HE'S KILLED MORE MEN THAN HE CAN REMEMBER, BUT CAN HE SAVE A CHILD? Ishmael Toffee's knife put him behind bars and kept him there for twenty years as a prison gang assassin until he lost his taste for blood. Paroled, he finds himself with no money and no family. And no knife in his hand. Â He gets a job as a gardener at the luxurious home of a prominent lawyer and makes an unexpected friend--Cindy, the lawyer's six-year-old daughter. When Ishmael discovers that Cindy is being raped by her father he must choose: abandon the girl and walk away, or do what he does best . . . Â A gut-wrenching novella of violence and redemption from the award-winning author of DUST DEVILS, WAKE UP DEAD and MIXED BLOOD. Â BONUS CONTENT: FALLING,a previously unpublished short story.
PRAISE FOR ISHMAEL TOFFEE
"One secret to good noir is keeping the beauty and the dread in perfect tension so the reader is attracted and repelled at the same time. Smith does it." PETER ROZOVSKY - DETECTIVES BEYOND BORDERS
"Smith injects as much gut-wrenching emotion and as much action into the short form as he does his novels. I've never read anything by him that didn't steal my breath and this story is no exception." NAOMI JOHNSON - THE DROWNING MACHINE "Roger Smith is unquestionably one of the most bold, powerful authors currently writing fiction. Period. A hard-hitting, gut punch of a novella." BOOK REVIEWS BY ELIZABETH A. WHITE "Gripping and disturbing, ISHMAEL TOFFEE is another great story from Roger Smith. The bonus short story, FALLING, is also a fascinating, dark read." CRIMEFICTIONLOVER.COM
"No other thriller writer is writing such lean and powerful prose. Moving and gritty -- a must read for crime fiction fans." DAVE ZELTSERMAN - SMALL CRIMES & THE HUNTED SERIES Â Â "If you're looking for hardcore, gazing-into-the-abyss literature, Smith's the man you want to read." BENOIT LELIEVRE - DEAD END FOLLIES "Another superb piece of writing from an author who is fast establishing himself as one of the best around. I can't recommend it highly enough." MARTIN STANLEY- Â THE GAMBLERS BLOG Â "Fast-paced, powerful novella delivers with its bloody, blunt justice." ED LYNSKEY author of LAKE CHARLES & ASK THE DICE
Roger Smith's thrillers MIXED BLOOD, WAKE UP DEAD and DUST DEVILS are published in seven languages and two are in development as movies in the U.S. His books have won the DEUTSCHER KRIMI PREIS (German Crime Fiction Award) and been nominated for SPINETINGLER MAGAZINE BEST NOVEL awards. His fourth novel, CAPTURE, is published internationally in 2012.