Fish Bites Cop! Stories To Bash Authorities is a whole trunk of surprises. A collection of horror, dark crime, pulp, and slipstream lampoonery that gleefully rips on police officers, security guards, organized religion, firefighters, police officers, bounty hunters, dyslexic paramedics with dog complexes, police officers, military, middle management, and even more police officers. Bad Cop movies are usually just bad cop movies. It's time they paid for it.Â
"Bizarre and hysterically twisted, these stories crisscross between the satirical and the pulpy at a maddening pace. I endorse this crazy-ass book! Wild ride. David James Keaton is a writer to keep an eye on."
--Frank Bill, author of Donnybrook and Crimes in Southern Indiana
"David James Keaton's read his Beckett, sure. And he knows his Pynchon. But he also knows his Herschell Gordon Lewis, his Quentin Tarantino. Some of the leaps the final story makes floored me, made me jealous. This is exquisite writing and fast-paced storytelling--the peanut butter and chocolate of fiction. Bet you can't read just one."
--Stephen Graham Jones, author of The Last Final Girl and Growing Up Dead in Texas
"If you're a cop, have ever known a cop, or been arrested by one, or even if you're just one of those people who are scared of cops, FISH BITES COP! is the collection you must read. Also if you like watching, catching, or eating fish. Or cops."Â
--Scott Phillips, author of The Adjustment and The Ice Harvest
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"Don't expect any nice-making from David James Keaton. FISH BITES COP! is full of people acting badly, and it's as fun to watch them self-destruct as it is to watch a ten-car pileup on the interstate. Trust me: you'll enjoy your couple of hours rubbernecking."Â
"Don't expect any nice-making from David James Keaton. FISH BITES COP! is full of people acting badly, and it's as fun to watch them self-destruct as it is to watch a ten-car pileup on the interstate. Trust me: you'll enjoy your couple of hours rubbernecking."Â
--Kyle Minor, author of In the Devil's Territory
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"David James Keaton by his own confession has a problem with authority. You might say he has a hard-0n for cops, a hard-0n of the nightstick variety he brandishes with abandon, gleefully bashing cliches with his own savvy brand of literary mayhem. Keaton goes Dirty Harry on the cop shop of conventional crime fiction. Heads roll, donuts get gored. It's so good it should be illegal."
"David James Keaton by his own confession has a problem with authority. You might say he has a hard-0n for cops, a hard-0n of the nightstick variety he brandishes with abandon, gleefully bashing cliches with his own savvy brand of literary mayhem. Keaton goes Dirty Harry on the cop shop of conventional crime fiction. Heads roll, donuts get gored. It's so good it should be illegal."
--Randy Chandler, author of Dime Detective
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"Keaton's at his manic best in this collection, populated by prize winners and barn burners, each one coated in his special brand of pulp sauce. These are stories to read by the bonfire as the world burns. In the worlds Keaton conjures here, spinning with barely repressed anarchy, that's the general drift."
--Court Merrigan, author of Moondog Over the Mekong
"Keaton's at his manic best in this collection, populated by prize winners and barn burners, each one coated in his special brand of pulp sauce. These are stories to read by the bonfire as the world burns. In the worlds Keaton conjures here, spinning with barely repressed anarchy, that's the general drift."
--Court Merrigan, author of Moondog Over the Mekong
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"David James Keaton holds the lovechild of convention and expectations down to the hard, concrete floor, puts his hand over its mouth, and slits its throat. Each of the stories in this collection help sop up the blood, his hands wiped cleaned by the time the last story is wrought and reeking of his touch."
"David James Keaton holds the lovechild of convention and expectations down to the hard, concrete floor, puts his hand over its mouth, and slits its throat. Each of the stories in this collection help sop up the blood, his hands wiped cleaned by the time the last story is wrought and reeking of his touch."
--Michael Czyzniejewski, author of Chicago Stories
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"With a command of contemporary slang force-bred with imagery, Keaton is one of the strongest voices in American fiction today. The first story alone is one I will read forever."
"With a command of contemporary slang force-bred with imagery, Keaton is one of the strongest voices in American fiction today. The first story alone is one I will read forever."
--Jason Stuart, author of Raise a Holler
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"Reading these stories feels like the guys in the garage at the St. Valentine's Day Massacre probably felt as the bullets struck them. They will rip you up, tear you apart, and when you're done, you'll be exhausted with emotion but know that you've been in the presence of greatness."
"Reading these stories feels like the guys in the garage at the St. Valentine's Day Massacre probably felt as the bullets struck them. They will rip you up, tear you apart, and when you're done, you'll be exhausted with emotion but know that you've been in the presence of greatness."
--Les Edgerton, author of The Rapist
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"Quite simply, David James Keaton is a twisted genius, and you read his work at your own risk, risk of a neural or moral melt-down. Keaton's stories are as sickly exuberant and gargantuan as gothic dirigibles, tall tales of teleportation into urban myth and mystery, post-truth, anti-reality, they break every rule of regular fiction and good taste."
"Quite simply, David James Keaton is a twisted genius, and you read his work at your own risk, risk of a neural or moral melt-down. Keaton's stories are as sickly exuberant and gargantuan as gothic dirigibles, tall tales of teleportation into urban myth and mystery, post-truth, anti-reality, they break every rule of regular fiction and good taste."
--Chuck Kinder, author of Last Mountain Dancer
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"It's Technicolor Noir."
"It's Technicolor Noir."
--Charlie Trout, reporter for the Pittsburgh Pulp Exchange
