TEN PINTS OF BLOOD
Publisher: Close To The Bone
Release Date: 26 June 2020
Synopsis:
“A smarter man than me once said that good investigative work is about asking the right questions. I find that the quality of my work generally depends on how fucking hard I hit people.”
When Paignton private investigator Joe Rey finds himself enlisted by hapless local cops Benson and Hedges to help apprehend a vicious sex criminal known as the Ladyscraper, he ends up unearthing a grisly surprise in the midst of a derelict tract of farmland. What Rey discovers shocks the whole town to its core, and he sets out to unravel a decades-old mystery involving a cabal of powerful men who want their queasy secrets to remain dead and buried.
He may be psychologically damaged by the things he has seen and done, but Rey finds himself a man in demand, and his case-load piles up – setting him on a violent collision course with dealers, delinquents, degenerates and the damned.
Is Rey finally in hell, or is he just teetering on the brink?
TEN PINTS OF BLOOD is the bone-crunching, booze-sloshing, gore-splattered new collection from the author of cult classics MEAT BUBBLES & OTHER STORIES and BONEYARD DOGS.
Blurbs:
“Leins’ spare, striking prose confronts the horror beneath the skin of England with savage, astringent grace. These haunting tales deal compellingly with the open wounds of our world. Leins’ bloody and bruised characters drive into your skull and stay there.”
Gareth Spark, author of Marwick’s Reckoning and The Dark Earth of Albion
“These stories kicked my ass. They are beautifully violent. Told in simple prose that is equally elegant and nasty, filled with blood and broken bones. Joe Rey is the exact kind of person I’d love to follow into the darkness that is Paignton. Tom Leins is a bad man.”
Daniel Vlasaty, author of Stay Ugly and Only Bones
“Ten Pints of Blood — a twisted novelette and nine seriously fucked up short stories — chronicles the further misadventures of unscrupulous private eye Joe Rey as he delves deep into a cesspit of sex pests, dirty coppers, serial killers and neo-Nazi toe-rags. For Rey, never likely to pass up an opportunity to inflict violence on anyone dumb enough to get in his way, it’s all in a grubby day’s work — an excuse to dust off his beloved brass knuckles and bust a few heads as he metes out his own warped brand of justice. Leins is on irresistible form here. His pared down prose will make you snort and cringe and look away, and the violence is so visceral you can almost taste the blood.”
Gary Duncan, author of You’re Not Supposed to Cry
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