Four Live Rounds

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As a horror writer, I often get asked what scares me.

My answer is always the same: Blake Crouch.

More than any other author working today, Crouch knows how to make the reader squirm. Part of it is because he dreams up scenarios so horrible that I fear for his sanity. But I think the main reason he’s so effective is because Crouch writes about characters you really feel for. Then, when he puts them through hell, you experience every cut, every bite, every atrocity.

This short story collection is a perfect introduction to Crouch’s skewed world. But before you dive in, please heed my warning. I don’t care how tough you think you are. You still need to brace yourself.

Because this is going to hurt…

-J.A. Konrath (aka Jack Kilborn), March 2010

An introduction to “*69”

Have you ever received an accidental phone call from someone who kept your number in their address book? I blame my old high-school buddy, Ryan McDaniels, for this story. A few years ago, over the course of several weeks, he inadvertently joggled his cell phone and called me several times. He didn’t know he had done it, and I received a handful of strange, muffled messages. Later, it occurred to me—what if my friend had accidentally called me when he was doing something terrible, and only realized after the fact that he’d unintentionally made me a witness to his brutal crime? From these questions emerged “*69.”

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