Me Out, a new novel from Vermont writer Brandon Barrows.

Burn Me Out will be published on the third of September, and we were interested because we’ve read a number of his weird or horror works, but hadn’t ventured into his more noir/thriller side until we read an advance copy of this one.

Al Vacarro is a made man, with all the honors and responsibilities that entails. But after a literal lifetime of violence in service to the Castella crime family, Al’s past is catching up with him and neither his present nor any future he can imagine seems to hold any hope for salvation.

For the sake of his family and his very soul, he needs out of ‘the life’. But how does a man escape the only world he’s ever known?

This is a story of blood and desperation, and these are the last twenty-four hours of life as Al knows it.

We read it in one sitting, and we thoroughly enjoyed it (f you can say that about a fairly dark series of life events). Our review:

“A gripping, atmospheric tale of the Italian mobs, of those who slowly destroy both themselves and the people they care for – all in service to a toxic blend of loyalty, ambition and ‘blood’. Barrows effortlessly draws you into forty years of one man’s mistakes, and the price he must pay at each step. Violence and humanity are intertwined with a deft hand, until you have to keep reading.”

We asked the author to say something about Burn Me Out’s background, and he commented:

“BURN ME OUT is a very important and personal novel for me. It is, in large part, about things I’ve been dealing with over the last few years: desperation, depression, hiding the most significant part of yourself from everyone (especially those you love because hurting them is the last thing on earth you want) and a deep, aching desire to matter and be recognized for it.

“I really want people to read this novel and enjoy it, but I also hope readers can empathize with some of the characters and their situations. Few, if anyone, in this novel is a decent person, but I think they’re very human and finding the humanity in bad people is just as important as finding it in the good ones.”

Well worth a look. On Amazon now for pre-order, released officially tomorrow in Kindle and paperback.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08GSTP7S7/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_eC.tFbRKP8FK7

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GSTP7S7/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_bD.tFbG5P1ST3

To get an idea of Barrows’ range, you might also try out some of his other works, such as:

• His short collection, The Castle-Town Tragedy (Dunhams Manor, 2015), which contains an excellent set of three stories concerning Carnacki the Ghost Finder, the occult detective created by William Hope Hodgson.
• A collection of weird fiction, The Altar in the Hills (Raven Warren Studios, 2014) – a range of much shorter pieces which draw strongly on themes from H P Lovecraft.
• His comics series – Mythos: Lovecraft’s Worlds (Calibre Comics) – with artist Hugo Petrus, adapting such HPL stories as ‘Pickman’s Model’, ‘The Strange High House in the Mist’ and ‘The Curse of Yig’ (all four issues are now available as a graphic novel).
• His Marshal Ernie Farrar western mysteries, published in Crimson Streets Magazine. These can be found online here:

“A Hanging Matter” – http://www.crimsonstreets.com/2018/05/27/a-hanging-matter/

“Noose Hungry” – http://www.crimsonstreets.com/2019/02/17/noose-hungry/

And his excellent series concerning the occult quasi-detective character Azuma Kuromori, set in contemporary Japan, has been featured a number of times in Occult Detective Magazine. The most recent was ‘Beyond the Fade Shrine Gates’, in ODM #7, and his next Azuma Kuromori story, ‘Angel Scales’ – concerning both Christian and Japanese mythologies – has been confirmed for a forthcoming issue.

Occult Detective Magazine #7 is also available right now in Kindle and paperback.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1916021220/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_5L50EbECQSZ0D

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1916021220/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_CA-0Eb8WVKPW7