The apple doesn't fall far from the tree and goodbye Thug Lit

On the brightside, the son of author Pamila Payne, Sigmund Werndorf has made it into Thug Lit with "Prisoner's Dilemma." Click it and you will find that he possess the same amazing gift for storytelling as his mother.

Also in this issue is Mike Wilkerson's finest effort to date, "Five Kilos." It's a gritty and raw tale. You know, the kind that your mom used to make...if your mom is James Cain or Gil Brewer.

On the darker side, Thug Lit is in limbo and seems as if it will be gone for good.

R.I.P. Thug Lit, one of the best crime magazines ever and the one that certainly featured the greatest writers of our time.

"Proof Of Life" is up at A Twist of Noir!

Many crime writers (including yours truly) tend to see crime fiction in just two dimensions and thus, on some levels, it becomes predictable. Now Katherine Tomlinson told me that she wrote a tale for Thug Lit a couple of years ago and I told her that I had absolutely no idea.

Her story "Proof of Life" was in Issue #19 of Thug Lit and it is probably one of the most unique crime fiction stories that you will ever read. Katherine truly gave my favorite genre a third dimension, so please see for yourself with "Proof of Life." Todd Robinson really got it right when he chose it for that issue.

Yet, she's not one toot her own horn and so the work that should be recognized, almost becomes a strange version of that koan about the forest.

Two years later, Christopher Grant enters the picture, because that's the beauty of his site, A Twist of Noir. The stories that didn't find their proper audience the first time, can reach a new one and the reader benefits this time. Because not only do you get a chance to discover or rediscover a story, the artist gets a chance to do the little things to improve that story.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Christopher Grant gives you the revised and improved version of Katherine Tomlinson's "Proof Of Life."