Put Your Life in the Pot — James Maxwell

This neo-noir tale renders San Jose, California, as a stage for crime, corruption, and the hope of getting that American dream you've always been denied. Recommended for fans of Dennis Lehane, Jim Thompson, and films like Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. You wanna go all in with me? Tristian Sloan is a young man frustrated with his minimum wage job and dead-end life. Why hasn't he made anything of himself? How come he always gets a raw deal? He just wants a way out. The plan is simple, and nobody's supposed to get hurt. Tristian and his so-called friend, Joey Patrone, are a pair of codependent liquor store monkeys who hate each other almost as much as they hate their boss. They work their days away for minimum wage and blow their money on booze and call girls. Now they've had enough. Joey comes up with a plan to get rich quick by ripping off the mob who owns the liquor store. He just needs Tristian's help to cover his neck. But Tristian doesn't like how reckless his friend has gotten - the guy's totally psycho, and no longer cares who gets hurt. Tristian decides to sabotage Joey's plan and take the money for himself. But everything spins into bloodshed when the wrong people catch wind of the money. Now, he is caught between a vicious gang, a psychopathic schemer, and his own failures as a man. Honest, mean, and loaded with punchy prose.