DOWN DON'T BOTHER ME

DOWN DON’T BOTHER ME is the first novel in a wickedly funny, new gothic mystery series set in the withering landscape of the southern Illinois coal country known as “little Egypt.”

In the depths of the Knight Hawk, one of the last working collieries in downstate Illinois, the body of a reporter is found, his mini-recorder tied around his neck and a notepad stuffed in his mouth. The Knight Hawk’s owner, Matthew Luster, wants answers—and he doesn’t want the cops poking into his business. To protect himself and the operation, he turns to Slim, a mine employee with a reputation for “bloodhounding”-finding lost souls when the police can’t or won’t.

A hard-working single father barely making ends meet, Slim accepts the job—after Luster offers him a guaranteed pension and job security for life. But when you make a deal with the devil, you’re going to get burned . . . . and now Slim is all too close to the flames. Circumstances have lead him into the grimy underworld of Little Egypt, Illinois—a Babel’s Tower of rednecks, rubes, freaks, tweakers, gun nuts, and aging hippies-and it quickly becomes clear that he’s much more involved in the murder than an innocent man should be.

Miller blends the wry humor of Kevin Wilson, the dark violence of Urban Waite, the electric atmosphere of Greg Iles and marks the emergence of a new voice in crime fiction.

Jason Miller is a RiffTrax contributor and, with his brother Ian, writer of the Redball 6 and Philosopher REX graphic novels (Arcana Studios). His Twitter has been featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and online at Playboy, Heavy, Splitsider, and Mandatory, among other such places. Jason lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with four tom cats and a college professor.