In this gritty collection of crime stories, Derringer Award-winning author C.W. Blackwell mourns an America lost to the shadows, exploring a broken economic system that has given rise to rampant inequality, violence, and darkness. Crackling with energy, emotional depth and unflinching violence, and filled with characters desperate to reclaim what has been unjustly taken, plotting the heist of a lifetime, or grappling with chance encounters that might free them from the bonds of wage exploitation-or send them to early graves, Blackwell fearlessly documents an America sick with greed and hate. Nearly everyone has an angle, a fight, or a spark of hope, yet some have learned there isn't a cure for every ill, and that sometimes the best medicine is whatever kills the pain.