Contents

Part I

The Gulf

1

Pinch It

2

Mud Between Her Toes

3

The Big Guy

4

They Could Be Anywhere

5

All In

6

Mound of Venus

7

The Silk Room

8

Six Separate Hells

9

A Towel and a Frown

10

Or What?

11

Peep

12

The Chuckle Is a Perfectly Acceptable Form of Laughter

13

They Dimple the Surface

14

The First Paradise

15

No Witnesses

16

Fair

17

Charm Doesn’t Make the Cut

18

The Furniture Takes a Vote

19

Canaries

20

Wrecking Ball

21

Net Profits

22

Buttercup

23

Close Enough

Part II

The Edge

24

Luck Will Have Nothing to Do with It

25

Like He Ate a Grenade

26

There’s Another One Gone

27

This Place Was His Forest

28

The Queen of Patpong

29

So He Likes Sad Music

30

You Couldn’t Comb It with a Tractor

Part III

All the Way Down

31

A Man Who Has Just Been Hit by a Train

32

Innocent as a Dusting of Snow

33

If He’s a Friend, He’ll Wait

34

You’ll Probably Be Sterile

35

Off the Board

36

Head-On

37

I Might as Well Be Fluorescent

38

Nobody Sees Street Kids

39

Replay

40

It Corrupts the Corruptible

41

Off to Brunch

42

Open Season

43

She Has a Different Life Now

44

The Old Skyrocket

45

You’re Not Hopeless After All

46

It’s Hard to Put a Positive Spin on Mass Murder

47

Kinder That Way

48

Waiting Patiently for Blood

49

At the Bottom of the Ocean

50

A Formless Nimbus of Light

51

News from the Sun

 

Author’s Note

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Other Books by Timothy Hallinan

Credits

Copyright

About the Publisher