The Subtle Art of Brutality

Thanks to Billy Porter and John Regan for being my first readers ever.

To Randy Foster, Mike James, Bob Macon, Jarrod Wood, Mike Aude Alink, Kurt Reinhardt, Edmond Carrillo, Bob Kirk, Travis Marshall, Darlene Santiago, James Gregg and the other cops I’ve worked beside and learned from, thank you for your input and war stories.

To my brothers in Zelmer Pulp. Brian Panowich, Chuck Regan, Issac Kirkman, Chris Leek, Gareth Spark and Benoit Lelievre. We did it, and we keep doing it.

To Craig and Emily McNeely, Andrew Hilbert and the Weekly Weird Monthly gang, Chris Rhatigan and Mike Monson over at ADR Books, Joe Clifford and Tom Pitts (we all know you’re a couple), Ron Earl Philips and the Shotgun Honey lineup, Brian Lindenmuth and the Snubnose Press peoples and everyone else, thank you.

To Eric Campbell and the Down & Out Books crew, like I keep mentioning every chance I get, this is a real honor. Thank you.

To the other writers I have had the pleasure to be published beside and spoken with here and there, I know you all worship me as a living god and follow my every move, so here you go. Chapter One in the Bible of Ryan. You’re welcome.

And to you, loyal reader. Thanks for being interested in a guy I wrote about when I wanted to write about killing a demon. If this book doesn’t catch your fancy, there’s something wrong with you, but just keep buying all my stuff. Eventually you’ll find something that clicks.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wrote this book before I became a policeman, so I relied on my father, who stood between society and its underbelly for

over thirty years, to answer questions and guide me along as I wrote. I always wanted the book tuned slightly higher than reality—maybe up to 110%, because normal anything isn’t entertaining enough—and I felt comfortable where I landed. It’s exaggerated here and there. Mainly the violence. Whatever is written correctly, my father advised me on. Whatever wouldn’t fly in real life is squarely because of me.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ryan Sayles has over two dozen short stories in print, anthologies and online, including the Anthony-nominated collection Trouble in the Heartland: stories inspired by the music of Bruce Springsteen. He is the author of Subtle Art of Brutality, Warpath, Goldfinches and That Escalated Quickly! He is a founding member of Zelmer Pulp. He was in the military and is currently a police officer. He’s online at https://vitriolandbarbies.wordpress.com/.

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ALSO BY RYAN SAYLES

Richard Dean Buckner Mysteries

The Subtle Art of Brutality

Warpath (*)

Other Works

That Escalated Quickly!

Goldfinches

(*) Coming Soon

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Other Titles from Down and Out Books

See DownAndOutBooks.com for complete list

By Anonymous-9

Bite Harder (TP only)

By J.L. Abramo

Catching Water in a Net