If you like your hardboiled fiction with an in-your-face, profanity-studded style, you should check out the ThugLit site run by editor (and writer) Todd “Big Daddy Thug” Robinson.

Issue # 25, which leads the site now, kicks off with “Faith-Based Initiative,” a story about a wronged priest and some Salvadorans looking for payback in scenic Asbury Park, N.J. (the blighted former tourist attraction, now famous for Bruce Springsteen, the Stone Pony music club and its crumbling ocean-front boardwalk.)

And the intensity ramps up from there with stories featuring assorted low-lifes, cons and, well, thugs, all told with an over-the-top style and unhealthy helpings of sex and violence.

Beware, this is not for the kiddies or faint of heart. But it certainly hits the spot if you’re on the lookout for 100-proof pulp, straight, with no chaser.

A couple of my favorite lines from the latest issue:
“Janis had something special and I’m not just talking about her industrial-strength rack and bear-trap thighs.”
– Mahogany & Monogamy by Jedidiah Ayres

“Trench studied the scrimshawed creases her makeup couldn’t conceal and figured her for an over-the-hill harlot or round-heel hophead, worn down to this sad sack of bones in a measly dress.”
– The Grind by Randy Chandler

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